Holding out for a better offer?

SJBell said:

So, I've queried 12 agents in the last 2 weeks. No responses yet, but that was expected, everyone says 6-8 weeks. On the big checklist, I've got 7 more that might be good, 7 that might be okay, 13 that are respectable but that I'd rather avoid if possible. Something occurred to me yesterday. Suppose I get a nibble, but I get it from one of the lesser agents, and I still have hopes of landing one of the bigger places. Can I just not send a response to the lesser agent until/unless I get a rejection from the greater ones? On the other hand, what if I say yes to the lesser agent, and then a week later one of the better ones says she's interested in my MS? I don't want to be rude, but I also don't want to make a professional commitment that would turn out being a suboptimal career move.

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First of all, you shouldn't be querying any agent you wouldn't want to work with. Period. It's rude, a waste of their time and your time, and counter-productive. If you wouldn't want to be represented by the agent, do not query them. No agent is better than a bad or substandard agent.

Second, I'm not sure what you mean by "nibble." Do you mean requests for partial or fulls of your manuscript? Or do you mean offers of representation?

If you mean partials/fulls, as long asthey are not exclusive, send them. And keep querying.

If you mean offers, well, then I refer you back to the "First of all" above. But then I say, if you are lucky enough to get an offer of representation, you should: (1) respond promptly and professionally to the request to talk/offer; IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING REPRESENTED BY THE OFFERING AGENT, then, (2) you should tell that agent that you have partials and fulls out and you'd like to let the other agents know you have an offer and give them a chance to respond; and (3) then, let the other agents know. They can then make an offer of their own or bow out.

But, again, do not query any agent would do not want representing you.

AND, if you do sign with an agent, then you can not keep querying. So...there won't be chances for other offers. And if a stray agent responded to an old query, you'd have to tell them you are represented already or break with the agent you just signed with to pursue the interest.

There could be a number of problems with breaking with your newly accepted agent - starting with you'll likely have a contract and ending with damaging your reputation in the industry, and a host of others. BUT, you could certainly consider that.

Research agents carefully. And only query ones you are genuinely interested in. And if you are not sure, then query the others you are sure about first.

ETA: And, of course, once you have interest and offers, then you can talk with the agent and make sure they are a good fit, you agree with their perspective and objectives, etc. But you shouldn't query any agent you think of as one of the "less desirable" agents.

~suki

As a general rule, you shouldn't query many agents at a time. It's best to keep it under a handful at a time, and wait for most or all to respond before moving forward.

Trust me, you don't want to settle. If an agent isn't somebody you'd love to do business with, then don't bother querying them.

Yep, I definitely agree with Suki and Ryan. Don't query any agents you wouldn't want to work with! You don't want to waste your time and theirs.

Best of luck with your querying!

Two points 1 - why would you query agents you would prefer to avoid?
2 - on what basis are you deciding you would prefer to avoid them? Have you worked with them before? Spoken with their clients? I doubt you have enough information to make an informed choice.

I'd suggest that if you did get an offer, to respond in a timely fashion. The way you've said this sounds terribly rude and unprofessional. It's like telling an agent:

"I queried you because you took what I had written - but I really was hoping to go with someone else."

You see what I mean? Rethink your priorities. On my list I have top agets and good agents. My top agents take middle grade and fantasy - but I would have to have any of them rep me. I start with some of the good agents, just to make sure my query is ready and then I start querying my top agents. But again, I would be happy with any of them repping me.

Ditto the others. Also, keep in mind that a lesser-known agent from a small agency that absolutely LOVES and believes in your book and is going to sell the hell out of it is worth ten Superstars that keep you waiting six months to find out if they read your partial.

You really never know who will be the best champion. Will it be the high power agent who has big names and spends most of her time on them, or the hungry newcomer with no track record who falls in total love with your book? Nicholas Sparks had this very problem with his first novel. He sent out 20 queries after carefully researching the agents, and got ten or so requests for the full. Unfortunately, the first response was an offer from someone he'd never heard of, some new hire in a big firm. Seems the agent he’d sent it to had died. So Sparks put her off, expecting one of the others to make an offer and then he'd make the easy decision, but alas, none ever did. They all passed on what became, weeks later, a million dollar deal by a new agent who had never sold a book before.

So don't send queries to hobbyists or scammers, but otherwise don't waste your time overthinking it. You probably won't get the choice to begin with, and even if you do, it will still be a gamble.

As for not getting responses, if these 12 were all by email, that may be a problem, as many agents are rejecting these days by non-response. They will do this especially if they feel they are dealing with a novice. Go to querytracker.net and look up their usual response times. If you see you have a problem, then you might consider posting your query in the appropriate SYW area and get some feedback. Queries are damnably difficult to get right, and agents are prone to throw them out if they aren't amazingly good.

This is a swell way to become one of the authors that agents would "rather avoid if possible."

If you get an offer, it is perfectly acceptable to say that you need a few days to give the other agents who've requested material a chance to review your submission.

I don't suppose it would be a problem to zip a short, professional email to any of your favorites who haven't yet contacted you. It couldn't hurt.

I wouldn't ask them to wait more than a few days.

In my experience an offering agent would encourage you to take your time making a decision if you have other offers on the table...but I think it would be unwise to make an agent wait a long time if you just have other queries out.

If you have had a variety of partials and fulls requested by a variety of agencies (some of which you maybe deem "better" than others) and you get an offer from an agent that you think is good but not your "dream agent" you can then let those with partials and fulls know that you have an offer. You can also at that point tell them that you need to hear them by X (you don't have to do this though). This can result in a variety of things...some agents may speed up their reading process and get back to you by "date x" (this happened to me) others will say that they can't be ready in time and pass, it can also sometimes happen that you'll get another offer right away...there are lots of ways for it to go.

All this to say that if other partials and fulls are out, it's your responsibility to notify those other agents to let them know there's an offer on the table, and in the best of worlds, this can turn one offer into more than one offer.

However, I personally would never make an offering agent wait on the hope that a blind unsolicited query to "bigger and better" agencies is suddenly going to turn up offers of fulls followed by offers of representation. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...right?

This process takes a LONG time...even under the best of circumstances...so I doubt an offering agent is going to be happy or willing to sit by while you hope that other requests for fulls come in.

For what it's worth I waited 5 months to get a response on one partial - a reject; six weeks - which is very fast - to get a reject on another partial; 7 weeks (or 15 months depending on how you want to count it - long story!) to get an offer on a full; and three weeks to get an offer on another full. So time frames really can vary, but if you're not even at the full/partial request stage it's just going to be too long to wait and I don't know why you'd risk it.

Additionally, as others have mentioned in this thread, it's hard to tell on paper (though it's good you've done your research) what agent will actually be great for you personally. You may find that the small to mid-sized agency that you don't see as your dream agent/agency that calls you up and offers has real enthusiasm for the book and puts you in touch with a few of their authors that love working with her, etc. and you find that you have a great connection. I see what you mean about having tiers of agents, not unlike the way you would rank preferred college choices...but in that same metaphor, the college that looks best for you on paper may not be the best fit in reality...and you should definitely only apply to colleges that you would be happy to go to and be associated with...otherwise what's the point?

Good luck!

So, you're asking about people you've sent queries to, rather than people who are reading the material? With people who have requested it's pretty standard to give them a few days, a weekend, as much as a week.

With queries, I think I would just send a brief 'just letting you know I've received an offer' email.

I go along with never, ever submit anyting to any agent you don't want representing your work. You shouldn't have to say no because you think there's a better agent out there.

SJBell said:

Actually, this might be a topic worthy of discussion. Just how many agents should you query for a particular novel? I've got a list of 40, of which I've contacted 12. Is that too many?

And I'm not getting an answer to my question: how long can I wait on other outstanding queries before I accept an offer? A week? A month? The next day?

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I would say 2 or 3 at a time, no more than 5. Try to personalize your queries if you can find information on the agent. Give them 2 weeks minimum (maybe 3-4) to respond, and then go out again. If it's a "top tier" agent, wait until they respond for sure or wait however long their submission guidelines say it should take. Slow and steady wins the race!

I think that two weeks is reasonable to assume they are not interested with an email query, though I got a "no" from an agent six months after I queried her (and long after I found an agent). With a partial or a full it's a nice courtesy to tell them if you've received an offer. Most agents will give you a week or two to decide, and if another agent is truly interested, then you have the luxury of getting to choose. I had a partial out with another agent when I got my first offer of representation, and I contacted that agent. She admitted she had not yet read the partial she had requested but asked for the full immediately, and got back to me within 24 hours, which I heartily appreciated, since she knew I had an offer on the table. I liked both agents so if both had said yes it might have been a lot harder -- but at least I know I didn't burn any bridges.

I think the whole point is to be polite and honest. Agents know you are querying other agents, they just want to know if you have signed with someone else before they read the book that's been sitting on their desk.

I think an agent that is truly interested in your work and has requested a full or partial will get right on it once you tell them you have another offer. If they don't, then that tells you something about their interest level right there.