How long is too long a wait on a three-chap partial?

Two weeks?

Try at least six.

It never helps to be a "pest" after only two weeks... even four... remember, an agent's priority is his or her clients. And there are other works she's reading... the queue might be a long one.


In the meantime, write something. Don't sit around and wait.

If there's no exclusivity, keep sending it out...

If you're freaking out at two weeks you're going to hate what I have to say. Some can take as long as a full year. Beyond six months to a year, then I would say you've waited long enough.

If it isn't exclusive, keep quering and as others have said, keep writing.

ETA: The reason why you don't want to look like an amateur is because you are trying to break into the professional world. They want to work with professionals, not amateurs.

Two weeks? Keep hanging in there - could be a while longer.

I'm waiting on responses from two partials I sent out. For one agent, it's been four weeks so far, for the other it's been four and a half. But who's counting?

Like I_Shrugged said, the good agents are really, really busy, so the best advice I can give is (1) keep sending stuff out and (2) work on something new.

This is why exclusives are the evil bane of authors! If it's an exclusive, she should have given you a timeframe. If not, I think there's a different code of rules about the check-up note.

I believe it's perfectly fine to ask for an ETA on an exclusive (someone please corret me if I'm wrong!)--or even to politely set a cap on it yourself (though this usually works better when you're sending the partial--something like "as per your request, no other agents will review this for two weeks")

If an agent has had a partial for two months, can you email a polite follow up?

Uh oh if that's too short of a time, because I just did...

You are kind of stuck if you gave an exclusive for 6 weeks. This will be your learning experience. I never gave exclusives on partials. I always said that other agents were looking. No one ever quibbled. The agent I eventually signed with asked for an exclusive for the full and I again said no, other agents currently had it. Again that was no problem, she merely said to check with her before I accepted any offer of representation. What agents really want to know is whether they will waste the time reading only to find out you have signed with someone else.
Saying no to an exclusive is never a deal breaker.
As far as time - Listen to what everyone is saying. It can take two months or longer. At 6 weeks I would email and say that you were withdrawing the exclusive.
To be perfectly honest you could continue to send out snail mail queries now, just use your best judgement on how fast you send out any requested partial.
Hope this helps

Provrb1810meggy said:

If an agent has had a partial for two months, can you email a polite follow up?

Uh oh if that's too short of a time, because I just did...

Click to expand...

That should be fine, it's when they've just gotten it and the author is already bugging them about it that it's bad.

Jack_Roberts said:

Six? Wow!
I'm working on book 2, the WIP.
But six? Why so long to read/review three chapters?

Click to expand...

Yours is not the only thing on the agent's desk.

An agent has my partial for...at least 3-4 months. But she's known to be slow. In the meantime I plug along.

Jack, if it helps, I'm in the same boat. An agent has had 3 chapters of mine since late July. I was told I'd hear from them in 6-8 weeks. I'm still waiting. After getting advice from some of the good people here, I'm going to wait another 2 months. In the meantime, I'm searching for other agents and working on new stuff.

As hard as it is, this is part of what we do. Play the waiting game, keep writing and stay calm.

Elektra said:

I believe it's perfectly fine to ask for an ETA on an exclusive (someone please corret me if I'm wrong!)--or even to politely set a cap on it yourself (though this usually works better when you're sending the partial--something like "as per your request, no other agents will review this for two weeks")

Click to expand...

That's a very good way of having a partial returned unread. If you want a particular agent, if she's the best agent for the book, then you wait, and you wait as long as it takes. Two weeks is often impossible. So is two months.

Insisting on speed is usually just a wonderful way of collecting large numbers of rejections.

sorry

I'd give it 3 months. From experience, I've received responses 2-3 months.

I'm at two weeks on a full, and three weeks on the same manuscript, in partial, to five other agents.
It was agony to start with, but now i've hauled myself into another project, and its a lot easier. This is my first submission to agents, and its kinda weird.

What you should do in the future..is if you are giving the exclusive...then BEFORE sending it in, politely ask in email about how long will it take to get an answer....

That is a fair and non-pushy question, and most professional agents will answer it, especially if you are offering an exclusive.

If you already sent it in etc. Then you should wait 8-10 weeks and send a polite email asking about the status. If you get no reply try once again after 7 days. Still no reply...I would just move on.

I think that it would be useful for both authors and agents/publishers to use a timeframe.
Personally, when an unagented partial is submitted (as we work mostly with new authors), I always make sure to tell this author how long it will possibly take to read the partial, depending on how much work there is. This is greatly appreciated, as we always keep to this timeframe.


Nickie

Yes, if the agent requests exclusivity, always ask for a timeframe. Then you have the right to ask for an update once that time has passed. An agent asked for exclusivity from me for 1 month. I waited 6 weeks before asking her, and good thing I did. She hadn't done anything with it, and she read it after she got my note, and decided it wasn't right for her (she wanted something more Grisham-ish... I was like, didn't you read my synopsis?... but I digress).