Literary agent's failure to respond after submission

jerewrites said:

In a cover letter, I told her I would not submit the manuscript to anyone else until she'd had the chance to read it and make a decision on representation.

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Did she ask for an exclusive, or did you offer it unasked? Was a time limit on the exclusivity mentioned?

If no time limit was mentioned (next time, make sure there's a time limit), I'd try one more e-mail, and if I didn't get a response, I'd then send one politely saying that I'm sending the manuscript to other agents now as well.

CaoPaux said:

Great minds think alike.....

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And so do we. *g*

Some agents may be reading over the holiday or may not be responding until the holiday's over. I turned in a complete manuscript in October, but I don't expect anything until after the holdiay. I plan on emailing sometime in Feb.

jerewrites said:

Hi, all:

A literary agent in New York, who's got a good reputation and represents many published authors, responded to my query letter and asked to see my full manuscript. I sent it ten weeks ago. In a cover letter, I told her I would not submit the manuscript to anyone else until she'd had the chance to read it and make a decision on representation.

After eight weeks passed, I sent her a brief e-mail, asking about the status of my submission. I've not received any response to the e-mail.

Am I being impatient? I don't want to bug the agent, but I also don't want to be ignored. I'd certainly like to submit the manuscript to other agents who may ask for it.

Any advice from more seasoned authors?

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First, did she have an expected reporting time? Most agents usually state somewhere roughly how long they expect to take. It's been my experience that it's best to double this.

And considering the time of year it is, expecting anyone to respond to anything is risky. I wouldn't be too worried until January rolls around. Christmas tends to shut everything down, or at least slow them up drastically, and this is especially true in this business.

But I don't think her reporting time is out of line yet. Time seems to drag when you're waiting, but ten weeks really isn't very long. Some very good agents take a lot longer than this.

Ack. Unless the agent asks for an exclusive (meaning their guidelines state "no simultaneous submissions", then agents EXPECT the author to send it to other people. They know how long a wait can be. Every agent I've queried I've told them it was a sim sub, but they know. One, when requesting pages from a query, asked to include whether or not others were looking at it.

And most people I've talked to, when granting an exclusive, give four to six weeks. I would take the suggestion of others; wait until after Jan 1, then give another e-mail.

jerewrites said:

I volunteered the exclusive because I'd read that this was the professional approach. Unfortunately, I did not think to impose a time limit to the exclusive.

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Do you remember where you read that? You're under no obligation to offer an exclusive, and it doesn't make you seem more professional. Personally, I wouldn't do it unless the agent specifically asked, and then I'd make sure there was a time limit.

Take a deep breath and relax. Now make your decision about your best course of action, and then put it out of your mind and get back to work on your new project.

If they don't ask for an exclusive, don't offer. You're just tying your own hands...

Agents

Agents never expect exclusives on queries, and only sometimes on partials, but nearly all agents expect an exclusive on a full manuscript.

Exclusives don't tie your hands. If you researched the agent well, and if this is the best agent for your novel, then patience is far more important than how many agents you can find to submit to.

But notwithstanding what you SHOULD have done, you have the situation, so let's deal with that. First, ten weeks isn't very long AT ALL for a full manuscript. Many agents can take from four to six months to read even a requested submission. You're only one of a long list of such manuscripts to read and think about. So yeah, you're panicking just a bit. There's no real danger at this point.

My best suggestion would be to do as others suggested and send an email after the first of the year. Keep the email very light and professional, and simply ask whether her schedule will permit her to read the manuscript by the end of the month (meaning January) and state that if her busy schedule WON'T allow her to get to it, then you will be sending the manuscript to other agents who have requested a read. Now, you don't have to say WHICH agents, and you don't even need to have any in mind. But this puts her on notice of your intent to end the exclusivity at the end of January. Three months is a perfectly adequate time period for an exclusive reading, and if you choose to offer an exclusive again in the future, this should be your maximum period.

If she's at all human, she'll probably take a glance at it and offer to finish it before the end of the month. If you don't hear back, you have your answer.

Good luck with it.