Do acceptances of snail-mail queriesfall into a pattern?

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Novelhistorian

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Recent experience has suggested to me that, more often than not, when an agent wants to read a partial or full ms. in response to a snail-mail query, I'll hear well before the two- or three-week period that's supposedly typical. Chances are, too, that I'll hear via e-mail. Conversely, if I have to wait two or three weeks, the answer will almost always be no, and it will almost always come in the SASE I enclosed with the query, not e-mail.

Can anybody else confirm this pattern? If it's common, it suggests that agents usually read a pile of queries, cull the ones they like for immediate answer, and put aside the rest. Not surprising, is it?
 

maddythemad

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Gee, I hope not either (I've got TWO snail mail queries out, and haven't heard anything as we approach the second week!). But yes-- that does seem to be the pattern. :(
 

johnzakour

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I don't think there's a pattern. I've had some acceptances take hours and some take months.

I think it depends on a lot of factors, the person's mood, the day of the week, how over worked they are, health matters, family matters, the cycle of the moon, the list goes on...
 
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rugcat

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It does seem true as a general rule, but there are plenty of exceptions.

I've had almost immediate rejections via sase, but I also had several requests for partials returned in a sase. I also had at least 2 email responses requesting partials, six months after the snail mail queries. I even received an email form rejection after 9 months, after I'd already found representation. And also had both a request for partial off a query and request for full, both sent via sase, spaced about 6-8 weeks apart.

So try not to outguess the process and open each sase with at least some hope.
 

Bartholomew

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It's fairly common knowledge that Publishers use pattern GF-5 when pre-planning the query numbers they accept or reject, while Agents use either pattern PX-43 or (especially for newer agents) a random number assignment program.

Back in the old days, everyone used darts. But we're beyond that now.
 

AllieB

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Um, although there are exceptions, yes. Most of my requests for partials or fulls have come quite quickly after I sent the query (1-3 weeks). The times when it was longer than 4 weeks or so, the agent included a statement like "We've been incredibly busy/moving our offices and that's why we took so long to respond."

But as to the SASE vs. email response, I've had plenty of agents request partials and fulls through snail mail. So an SASE response definitely does not mean a rejection.
 

Julie Worth

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On rare occasion I've gotten a response to an email query within an hour or two (generally late at night), saying to send the full. I assumed this was a reflection of my superior writing ability, but later I realized the truth: the agents were drunk. And sadly, they had a different opinion when they read my stuff sober.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Time

I've had rejections in two hours, and acceptances in two years. The only pattern is how busy an agent is, and when she can get around to doing things.
 

MidnightMuse

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Personally, I'm hoping for a request for the manuscript via SASE so I can frame the dang thing. I don't want to get it by email because I have no room on my wall to mount the computer.

Silly - just mount the monitor.

Since I have yet to hear an acceptance or see what they look like, I can't really say there's a pattern. So far there's been no set pattern for length of rejection-of-query for me. One came via email in 6 hours, and one took 13 months.:Shrug:
 
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