UK Picture Book Agents

Dollywagon · Aug 27, 2006

Just a quick question to all of you out there that have submitted a pb mss in the UK.

Normally, I send of the whole manuscript to agents and get a response within about a fortnight. It seems to be the normal run of things. But for one particular mss, it has been with a couple of agents for well over a month.

Now this isn't particularly a problem in itself, it's just that I am desperate to send this one to an agent that only accepts exclusives.

How long would you consider it reasonable to wait, before I consider the two absent mss to be rejected and to go with the exclusive submission?

moondance · Aug 28, 2006

One month?! That's NOTHING! I would only think about nudging after about three!

You have a few options though:
1. email the two agents and say that you are submitting to an agent that only accepts exclusives and say that if you haven't heard from them in one month's time that you will assume they are not interested.
2. wait until you have heard from the two agents. Another month or two is not going to kill you.
3. Submit to the 'exclusive' agent, informing him/her in the cover letter that the ms is already with two agents.

I would go with no,2 personally. You have no guarantee that the exclusive agent will take the book, so it makes sense to wait from the other two first and not put undue pressure on them. Don't burn your boats either way - patience may get you further in the long run.

Dollywagon · Aug 28, 2006

One is the norm for submitting a whole mss.

It's not an unsol query and most agents say in their guidelines they will respond within 4 weeks, which has certainly been my experience.
If it had been a publisher then fair enough, 3 months is about the standard to wade through the slush pile.

Thing is with the exclusive agent, they want a minimum of three stories at a time. Waiting for just one to be returned means my whole 4 manuscript submission to them is being held up.

UK Picture Book Agents

Dollywagon

moondance

Dollywagon