Oh, help!

cspradbery · Mar 27, 2010

Hi everyone, a newbie here. :hi:

I'm in a bit of a panic. At the beginning of March I sent out fifteen queries. I have had two form rejections (the first one stung a lot more than the second!), then about two weeks ago I had a request for a full manuscript. I sent it out, and last Sunday received an email with the (glowing) review from the agent's reader attached and asking what time to call. He phoned me on Monday and made me an offer for representation. The contracts were emailed that afternoon, but something told me to wait before I signed. The next day (Tuesday) I had another request for a full. I emailed it to the agent and followed up with a telephone call to inform her about my offer. She was lovely, and it confirmed to me that I had held off on the other agent because something just didn't click. Agent number one called me on Weds to see how my decision process was going, and I asked for some more time. On Friday he called again, and basically said he needed a decision, so I rejected his offer.

Now I am FREAKING OUT!!!

I have no offer yet from agent number two, she only received my manuscript last Tuesday. If she comes back to me with a rejection, I'll be left with nothing. Should I tell her I have rejected agent number one? I'm worried if she runs out of time or is teetering on her decision, she'll just reject me because I already have someone else interested.

Also, how long should it take? She said no more than two weeks, but given that the other agent had made an offer, she would try to turn it around quickly.

I can't believe that less than a week ago I felt like I had the world at my feet, now I'm terrified I'll have nothing!

Oh dear, that was quite a ramble, wasn't it. Sorry!

Any advice or virtual valium would be very much appreciated...

Carla

waylander · Mar 27, 2010

If your work is good enough to get an offer from an agent within a month of starting to query then you will continue to get interest.
I presume that you have checked out the agents both on this site and on P+E

cspradbery · Mar 27, 2010

They both seem to check out ok, although agent number one has only made sales to small independent publishers. Agent number two has made sales to the biggies, so that was why I wanted to give her a chance to come back to me. I know I can't be too picky at this stage, but I would kick myself if I missed an opportunity to have a big time agent.

illiterwrite · Mar 27, 2010

There's nothing you can do but wait. Hopefully agent #2 wants you. If not, you continue to query.

Why did you query agent 1 if you weren't interested in having him/her represent you?

cspradbery · Mar 27, 2010

I was interested in agent number one, but agent number two had a better sales record. Agent number one didn't want to wait for them to come back with an answer. It was either sign with him then and there, or don't sign at all, so I chose not to sign at all.

YAwriter72 · Mar 27, 2010

illiterwrite said:
Why did you query agent 1 if you weren't interested in having him/her represent you?

I wanted to jump in here and explain this. You query agents who you *think* would be a good fit. That's why the pre-offer phone call is so important. A lot of times, who you thought was your dream agent turns out not to be after you discuss things.

Its who you connect with, who "gets" your book and who's plan you think fits better with your career goals. You don't want to automatically accept the first offer that comes along, especially, like OP said, something didn't click.

cspradbery · Mar 27, 2010

YAwriter72 said:
I wanted to jump in here and explain this. You query agents who you *think* would be a good fit. That's why the pre-offer phone call is so important. A lot of times, who you thought was your dream agent turns out not to be after you discuss things.

Its who you connect with, who "gets" your book and who's plan you think fits better with your career goals. You don't want to automatically accept the first offer that comes along, especially, like OP said, something didn't click.

Put much more eloquently than my reply, thank you!

illiterwrite · Mar 27, 2010

cspradbery said:
Agent number one didn't want to wait for them to come back with an answer. It was either sign with him then and there, or don't sign at all, so I chose not to sign at all.

But didn't you verbally accept the offer? He sent you a contract. So he was probably wondering what was up.

I get the whole "clicking" thing and finding the right fit. I was just wondering why you would query someone with low sales the same time you queried your top picks.

Good luck! Hopefully agent 2 gets back to you soon.

kaitie · Mar 27, 2010

Holy cow. An offer and a likely offer from fifteen queries...you've got nothing to worry about.

cspradbery · Mar 27, 2010

illiterwrite said:
But didn't you verbally accept the offer? He sent you a contract. So he was probably wondering what was up.

I get the whole "clicking" thing and finding the right fit. I was just wondering why you would query someone with low sales the same time you queried your top picks.

Good luck! Hopefully agent 2 gets back to you soon.

Fair question. In all honesty, I probably didn't do enough initial research. However, I wanted to hedge my bets. I queried some of the top agents, expecting nothing but rejections, and a couple of not so great ones. I didn't think I would hear from ANY of them. This was my first attempt at querying, and I am not too proud to admit that I didn't have much of a plan, or much of an idea about what I was doing. I have already learned a lot, and next time around will be a bit more careful with my selections.

And thanks for wishing me luck - I think I need it!

Sage · Mar 27, 2010

For future reference, when you do have an offer and if you have other requests out there (or get a request for one right away), you should let the agents with the ms know that you have an offer and that you need a response by a certain date. Some will pass, others might offer too.

I really hope this works out for you. It is an excellent sign that one of the first agents you queried offer representation, but that is not a guarantee that any more will.

I have seen enough people with several fulls out there only get one offer out of them.

And I agree that you really can't know who is the right agent for you until you talk to them.

cate townsend · Mar 29, 2010

Welcome to AW, Carla!

Since you accepted the first offer of representation, you should have never sent out your full to the second agent who asked for it--not until you made it clear to the first agent you decided to decline his offer. Now, while the first agent was expecting a signed contract, you've sent out your MS to another agent behind his back.

In these situations, especially if you're unsure, it's best to just tell an offering agent that you would like a few days to consider the offer. Then, it's not bad form to keep sending out material. Once you've accepted an offer, though, even if only verbally, you should not send out more, even if asked for by Ms. or Mr. Hotshot-with-killer-sales-record. Decline the offer first, then send away.

As for worrying about whether you're going to end up with nothing, don't. The level of attention your material has received should tell you that.

There's a lot you consider when choosing an agent, not just sales records. And since it sounds like you will have the opportunity to choose, then you should spend some time researching the best way to go about it. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

YAwriter72 · Mar 29, 2010

cate townsend said:
Welcome to AW, Carla!

Since you accepted the first offer of representation, you should have never sent out your full to the second agent who asked for it--not until you made it clear to the first agent you decided to decline his offer. Now, while the first agent was expecting a signed contract, you've sent out your MS to another agent behind his back.

?? OP didn't. (I am assuming)

The first go round for me, after I talked to agent on the phone, he said he would send the contracts to look over, and if I wanted to, I could sign and send them back. He offered rep, sent the contracts, but I did not accept over the phone.

Unless OP said, "Yes I accept your offer, send me the contract" she didn't accept anything. Said agent called back and asked how the decision process was going. Said agent obviously knew OP had not made a choice yet. They also tried to force her hand by saying now or never, so agent did not assume she had verbally accepted.

cate townsend · Mar 29, 2010

YAwriter72 said:
?? OP didn't. (I am assuming)

The first go round for me, after I talked to agent on the phone, he said he would send the contracts to look over, and if I wanted to, I could sign and send them back. He offered rep, sent the contracts, but I did not accept over the phone.

Unless OP said, "Yes I accept your offer, send me the contract" she didn't accept anything. Said agent called back and asked how the decision process was going. Said agent obviously knew OP had not made a choice yet. They also tried to force her hand by saying now or never, so agent did not assume she had verbally accepted.

Oops, then my mistake if so. I should have said "if you had accepted", instead. I guess I was assuming, also.

cspradbery · Apr 5, 2010

cate townsend said:
Oops, then my mistake if so. I should have said "if you had accepted", instead. I guess I was assuming, also.

Just to clear this up, I didn't accept his offer. He sent me the contracts to look over and think about.

So I had an email today from Agent 2. She said some lovely things about my book, complementing the confidence of my writing, my sense of place and the premise of the book.

However, (you knew that was coming, right?), she then went on to say that it needs a lot more work, including addressing the POV (too many), and the characterisation. She has invited me to phone her tomorrow to discuss these points, and concludes the email by saying she would be pleased to take another look if I "decide to rework the story".

Now, is this a rewrite/resubmission scenario? The overall tone of the email suggested that she didn't mind either way if I wanted to take her advice (which I most certainly do - she is one of my top agents), but then again wouldn't she have just rejected the whole thing if she didn't see any promise? I'm really looking forward to talking to her tomorrow and am planning on spending the evening making some notes on possible areas of improvement.

Would she be offering me this help if she didn't think it would be possible to get the manuscript up to publishing quality? I really want this agent...

cate townsend · Apr 5, 2010

She wouldn't be taking the time to work with you on revisions if she weren't considering your MS for representation.

If you spend some time looking through the posts here you'll find it's not that uncommon for agents to suggest revisions before making an offer. Listen to what she has to say, then revise and resubmit. Take it as a good sign. Fingers crossed for you!

cspradbery · Apr 5, 2010

cate townsend said:
She wouldn't be taking the time to work with you on revisions if she weren't considering your MS for representation.

If you spend some time looking through the posts here you'll find it's not that uncommon for agents to suggest revisions before making an offer. Listen to what she has to say, then revise and resubmit. Take it as a good sign. Fingers crossed for you!

Thank you. I'm trying so hard to put a positive spin on it, but the overall tone of the email was so suggestive of rejection I can't help but feel rather down about it all. I guess you're right about it being a good sign though. I'll put on my happy hat and get to workin'.

incognitopress · Apr 5, 2010

Even if it's a long shot, I would dust off my feathers, get on my knees and apologize profusely to Agent # 1.....sure, they might say "thanks but no thanks", or they might not!
Tell them you felt rushed, backed into a corner, you're inexperienced, etc etc, and you feel really bad but you'd really like to go with them after all.....and see what they say.

The issue is, they "got" your vision. Agent no. 2 didn't. So instead of reworking my ms to death to fit her vision (and no guarantee or even a promise of a contract, right?), I'd keep to the original and see if the people who appreciated it to begin with might be inclined to forgive me my newbie writer stupidity and take me back after all. DO NOT fall into the trap of reworking your book over and over again to suit someone who doesn't offer representation to begin with.

Forget your pride - just do it. There's no shame in sucking up in this case.

cate townsend · Apr 5, 2010

incognitopress said:
The issue is, they "got" your vision. Agent no. 2 didn't. So instead of reworking my ms to death to fit her vision (and no guarantee or even a promise of a contract, right?), I'd keep to the original and see if the people who appreciated it to begin with might be inclined to forgive me my newbie writer stupidity and take me back after all. DO NOT fall into the trap of reworking your book over and over again to suit someone who doesn't offer representation to begin with.

Forget your pride - just do it. There's no shame in sucking up in this case.

If cspradbery agrees that the revisions Agent #2 suggested will make the book better, then it's in his/her best interest to go this route. Even if the agent doesn't end up offering, the writer walks away with a better product. Sounds like a great opportunity to me.

incognitopress · Apr 5, 2010

Actually, cate, I disagree.
It seems to me that the original MS has gotten the OP lots of attention already, and one offer. Imo, if Agent 2 was really interested in the book and saw its potential, she would be more forthcoming about potential representation.
Too many writers have taken a good story, turned it on its head, spent months rewriting the heck out of it in order to make it "better", aka please a non-committal someone who still declines representation, and some other agent down the line asked for something closer to the original ms.

I'm not saying Carla shouldn't talk to Agent 2 over the phone, since she offered to discuss the book, and potentially create a separate doc revision to attract this agent, IF she agrees with the proposed changes. However, cutting down on POV's and characterization sounds like fairly radical stuff. I wouldn't be willing to do it unless I was certain that representation was being offered.

In my case, the agents took me out, chatted with me, generally discussed proposed changes (nothing radical - mainly cutting down the word-count), and offered representation. AFTER the contract was signed, I was emailed a 2-page list with proposed corrections - again, nothing huge, just a trim here and there. That's what I mean about the vision - they told me they loved what I was doing, and they "got" it.

Some books need more work than others, of course. But if you have several agents interested in your work, and they're more or less similar in works sold, track record, etc - I'd always pick the one who "gets" my book. Period.

cate townsend · Apr 5, 2010

incognitopress said:
Too many writers have taken a good story, turned it on its head, spent months rewriting the heck out of it in order to make it "better", aka please a non-committal someone who still declines representation, and some other agent down the line asked for something closer to the original ms.

In that case, Carla should keep the original version as a separate doc like you suggested.

As for sucking it up and going back to Agent #1, that would not be in Carla's best interest, because she'd already expressed her hesitation about signing with him prior to hearing from Agent #2. Also, maybe Agent #2 likes to get a feel for working with potential clients by seeing how willing they are to shape their MS into a saleable one, which, in an agent's case, is the bottom line.

stormie · Apr 5, 2010

You said Agent #1 has a track record of only selling to small publishers. Most times a writer can go that route without an agent. Glad you took the time to think about this agent. Agent #2 wouldn't bother even wanting to talk to you if she weren't interested. Also, she's not jumping on the ms. like agent #1, and it might need more work. Agent #1 might have just sent it out the way it is. Agent #2 could ultimately say no to repping you, but I doubt it. If she does say no, you had only sent out 15 queries. Not bad!

Let us know how the phone call goes.

ETA: Yes, keep a copy of the original version if you do revisions.

cspradbery · Apr 5, 2010

Thanks for the advice everyone, i'm feeling much happier about the whole thing. I agree with the previous two posters - I don't think i'll be going back to agent 1 because I don't feel it would be in my best interest. Also, as mentioned above, there is no reason why I should not be able to personally approach the smaller publishing houses should the need arise (although everything crossed it won't come to that!). I do believe that agent number 2 could help me turn my MS into something sellable, so I shall be poised with pen and paper when I call her tomorrow. Even if she ultimately rejects, hopefully I will end up with a much stronger MS. I have already started to make notes on how I can flesh out some of my characters. I will let you all know what happens tomorrow!

cspradbery · Apr 5, 2010

incognitopress said:
Actually, cate, I disagree.
It seems to me that the original MS has gotten the OP lots of attention already, and one offer. Imo, if Agent 2 was really interested in the book and saw its potential, she would be more forthcoming about potential representation.
Too many writers have taken a good story, turned it on its head, spent months rewriting the heck out of it in order to make it "better", aka please a non-committal someone who still declines representation, and some other agent down the line asked for something closer to the original ms.

I'm not saying Carla shouldn't talk to Agent 2 over the phone, since she offered to discuss the book, and potentially create a separate doc revision to attract this agent, IF she agrees with the proposed changes. However, cutting down on POV's and characterization sounds like fairly radical stuff. I wouldn't be willing to do it unless I was certain that representation was being offered.

I think the agent was picking up on some chapters in which the POV switched a couple of times, when in other chapters the POV stays with one particular character. I think i'll leave the omniscient POV to Stephen King! And in terms of characterisation, I think she is saying they need to be fleshed out a bit. When I think of my main antagonist, she is easy to picture - my protagonist however, is still a little bit faceless to me. I know who she is, but I don't think her true colours really shine through in the story.

illiterwrite · Apr 5, 2010

That's exciting. She would not invite you to call and discuss your book if she didn't think it had potential. She wants to talk to you to see if you are open to her changes. And yes, it's a definite "resubmit" scenario if you agree to revise based on her feedback. Good luck!

Oh, help!

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