Agent response times

In my experience it can takes months!

Mat:
I have an agent interested but is not my prefered choice. Its been two weeks and I have heard nothing from the other agents who asked for MSs.

I dont want to keep this agent waiting too long in case its my only offer. How long should I wait before emailing the other agents who have the MS but have not replied, what is the approriate thing to do here?

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If you actually have an offer of representation, then the best thing to do is to politely email the other agents to let them know and ask whether they think they'd be interested in offering representation. That way, you're giving them the chance to go through your work and make a decision but also letting them know that someone else is interested so it should speed things up.

MM

Momento Mori said:

If you actually have an offer of representation, then the best thing to do is to politely email the other agents to let them know and ask whether they think they'd be interested in offering representation. That way, you're giving them the chance to go through your work and make a decision but also letting them know that someone else is interested so it should speed things up.

MM

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Yeah, seconded. It's also the polite thing to do.

Exactly. If they say they're still interested give them a timeframe as well (or ask them for one). Like, "Is it possible for you to get back to me by the end of this week?"

Congratulations, btw!

Since this wasn't a question about a specific agent, I moved it to Ask the Agent, where I think it's more appropriate. Mat, you can also search this forum--the response time issue has been discussed in other threads.

- Victoria

Mat, you say you have an agent interested and you don't want to keep him/her waiting too long. Does this mean he/she is asking you to sign an author agreement? Until it actually reaches that stage, you would be wise to hang in on other agents who have asked for fulls.

My agent spoke on the phone saying he wanted to rep my work, but nothing became carved in stone until I had carried out his requested revision. If this happened in your case, it would afford you stalling time while you wait for other responses.

I agree the thing to do meanwhile is to let the other agents know of interest from one, both as a matter of courtesy and to expedite further responses.

As you've elicited several requests for full and partial from one batch of emailed queries, it sounds like you've got something agents will want.

Loadsa luck in getting the agent you want to rep you.

I was in this situation a few weeks ago. I sent out a query and had immediate response, received my first offer of rep less than 24 hours later. As soon as I received the offer I sent a polite email to all the other agents who had expressed interest, asking them to get back to me if they were still interested by a certain date. Several of them offered as well and I made my decision among the interested parties the following week.

Agents actually prefer to receive a nice email letting them know your status has changed so that they don't waste time reading the work of someone who might be "off the market". Good luck!

Assuming the agent you refer to has made an offer to represent you -- contract and all -- then I absolutely agree with what brainstrains said.

Momento Mori: do you know what it means when an agent (Elblonk) or any agent writes, "Thank you for the query. A question: Have any other agents or editors seen this manuscript in any of its incarnations? Do let me know!" Does it simply mean he wants an exclusive? Thanks!

Also, what does he mean by incarantions? I said nothing about "incarnations" in my query.

sundawson said:

Momento Mori: do you know what it means when an agent (Elblonk) or any agent writes, "Thank you for the query. A question: Have any other agents or editors seen this manuscript in any of its incarnations? Do let me know!" Does it simply mean he wants an exclusive? Thanks!

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I think he's asking whether anyone else has seen any other versions/drafts of your manuscript. That'd be my best bet.

Very strange wording. Either he's simply asking if you have submitted to other agents or he is being facetious. Have you submitted this work in its present form to this agency or others in the past? Is this a rewrite of something you submitted previously?

For specific agent response times, I like this website
http://community.livejournal.com/agentturnaround/profile
Some agents have more entries than others, but I think it's a pretty cool idea.

sundawson said:

Also, what does he mean by incarantions? I said nothing about "incarnations" in my query.

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I'm guessing he has in the past dealt with authors who tell him, after he offers representation, "Oh, by the way, every editor in town rejected this, so I reworked it."

Or he asked if anyone else saw it, and the author said no, only to find out later that the author meant no one had seen that version.

You know? Were I an agent, it would only take one such incident for me to start asking that question, worded that way. I seriously doubt it's anything more than just the agent being sure he's not dead in the water before he even makes a start.

That's just my guess.

Just wondering if any of you have had experience with this. An agent who has had a full for a while just emailed to say that the novel "has had one read through here and another reader is taking a look at it now and that she'd get back to me as soon as she can." Is this a good sign? The agency, The Gernert Co., doesn't specify "group decision" or anything so I'm assuming the agent, Erika Storella, could have rejected herself. Does the fact that someone else has it mean anything? Any thoughts would be welcome.

It's common to have more than one agent read- at WMA my agent has her assistant read first and then she reads.