Are agents away now for holidays?

Agents are like any other small, or not so small (depending on the agency), business. People take vacations at this time of year, things get backed up, other things are going on, end of the year paperwork has to be completed, etc. There will be a greater-than-usual number of employees gone from now until the beginning of the year, the people who are left will need to cover their work, yadda, yadda, yadda.

In short, yes, expect longer response times from now until after the first of the year.

Grr.

Woohoo! Another excuse to procrastinate!

No. It is not an excuse to procrastinate.

This is the time of year when you need to do your market research, polish the short stories you'd like to get out, work on your novel, write and submit articles for the summer issues of magazines, and make notes for winter- and holiday-themed articles to writer and submit in the summer.

So, just get yourself right back in that office.

Birol said:

No. It is not an excuse to procrastinate.

This is the time of year when you need to do your market research, polish the short stories you'd like to get out, work on your novel, write and submit articles for the summer issues of magazines, and make notes for winter- and holiday-themed articles to writer and submit in the summer.

So, just get yourself right back in that office.

Click to expand...

I just hate querying.

It just means the queues are longer and it would take a bit longer for them to respond. But business as usual.

I sure picked a good time to finally be satisfied with my query. Should I just not bother and wait, or is it not a big deal? I just have this vision of someone in their office at 4pm on a friday before their holidays and glancing at queries and rejecting them so they can get home faster.

I've sent out 5 e-queries in the past two weeks. All have received responses. Why not take a chance?

This came up recently here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82951

Guys, I'm the only one in Roundtable allowed to overthink things. Stop trying to count cards. Just step up to the table and place your bets.

December and the summer months have a reputation for very slow response times.

An agent mentioned that the publishing world slows down for Christmas only because the Publishers (editors) are on vacation. Sometimes that means the agent will take a little time off, too, but it also means since they're not wheeling and dealing, they can also take a little extra time to catch up on their queries. So it goes both ways. Query away if you're ready!