Simultaneous submissions after request for full

folkchick · May 9, 2010

This is tricky, but I know it has probably been handled before. I re-queried an agent after revising a good portion of my book, and just a few hours after sending in the query, was told to send in the new full. I'm really happy because I absolutely adore this agent (which is why I sent it back to her immediately) but worry that it's kind of naive to just wait around and not send out more queries to various agents. So my question: should I go ahead and do simultaneous submissions, even after a full, or should I hold tight and have faith? I'm willing to wait, after all I have the second and third book to finish, plus other projects and the whole blog thing. And I don't want to be rude to the agent who was very gracious to consider me again.

Any advice is welcome. Thank you! [/SIZE][/SIZE]

justAnotherWriter · May 9, 2010

Of the ten or so agents that requested various full manuscripts from me when I was querying, two of them had my stuff for over a year, several others for almost that long.

So the real question is, just how patient are you?

All kidding aside, go ahead and query until your fingers bleed. Since you're getting requests, your query must be good, so you have nothing to lose. If you get an offer with fulls or partials out, you ask for time to contact the other agents (all agents will understand and give you time, if they don't there is something seriously wrong with them) and then you let them know you have an offer and give them a week or two to get back to you.

folkchick · May 9, 2010

Thank you! It's good to know I can have options and not be a sitting duck.

Eight months? Yikes. That's patience!

Danthia · May 10, 2010

Query widely until you have an offer in hand. Even most agents will tell you that

folkchick · May 10, 2010

Thank you Danthia! My emerging business guru was telling me to, but the nice girl on my shoulder was whispering to be a good girl and wait. I hate that girl.

skippingstone · May 10, 2010

As I told someone a few months back, "I'm gonna query until someone puts a ring on my finger."

Keep putting those queries into play and best of luck!

folkchick · May 10, 2010

Thank you, I appreciate it : )

justAnotherWriter · May 10, 2010

Just don't do what I've been tempted to do (but have so far resisted!), which is to continue to query after you have an agent.

Not because I want a new agent mind you, I love my agent, but because querying is fun. I won't do it, I won't do it, I won't do it.

Well maybe just one...

folkchick · May 10, 2010

Haha, you must stop!

Well, my problem is no longer a problem. Said agent gave me a quick rejection this morning. She said my writing was strong and clever, but she still doesn't care for the story. So, just a word to the wise, if an agent says it's the story they don't like, listen to them. They mean it. I was an idiot for re-qerying and I feel bad for bugging her again and wasting her time. She did tell me to send her any future projects and that was nice to hear!

I'm going through the usual I-got-rejected funk this afternoon, further stemmed by a rainy day.

justAnotherWriter · May 10, 2010

Yeah, but this is good news. If an agent bothers to tell you your writing is strong, this is a great thing, and it means you will eventually succeed as long as you keep at it. These people have better things to do than to blow smoke up our asses, so they don't tell us things like that unless they are true (or they are just really mean).

Regardless of how awesome and amazing your query is and how wonderful your story is and what an amazing writer you are, most agents will not like your stuff because it just won't click with them (to be fair though, that really depends on what you write, there are some fairly generic things that will apeal to a wide spectrum of agents).

Regardless what you think of Twilight, it's an amazing book series, because it made millions and millions of dollars and almost instantly went to Hollywood. Yet 14 out of 15 agents rejected Meyer's query.

To understand this, go to a book store. It's full of thousands and thousands of wonderful books. Now how many of these would you actually want to read? For most people, the answer is less than 1%. Coincidentally, that just happens to be close to the percentage of full manuscript requests many agents make.

Hmmmm....

folkchick · May 10, 2010

You're right, and this is really good to hear. Thank you.

I went through my book this morning and there are many spots where I think,"This is really good. Someone is going to flip over this." And then there are spots where I feel it drags a little, but I think every book has draggy spots. I actually really liked Twilight, and yeah, she overwrote tons, but the overall story was striking—brilliant really. I guess it does all come down to each agent having a certain taste. It's not a personal attack, it's just we are the ice cream and they are the customer. Lord, don't let me be coffeemintbacon.

I might start up the old queries tomorrow. Thanks again for your kind, and very wise, words. Peace.

Miss Plum · May 24, 2010

I'm glad this topic came up. It has just the info I needed.

Curious, has anyone here ever had this situation (contact agencies with your partial/full and tell them about an offer from another agency)? Do you name the agency who made you the offer, or just say "someone else"? What did the other agencies say? Do they ever jump up and try to snag you away from the someone else?

dgrintalis · May 24, 2010

Miss Plum, you don't need to tell them who made the offer. What you should do is tell the offering agent that others have your manuscript and you need to let them know you've received an offer (agents are used to having to wait a week or two for an answer, so don't worry), then send the agents with fulls/partials something to the effect of "I've received an offer of representation. If you are still interested in the manuscript, please let me know by x date."

I did this and ended up with 4 offers and was able to pick the agent I best 'clicked' with, and he wasn't the agent who made the first offer.

heyjude · May 24, 2010

Miss Plum said:
I'm glad this topic came up. It has just the info I needed.

Curious, has anyone here ever had this situation (contact agencies with your partial/full and tell them about an offer from another agency)? Do you name the agency who made you the offer, or just say "someone else"? What did the other agencies say? Do they ever jump up and try to snag you away from the someone else?

Yes, this happened. I emailed one agent and said someone else made me an offer. She asked who and I told her. Didn't see any reason to keep it a secret. She felt she was behind on reading, and I didn't want to wait. I knew that the offering agent was a good one, and that we clicked. Agent #2 was very gracious.

Cricket18 · May 24, 2010

Miss Plum said:
I'm glad this topic came up. It has just the info I needed.

Curious, has anyone here ever had this situation (contact agencies with your partial/full and tell them about an offer from another agency)? Do you name the agency who made you the offer, or just say "someone else"? What did the other agencies say? Do they ever jump up and try to snag you away from the someone else?

When I received my offer, I told the other agents who the offering agent was. Why? Because most will want to know / check.

I do know from a Tweeting agent that when she was told an offer was made, she then Tweeted the agent to verify.

dgrintalis · May 24, 2010

heyjude said:
Yes, this happened. I emailed one agent and said someone else made me an offer. She asked who and I told her. Didn't see any reason to keep it a secret. She felt she was behind on reading, and I didn't want to wait. I knew that the offering agent was a good one, and that we clicked. Agent #2 was very gracious.

Cricket18 said:
When I received my offer, I told the other agents who the offering agent was. Why? Because most will want to know / check.

I do know from a Tweeting agent that when she was told an offer was made, she then Tweeted the agent to verify.

Interesting. None of the offering agents asked me the names of the other agents, nor did I volunteer that information.

scope · May 24, 2010

I would ask the offering agent is she has any problem with you taking about 10 days to review the contract and withdraw any and all partials and fulls you have out. I'm sure this would be fine with the offering agent. And that is what you do -- immediately email all you queried and advise them you received an offer and if they are interested in your work to contact you no later than 7 days out. I don't think you should mention the offering agency for two reasons:
1. you don't have their permission to do so.
2. you don't want them contacting one another.

Of course review the contract with whomever during the 10 days so you will be ready to respond.

Cricket18 · May 24, 2010

Honestly, I don't think it matters, although I respectfully disagree with Scope. Agents assume you are going to announce who made the offer and personally, if Ginger Clark wants to call Janet Reid and verify that she did indeed offer, I have no problem with that.

Here's one nice example from Ginger Clark:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/10/guest-blog-ginger-clark-on-how-to.html

Twizzle · May 25, 2010

Cricket18 said:
I do know from a Tweeting agent that when she was told an offer was made, she then Tweeted the agent to verify.

Publically, and not by DM?

Instead of privately emailing or calling?

Are you serious?

ejwriter · May 25, 2010

Hi! Thanks for this thread, because I have a question along the same lines, but a little different from the OP's.

my situation is this:
- agent x asked for an exclusive when requesting my full.
- i denied exclusivity, because my full was already out with other agents.
- agent x called and emailed and raved and loved, then sent a long revision letter.
- the other 3 agents with the full have since declined.
- i am wrapping up revisions for agent x.

Question:
now that the other agents are out, is it appropriate to query new agents with this revised ms, or is that bad form since agent x originally requested exclusivity, and my reason for denying it no longer exists?
(hope that made sense. operating on no sleep)

thanks in advance!

Cricket18 · May 25, 2010

Twizzle said:
Publically, and not by DM?

Instead of privately emailing or calling?

Are you serious?

No-haha! It was more along the lines that the other knew about the ms - both reading - and were going to "call later" about it. Now, it's Twitter, and these messages can be cryptic, but that's what I got from it.

Sadly, I've learned a lot from Twitter-haha! Many of these agents are friends, have drinks and coffee together, so it's no surprise that they're talking about what they're reading.

Solivagant · May 25, 2010

Question:
now that the other agents are out, is it appropriate to query new agents with this revised ms, or is that bad form since agent x originally requested exclusivity, and my reason for denying it no longer exists?
(hope that made sense. operating on no sleep)

If the agent x is on your A-list, seems excited about your manuscript, and generally gives you the feeling it may be a go, then why not play it safe and let them know they can have the exclusivity they requested?

On the other hand if they were fine looking at it before non-exclusively, and they aren't your dream agent, then I don't see why you would need to worry. Unless they request again that it be exclusive, or you don't want to leave anything to chance, then I'd say query away.

I'm about as inexperienced as they come of course, so take my advice with a grain of salt!

scope · May 25, 2010

Cricket18 said:
Honestly, I don't think it matters, although I respectfully disagree with Scope. Agents assume you are going to announce who made the offer and personally, if Ginger Clark wants to call Janet Reid and verify that she did indeed offer, I have no problem with that.

Here's one nice example from Ginger Clark:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/10/guest-blog-ginger-clark-on-how-to.html

Crickett18,

You are overlooking one very important thing: given the scenario discussed, the writer is not sending out emails with the intent of announcing that she or he has signed with an agent, but rather to give those other agents to who the writer has sent partials or fulls and opportunity - limited in time - to counter and make their own offer. Under these circumstances I don't imagine you would want any of these agents to contact the offering agent who expects to receive the writer's signged contract in 10 days. If this was not the case, if the writer accepted the offer of the offering agent and had no one to contact, then yes, why not announce.

scope · May 25, 2010

ejwriter said:
Question:
now that the other agents are out, is it appropriate to query new agents with this revised ms, or is that bad form since agent x originally requested exclusivity, and my reason for denying it no longer exists?
(hope that made sense. operating on no sleep)

I think you should feel free to query others if that's your intention.

Originally they asked for an exclusive read, which you denied. Knowing this they went on to read your work and suggest revisions. At that point and ever since they have not reiterated a desire for an exclusive, which is kind of puzzling. Apparently you agreed with their suggested revisions and made same. One would think that at the time you must have liked the agent and had ideas of signing with them if an offer came. It would help to answer your question if we knew why you want to submit to other agencies rather than try to strike a deal with the agency in question.

Cricket18 · May 25, 2010

Scope, that's exactly what I was saying. Again, everyone is different, but when I received my offer of representation from my now agent, I wrote a letter to all other agents reading to the effect of:

Dear Agent,

Currently, you are reading my ms titled X. Today, I received an offer of representation from Agent Awesome at Awesome Agency. If you are still interested in my ms, I have informed Agent Awesome I would give them an answer by This Date. Whatever your decision, thank you for your interest in my ms.

Obviously, not everyone does this, but I've heard from most it's appreciated. Some agents won't care if you don't disclose the info, some will. As in anything in publishing, (and anything, really!) opinions vary.

Simultaneous submissions after request for full

Not a new kid

Not a new kid

Danthia

Not a new kid

Bouncing Atop the Water

Not a new kid

Not a new kid

Not a new kid

'Tis true, she is a monstergirl

Making my own sunshine

Gnawing my hairless tail

'Tis true, she is a monstergirl

Commonsensical Maverick

Gnawing my hairless tail

Cluck that.

lurk & learn

Gnawing my hairless tail

procrastinatus

Commonsensical Maverick

Commonsensical Maverick

Gnawing my hairless tail