What is the avg waiting time with Big Publishers?

Nateskate

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I'm sure there's a diversity of answers, but the more replies the better.

I'm wondering if there's an avg. waiting time from when your agent sends the publisher a requested manuscript?

I've seen that there's a series of steps when they're interested. So perhaps I should ask - for acceptances vs. rejections.

And - for unagented/unpublished writers.
 

blacbird

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I'm sure there's a diversity of answers,

That's how you get an average. Although I'm not sure, for this question, that an average will be very meaningful.

My experience is that the average is eternity. Including that figure will seriously skew your average calculation.
 
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RJK

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Agented = 1 lifetime / 2
Unagented = ∞ - 1 day
 

dangerousbill

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I'm sure there's a diversity of answers, but the more replies the better.

I'm wondering if there's an avg. waiting time from when your agent sends the publisher a requested manuscript?

About ten years ago, my wife sent a nonfic book proposal to 12 publishers. Six of them, you might call 'big'. All six 'big' publishers responded over a 3 to 14 month time period. The smaller publishers responded within three months, but two never responded.
 

Karen Junker

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Well, if the editor is thinking of buying your book sometimes they have to go through the marketing department first before they can decide. It can take weeks or months. There are meetings and so on.
 

izanobu

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My experience from subbing directly to publishers: Queries I usually hear back on within 3-4 months (sometimes much quicker, like hours if I did an e-query). Fulls so far have taken 2-6 months to hear on.
Generally if I don't hear on a query package within 6 months I mark it down as a non-response/no.
 

job

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My experience is limited -- but with the big New York publishers and a very good, long-established agent, I've seen turnaround time as short as a few days. I've also seen rejections that took two months.
 

Erin

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I was expecting a long wait on unagented queries I sent to 4 big houses on 2/13. One replied on 2/28 with a request for a partial. A second replied today with a rejection, and this same editor took ~4 months to reply to a previous submission last year. I was pleasantly surprised by the fast turnaround (despite the one R).

So many variables...I've had others respond to queries within a few weeks to 9 months, or no reponse at all.
 

siouxnyc

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when my agent sent my proposal out, publisher response spanned only a few weeks. sale came at about the six-week mark.
 

erinbee

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My first NF proposal garnered responses within days, but took roughly 4 months to die.

My second (published) proposal went out on a Friday. We had our first offer on a Monday, I talked to 9 editors on a Wednesday, and I made an oral agreement the following Monday.

Your mileage may vary.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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One week to three months, depending on lots of factors.

Three months or more would be a bit of an outlier, but is more likely with non-fiction addressing a fairly narrowly defined market niche (for instance, a book about raw food diets for cancer survivors may be something that editors at a large house with a number of imprints want to coordinate on and/or poll the sales and marketing folks to see if they feel they can sell); less than one week would be an outlier as well, but I know people whose agents have sold a book in a day or two (alas, not me so far).
 

Jamesaritchie

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Six months without an agent, and anywhere from one week to six months with an agent. The bigger and better known the agent, the faster the response time.
 

Skippy75

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Here in Australia it is 3 to 6 months for unsolicited manuscripts, and anywhere from a few days to 3 months for agented submissions.
 

kidcharlemagne

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Just had my first pass from an editor at a major publisher via an agent. 4 weeks.
 
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trickywoo

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As I remember, the wait time was 1-2 months, but we often heard within a week if it just wasn't a good fit. So, no news is good possibly good news? Good luck!
 

D.L. Shepherd

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I dug up this old thread and was wondering if anyone had anything new to add as far as current wait times for agented subs?
 

Old Hack

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It all depends on the publisher, the agent and the submission.

Your best way forward would be to ask your agent for advice.
 

waylander

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I'm currently on submission, have been since January. We've had a few replies. My agent says things are slower now than ever before.
 

D.L. Shepherd

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It all depends on the publisher, the agent and the submission.

Your best way forward would be to ask your agent for advice.

When she started subbing...she explained that you generally get a few replies right away, yay and nay, followed by a whole lot of waiting....

We're at the "whole lot of waiting" part and while I'm checking my email every ten minutes, I didn't want to keep bugging her. "Have they replied yet? Have they? How 'bout now?" :)
 

D.L. Shepherd

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I'm currently on submission, have been since January. We've had a few replies. My agent says things are slower now than ever before.

January's a few months ahead of me, so at least that gives me an idea of what I'm in for.

Good luck! I hope you hear something positive soon.