Usual response time for a (short) partial request?

derektjames said:

Is this a good omen, or a sign for worry?

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It's neither. Agents vary widely. I've had agents read fulls in a week, and others take two months on partials (and go on to request the full). They just all work differently and you can't read anything into anything. Also, August is notoriously slow in publishing.

Good luck, though! And congrats on the requests! Sounds like you're doing great. Now to master the art of waiting. (Hint: start something new.)

I agree with Joy. Some take days some take months, it all depends. I've had a partial out for about 6 weeks and they upped it to a full. I've had fulls read in a day. You never know in this business.

There is no set "average" - all agents respond at different times, and one agent may respond at different times to different people. They read requested materials when they can, often after business hours, after all their work for their clients is done. So, you can never really count on what is "average."

In my experience, my "average" response time on partials would be misleading - some agents requested more quickly, others took longer to respond, one took several months. I would feel comfortable following up at 3 months if I hadn't heard anything, unless the agent advised me of a lesser or longer expected response time, and then I'd followup at that time plus 3-4 weeks (depending on time of year).

2 weeks, especially in summer, is like 5 minutes in agent time.

Keep querying, if you like. Or if you want to wait and see if you get some feedback from any of the reading agent before querying further, then wait and work on something else.

good luck! And the best advice I can give is to work on something else while you wait. That really is the best thing you can do for your long-term career.

~suki