How long should I wait?

Here's the deal: in early March, I had an email from a small American publisher who said they were interested in publishing one of my books. Since then, I've been contacting agents in the UK and a few in the States. I've had a few of the standard 'not taking on anyone' replies, a few 'no fantasy for us', and some haven't replied at all. One (in London) requested the whole MS after reading the first three chapters which is of course very cool although I was privately hoping for a little more interest than I got.

The thing is, I'm now thinking how long I should wait before figuring agents aren't interested either because it's a small publisher or because they don't like my stuff - and how long I should wait before I get back to the publisher to see if they have any updated news for me.

Any thoughts?

I'm still looking for agents mainly in the UK but am also thinking about getting back to the publisher. As far as I can see, they're legit but small.

stormie said:

Do you have the money to get an attorney versed in literary contracts? It might be that the US publisher is too small (is the advance and royalties worth it for the agent?) for an agent to want to rep you.

Click to expand...

Money? What's that?

I have wondered if the money involved would be too small to interest an agent. It's only been five weeks for the agent who requested my MS and while I obviously didn't expect a particularly quick reply, I'm getting a little doubtful any agent would be/is interested.

stormie said:

Five weeks isn't a long time.

Click to expand...

True. I suppose I thought as I have an offer, it might speed things up a bit.