The Land of Pause

Wait, you've been repped for a year and you haven't gone out on submission?

Since I know six people who've sold books in the last year, I'm also pretty stunned at the idea of your not having gone on submission yet.

I too am stunned, considering I just finished an email conversation with my agent about sending my stuff out next week. Considering too I know several new authors who have sold in the last six months. This does not sound like the norm in the publishing industry at all. A year?? I think you need to have a serious conversation with your agent . . .

There have been many sales reported by AW members.

The only logical thing that immediately springs to my mind is 'elephant hunter' syndrome. The agent wants the big deal and is therefore waiting for a break in the market so he/she can sell it for optimal money.

Of course, I don't know your agent or your book, so cannot presume, but that was the first thing that came to my mind. But publishing is slow, not dead...

Ack! A whole year? That's not normal. My agent has my second manuscript she's sending out to publishers next week. The first one continues to make the rounds, but she hasn't stopped. To stop is to die. Seriously. You need to have a heart-to-heart with your agent.

It took me a long time to go on sub, but not a year! We just started subbing late April. I think it might be a good idea to have a talk and say you're ready to go on submission now. Things are slow, but deals--even debuts--are being made.

Judging from the OP's blog, I'd say he's been working on revisions with his agents until recently (or could even still be doing them?), hence the not going out on submission. I don't think you can really say the agent's been putting off submission for a year if most of that time has been spent without a submittable book!

Working on revisions is one thing (and perfectly fine). It's this part that made my eyebrows raise:

I’m sitting on almost a year since I’ve been represented. A YEAR. Sure, I had expectations that the publishing industry was slow, but good grief. I thought by now I would at least be on submission. My agent is doing what a lot of agents are doing – protecting their clients by waiting until the market stabilizes before approaching editors.

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To me, that is the questionable part.

I'd heard it said by quite a few agents (including my own) at the beginning of the year, so it didn't strike me as particularly odd, I guess. With so many editors let go or reassigned and the remaining ones in the position of having to pick up all of the scattered books, adding to their existing work-load, a lot of agents wanted to wait a few weeks for the dust to settle before presenting even more.

Now that it's June, of course, I think it's a little odd to still be using that excuse--and certainly worth approaching the agent about--but I just found it unfair to say the agent was putting it off for an entire year when that doesn't seem to be the case.

Ummm.....maybe you need a new agent? That just doesn't sound right to me at all.

Endeavor is a big agency. I'm not trying to imply that his agent is a scammer or should immediately be fired. I just really have to scratch my head at the whole situation.

Irysangel said:

Endeavor is a big agency. I'm not trying to imply that his agent is a scammer or should immediately be fired. I just really have to scratch my head at the whole situation.

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Something has clearly happened to make them, in essense, drop his book. It sounds like excuses to me. Either the agent is suddenly lazy, or has other clients that are more "sure things"....but something is going on. Maybe they've changed their mind about how much they want to rep the book.

In any case, I would seriously start looking for a new agent. Just sitting there like that doesn't do any good at all. And books are being published every day, so I don't buy that excuse at all.

I think the agency transfer must be part of it too. It's great that he worked so hard with you DennyCrane, to get your book ready!

I'm okay waiting when I know how long the wait will be. I recently applied for a wonderful writing residency -- and they were very clear about when they were going to reply. I rarely think about it.

So it's uncertainty combined with waiting that's the killer. I think a lot of the things we do around waiting for uncertain outcomes -- googling agents and editors and poring over their interviews and twitter posts -- asking other people about their experiences with agents or editors on this board, to name two -- are all about finding more certainty.

I just need more things to help me forget I'm waiting, I think, because in THIS business the only thing that's certain is that the outcome is uncertain.