Request for exclusive

Aeneas

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I know this has been asked a zillion times, and I hope I am not annoying with this question.

First, the good news is that finally a big agency agent asked for a partial for my novel. Second, the sticky point is that Big Agent is asking for an exclusive. Needless to say, I have queries out to other agents, mostly with a synopsis and 30 pagest, tops.

The other point is that MacAdams/Cage has asked to see the manuscript. Also, Ballantine. Except Ballantine has asked that I send it through an agent. The eager beaver that I am, I asked an agent that I know (he is retired and doesn't handle anything new) if he would send it for me. He said yes. I don't have a contract or anything. He did it as a favor to me.

So... oh, great ones, what do I do?

Advice needed badly, before I turn to Machiavelli.
 
zizban

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Well, depends on what you want to do. You can tell the exclusive one that you have other queries out and cannot commit to exclusive OR you could withdraw your queries from the others. I would tell the exclusive you can't commit to that right now. Most agents will understand.

As for your friend, tell him you are waiting and want to hold off on his services, for now.
 

Aeneas

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Thank you. What a quandry, right?

My friend will only send it this one time, and would not go after other publishers.
 
victoriastrauss

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If you hadn't asked your friend the agent to submit for you, here's the advice I'd give:

Tell the agent that you have other partials out, and ask if s/he will waive the exclusive. Often they're willing to do this. If not, tell him/her that you'll send the partial when others are done reading.

IMO, when an agent asks for an exclusive it applies only to other agents, not to publishers (and vice versa with publishers). So as long as Macadam/Cage doesn't require an exclusive, I think you could submit there separately from whatever you're pursuing with agents.

-----------------------------------

However, you DID ask your friend the agent to submit for you--so you have a problem.

I don't think that any agent who was interested in representing your book would be happy to discover that another agent had submitted that very same manuscript to a major publisher. In fact, I suspect that it'd be the end of the offer. Since you will have to tell any agent who is interested in you that the ms. is with Ballantine (agents don't want to duplicate submissions), you're not going to be able to keep this hidden.

I'm not sure what to advise you to do. I guess the best thing would be to immediately fire your friend, so that if another agent offers you representation, you can say that the ms. was submitted through an agent with whom you're no longer associated. However, there's another issue. If Ballantine were to make an offer, would your friend expect to be the agent of record? You'd better clear this up, pronto. If your friend does expects to be the agent of record, his claim on the ms. trumps all others, and you will need to wait on making any further agent submissions until Ballantine responds.

I know you're probably kicking yourself right now, so I don't want to rub it in--but this is what comes of being too hasty and trying to game the system.

- Victoria
 
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