Simultaneous Submission and Exclusivity Questions

As far as queries are concerned, no need for exclusivity unless there's ONE agent you really, really want. Just send out a few and don;t worry about it. Agents assume that you are querying others as well.
In my experience very few agents ask for sxclusives these days, If A,B and C ask for ms partial or full, and don;t mention the E word, justsend it and don;t mention it either.
If one of them asks for an exclusive, and you send it, do give a time frame - say, six weeks. Then if the others request after that, you must say that it's out on an exclusive.
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Good luck!

BenPanced said:

If I sent a submission to agents A, B, and C, and B asks for an exclusive, do I notify A and C during the exclusivity period?

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[disclaimer: I'm unpublished, so this is what I've seen here, on agent websites, etc.]

Ditto Aruna on queries: they expect that you're submitting to multiple agents; no need to mention it.

On partials/fulls: it depends who has it first. If multiple agents have a partial or full manuscript and one then asks for an exclusive, you could withdraw it from the others, but that's probably a bad idea. Probably what you want to do is tell B that you would love to send them the partial/full, but you can't send it exclusively because A and C already have it. They may tell you to send it anyway, or to keep them in mind later, or whatever they choose. Also keep in mind that you don't have to send an instant response, though of course you want to be businesslike.

If agent B is the first to request a partial/full, and requests an exclusive, and you want to give it to them...be sure it has a time limit, as Aruna said. If A or C then requests the partial/full, let them know that B has it exclusively for X amount of time and you'll be happy to send it to them after that, assuming B passes. And, again, you don't have to respond instantly.

(Someone more knowledgable please correct me if any of this is wrong.)

aruna said:

A
If one of them asks for an exclusive, and you send it, do give a time frame - say, six weeks. Then if the others request after that, you must say that it's out on an exclusive.
It may happen that they ask for it anyway.
Good luck!

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Oops, I got my lines crossed. I meant to say, if you have sent out multiple submissions, and one agent asks you for an exclusive, then you can explain to them that you can't grant an exclusive, as you have already sent out your ms. In THAT case they may ask for it anyway. That's what happened to me. I had several sub,issions out, an agent asked for an exclusive, I told her I couldn't, and she said "send it anyway and I'll give it a quick read". A week later she offered.

Queries

I'm not exactly against multiple queries, but I think it takes so much time, effort, and research to write a proper query that GOOD multiple queries are very, very difficult to manage.

I'm dead set against sending any two agents the same query, with only the name and address of the agent changed.

I think a writer's best chance of success is to do a bunch of research, which means going far beyond looking at an agent's listing somewhere, or the guidelines on an agent's website, finding the agent that's perfect for your book, and then giving that agent something she'll want. And allowing all the time in the world to reach a decision.

And if you do hear back from a top agent who is perfect for your book, and they want an exclusive on material sent, then for Heaven's sake, give it to them, and politely tell any other agent they'll have to wait a while.

The reality IMHO?
Query wide and deep. Using Agentquery.com & Publishers Marketplace. I dedicated one day a week to agent research and querying. I did not discuss who all I was querying with any agent and did not broach the subject of exclusivity unless it was requested. When it was (for fulls or partials) I respectfully declined citing the fact that my material was submitted elsewhere. The agents requested it anyway (as aruna said). The response was always "let me know if you get an offer of representation before you accept it"
I did multiple queries and merely changed the first three sentences for each agent. It can be so difficult to find that one agent who loves your work I think you need to send out more than one query at a time. I usually sent five out every couple of weeks. If I got no response I would retool my letter. My third novel got me representation and my e-queries were all answered within 40 minutes by more than one large agency. Right away I knew something was different with this project.
I was offered representation by more than one agent within 3 weeks.

BenPanced- You will hear lots of opinion here. James is an experienced author and others of us are agented and will have books coming out shortly.
You need to decide for yourself how you approach this business. There is no one exact correct way, but there are general suggestions and guidelines.
This question has in actuality been answered to death in this forum.

James, I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on how you research a specific agent, past looking at their listing. Obviously you can visit their web-site, and you can get a feel for their personality pretty well if they have a blog, or if they lurk on a message board, but supposing they don't? What would you do?

My theory would be to treat it similar to magazine submissions: Find the agent's list of sales, go find some of those books (either in my own library, or at a local bookstore) and get a feel for what it is she's agented previously. If she's done Sense and Sensibility, I would probably not send her Cujo, for example.

From my own experience, I'd say don't bother researching agents for the purposes of tailoring your query. Short of actually meeting the agent or knowing someone in common, this is entirely worthless. It's best to send them what they ask for instead of getting cute.

If you're unpublished, then the more queries you send out, the better your chances of finding representation in one lifetime. Don't ever tell them it's a multiple submission. No need to lie, but don't tell them.

Now I have two opposite points of view to pay attention to.

Julie: Why's it worthless? And should a writer therefore just have his query letter and then change the key points to fit whichever agent this letter's going out to?

PeeDee said:

Julie: Why's it worthless?

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I don't know why, this is just my experience.

How much can you find out about an agent, anyway? Just some superficial things that are badly dated by the time you read them. Who's that going to impress?

PeeDee said:

And should a writer therefore just have his query letter and then change the key points to fit whichever agent this letter's going out to?

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That's the way I did it. I had a fair amount of success, but there were also more than a few non-responders. I honestly think the exact method you employ to query is not nearly as important as people make it out to be. Many different strategies have worked for many different people.

Julie Worth said:

I don't know why, this is just my experience.

How much can you find out about an agent, anyway? Just some superficial things that are badly dated by the time you read them. Who's that going to impress?

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Beats me. That's why I asked you and James to elaborate on your seperate points. Because I was curious about the issue.

It doesn't affect me hugely either way, I know how I'm doing it. It was just out of curiosity.

I'd say listen to those who have successfully obtained representation.
Several of my author friends who have been represented for many many years were more out of touch with current querying practices. When I was querying I asked those authors who were represented, new, emerging writers and who wrote what I write (commercial fiction). I met them at writer's retreats.
I have since chatted to my agent regarding queries and she echoed what I have said (and thought). It is the premise and the first five pages that get you requests for fulls, and it is a great story and good writing that get you representation. (And querying an agent who knows of an editor who would be interested in acquiring your novel).
JMHO

ORION said:

I have since chatted to my agent regarding queries and she echoed what I have said (and thought). It is the premise and the first five pages that get you requests for fulls, and it is a great story and good writing that get you representation. (And querying an agent who knows of an editor who would be interested in acquiring your novel).
JMHO

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you can't really find out much about agents, unless you are going to read every book every agent agented, and even then, you can't tell what is going to click with a particular agent.

I simply picked out a few based on general impressions I got from their websites and bios. For instance, the agent I finally landed said she liked books with an international leaning.

I sent out four or five at a time; those agents who my premise clicked with, responded positively. Those who didn;t click, said no. It was as easy as that. They self-selected.