How long do you stay with your agent?

Not all manuscripts ever find publishers, not even all agented ones.

What's your agent doing with your next book(s)?

What Terie said.

I've been with my agent for 3 years and we haven't sold a book yet. I'm not looking to jump ship; I adore him. He's doing his job trying to sell, I'm doing my job writing.

Selling a book is a hard business. It absolutely requires patience.

However: it's time for you to have a conversation with your agent about how subbing is going. Has your agent seriously only subbed to 8-12 editors in all that time? Call her/him. Talk to her/him. This is not okay. Find out what's going on. If s/he's lost her/his passion for your book, you may need to move on.

Best of luck.

I've been with my agent over a year and my first book didn't sell. He has another manuscript right now that we may or may not go with, but I can't imagine jumping ship just yet because the book didn't sell.

Maybe in a few years if I feel that he's not doing a good job or he's obviously not interested in my work, or if I went a different direction with my writing, I would look for someone new, but right now I don't see a need. He's a good agent, enthusiastic, and he still believes in me.

I feel like I heard a statistic once that only 60% of books that have an agent actually sell. That is probably really low, but the point is that not every book that gets an agent finds a publisher (at least not immediately).

I do agree with Jude, though, that you should talk to her about it and see what's going on. Then you can make your decision. I think a lot of times this is a gut feeling answer rather than a logical one. If you talk to her and feel like it's best to move on, that's an okay decision to make, but a book not selling doesn't automatically mean you need a new agent.

What genre is your book? The number of subs may not be low, if there are relatively few editors repping that genre. Also, that timeframe doesn't bother me at all. It can take a LONG time to get a reply, because if the first editor likes it, then it has to go through a LOT of other levels before receiving a yes. No comes faster than yes.

I would ask to meet to discuss strategy. Ask who she's subbing to, and what her future plans are.

And I totally agree with Terie: What's she doing with your next book?

You stay with your agent for as long as the relationship makes sense. But you need to also be proactive. You need to write another book. Truly. After my first two books sold, I wrote a third. And my agent is STILL trying to sell it to this day. So while that one didn't sell I wrote a fourth. And THAT one is still making the rounds. While that was happening I started on a fifth, and then got a brilliant idea for a sixth, and it was THAT one that wound up as my next sale.

It's a business relationship. They aren't going to stay by you forever while your book doesn't sell. They need you to do your job too. Theirs is to submit, yours is to write. Now a good agent won't necessarily give up on the hard to sell books either, but they do this on top of sending out your latest, fresh work.

I agree with rainsmom, a discussion about strategy would be great. As would a discussion about what you should be doing next.

Ha! The question is how long does your agent stay with you.

If your agent is still working it, and doing a good job, then count your lucky stars, you've got a good one. I've been on the other side of that equation, and believe me it sucks.

One quick round of subs to four publishers, one editor liked it, read the whole thing and provided good feedback, but wasn't quite into it enough to ask for an R&R. I spent four months re-writing to the editor's notes (my agent told me she wouldn't submit it any more without the revisions), and without even reading the edits, I think it would be best if you found someone else to shop this manuscript.

The grass always appears greener. Only really it's not. Bad agents suck. Good ones are worth holding on to.

I agree with DJ here, bad agents do suck. My second agent was horrible at communicating. And I would give her more work and she never looked at it. She took it and said she was going to read it, but after months and months went by and her not wanting to send out the other one anymore, I fired her. As it is, there are two pending that she held onto and another month has gone by and she hasn't gotten back to me. It's like she took me and then put me on the back burner.

I agree with Toothpaste, be proactive. Make sure your agent is doing the same thing and not sitting on your work doing nothing about it.

kaitie said:

I feel like I heard a statistic once that only 60% of books that have an agent actually sell. That is probably really low, but the point is that not every book that gets an agent finds a publisher (at least not immediately).

Click to expand...

I think this point can't be emphasized enough here.

Many writers/readers of postings are so focused on getting an agent -- an agent with "recommended" or $$$ next to his/her name on P & E or similar -- that it's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that landing the agent makes publication a sure thing.

Especially if you're new to this.

Especially if you get repped by one of those Big-Name Agents Everyone Wants.

And it's not that simple.

Alas.

[the voice of experience]

Definitely time for a conversation.
You need to understand who your agent has submitted to and why he/she is no longer subbing.
Maybe, as a pp suggested, there are few editors who accept that genre.
Maybe, the rejections indicate serious problems that your agent has not yet discussed with you.
Maybe, the agent isn't familiar enough with the more respected and connected indies in your genre to submit to those.
Maybe your agent wants to hang onto it until new editors who might be more open to the book fill the slots of the current ones among the publishers he/she has submitted to.
Maybe your agent just lost interest.
Regardless, you need to understand your agent's strategy and then decide whether that's something you are comfortable with.
No reason to be shy about it.
That's just business.
I was with my agent two years before I terminated.
It was a hard decision.
It was a scary decision.
But, in my case, it was the right decision.

I expect my agent to submit until they exhaust the acceptable options. Four submissions, for commercial fiction, is not an acceptable effort. An agent who is not willing to submit your work is not an agent you want to work with.