showing your agent a work-in-progress?

Fiction or non-fiction?

I've shown cookbook outlines with great success.

rainbowfish said:

For those who are agented, have you ever showed a work-in-progress to your agent? Mine offered, and I'd like their feedback, but it seems like an odd thing to have them look at something that's not perfectly polished.

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I've done this a number of times, both with books under contract (but not yet written) and books I'm just starting. It really depends on the agent, and what you want to get out of their feedback, but AFAIK it's not unusual.

I usually show my agent what I'm working on once I have about the first 1/3-1/2 the book done. It gives him a chance to offer feedback and also start looking at who he wants to send it to once it's done. (I usually provide a kind of mini-synopsis as well, just a couple paragraphs like I would if I were querying the MS.)

I also give him a rough estimate of when I think I'll have the first solid draft* done so he can plan on reading the whole thing. (Which may or may not cut down on the amount of time I have to wait for a thumbs up or request for more revisions when he reads it.)

*Not necessarily a first draft. But usually a draft which I have gone through a few times to fix things I've made notes on, but not typically a final draft. In part because my agent is a former editor and I do like to wait and see if he has particular notes before I make the last pass or so with revisions.

I usually don't. I only did so once, when I wrote something completely different from what he's used to seeing from me (it was a fluffy, lighthearted contemporary romance as opposed to my usual grim, murder-filled books). I showed him the first chapter because I was so nervous about writing something so different. He loved it so, so much, and at first I was elated, but then as I continued writing, I couldn't help thinking, WHAT IF THE REST OF THE BOOK IS A LETDOWN. But if he hadn't loved the first chapter, I would've given up on the MS, so showing my agent unfinished work is kind of a lose-lose for me. I won't be doing that again unless there's a solid reason why I need to.