Average Agent Sale

Unfortunately, there is no average here. It depends on the agent, the book and the market. Some things get jumped on, some things never sell--it's really too early to say. It can depend on the agent's policies too. I know my agent doesn't like to submit to people who take a long time to respond (and some people can take a LONG time to respond). It also depends how well the agent knows the editors, or how well she's known in general, as that will get her higher on the list of submissions. I will say this, though, my agent sent me my rejections so far, and all of them have had comments--even if it's a sentence or two. So, I'm not sure about the no feedback thing.

I agree. All my rejections came with feedback - even if it was only a couple lines (and even though we both agreed that one was BS). Getting that rejection feedback (in my case it was mostly all the same two issues) was helpful to us in figuring out if we should pull the book and revise.

It seems odd to me, not that you're getting rejections, we all get that, but that there's no feedback. Have you made it clear to her that you want to know what reason editors are giving for passing?

Good luck to you and hang in there.

Suzyq, would you mind telling me who your agent is? Perhaps by private message? Because if those rejections were all basic form rejections, without any feedback, then I'm just a little concerned that perhaps your agent isn't as effective as she might be. I could be completely wrong, of course.

Old Hack may have a point. How is your communication otherwise with the agent? Are they reputable? A year and only 7 rejections for a 16-editor round of submissions? And no personalized? That's odd.

On terms of agent sales: One of my published author friends said a year is quick in her opinion. Took her longer. & for others as well. Some authors have sold in weeks, though, which goes to show how subjective this industry is. The time in and of itself tells you very little. The participation of your agent in terms of this submission--is she following up? what is she doing for you while you wait?--is what matters.

suzyq said:

I've been in contract with my agent for one year. She has submitted to 16 publishers and has reported back 7 rejections and claims that the rejections are standard responses with no feedback. Does anyone have an opinion on how long it takes for an agent, on average, to make a sale? I would welcome any comments.

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There is no average. It's all about the individual book. A book an editor loves can sell in a week. A books various editors do not like may never sell. Most fall into this category. Unfortunately, having an agent take on a book never guarantees a sale, and often doesn't even improve the odds of a sale.

Simply put, the first editor who likes the book enough to push it through an acquisition board is going to accept it. The better the agent is at finding good,publishable novels to represent, and the more she knows about individual publishers and editors, the more likely it is that she'll find such an editor fast.

As for feedback, the agent should be showing you the rejections, not just telling you about them. But editorial feedback is generally as useless here as it is anywhere else. Most editors include a line or two of feedback when rejecting something an agent submits, but it's usually polite hot air, and means nothing. It really is just politeness.

If the agent receives real, meaningful feedback, she'll be all over it, and will let you know about it instantly.

But however it goes, there's never an excuse for an agent not passing along the actual rejections for you to read, standard or non-standard, feedback or no feedback.

ashenpetitelie said:

On terms of agent sales: One of my published author friends said a year is quick in her opinion. .

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I cannot begin to tell you how nice that is to hear, as I myself am closing on a year of subs and feeling a touch despondent about it.

I would also like to second the notion that there is no time frame, and that feedback is almost always give on rejections (trust me, I've seen my fair share). But it is usually hot air...like Jamesaritchie said....many includined statements like "great characters and fast paced but I just didn't connect with the story."

I'd second Old Hack - Every pass I received had some specific statements - even if we determined that the statements amounted to a subjective not for me - about the pass.

Now, if it's that none of the passing editors have given constructive comments beyond they just didn't like it enough, that's one ting. But I'd expect some of those editors to have made specific statements.

~suki

Gloria jokingly insists that editors all have a tickler file that they use on a rotating basis, and numbered so they don't send the same rejection to the same agency for different books. That said, many publishers use standard rejection letters, some editors, depending on how much time they have, will give a short critique. Others simple say, "Not for me."

suzyq said:

Thank you for your replies. I'm not having any luck communicating with my agent. After several unanswered emails and phone calls, I finally had my attorney send a letter to terminate our contract. That was two weeks ago, and unfortunately, my agent hasn't responded. (I'm seeing a pattern here). I guess I'll just hang out and see what happens next.

Again, I appreciate all of your responses.

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If you have not done so already, have your attorney ask for a list, in writing, of all of the editors she has contacted on your behalf, a description of the status of the submission and copies of any responses received.

And, if that does not work, I would then contact any supervisory agents in her agency if she has not responded to your efforts.

Good luck.

~suki

This is very sad to hear! I wish you the best of luck in your breakup and in your new agent search. Be sure when looking for your new agent to ask about their game plan for getting your book sold. Most should have one in place already, knowing which editors they will go to and how many at a time. Make sure you know what is going on and that it is something you agree with. If it isn't, keep querying! If one agent said yes to you, another one will too. And the right one will SELL your book.

I'm sorry! I agree with Suki--you may want to contact the agency ceo/president/etc.

Also, ask for the rejections, not just a list--and really, any information that pertains to your book. You should have it anyway.

That's a real shame about the agent not responding ... and yes, I agree that you need to know who she submitted to.

My agent was able to place my book (for translation rights, interestingly enough, not picked up yet in English) very quickly. There were some rejections and he didn't pass them on, perhaps because there were offers being made for foreign rights at the same time.

But he set out for me exactlly who he was sending the ms to so I knew which publishers would be looking at it, when he expected to hear from them and what his plan was, so that I knew what the timelines were.

I think it's worked out really well because knowing what he's doing means I'm not bugging him, and I can let him get on with what he does best. I would find it very difficult to deal with unexplained silences ...

I'm very sorry to hear that your relationship with your agent didn't work out. A year is not a long time to have a book out on submission.
Having said that, I think you made the right decision in terminating the contract. An agent who doesn't respond to phone calls and emails is not a good thing to have.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like this agent was not interested in nurturing you as an author, and instead was just interested in one book, and when that didn't sell straight away, decided to ignore you when she should be giving you updates. Or maybe she was just rude/lazy. Either way, it is a good thing that you can now start searching for an agent that will do you and your career justice. Good luck!

Suzyq, I know how difficult it is to go through a year on sub, then realize it's not working out.

It's imperative that you get that list, not just of the houses that your ms went to, but the names. Another agent won't be able to sell the book without knowing who's already seen it and whether they "passed" on it or not. Editors move around a lot, so even if other agents view it as too shopped right now, eventually they may be able to sell it--if they have those names.

If you haven't already done so, have your attorney (or I believe in most cases you can do this yourself) request that the agent pull any outstanding submissions immediately, unless you are willing to work with this agent (after breaking up with her) once they sell. Check your contract to see what it says about her getting a commission if it sells after you terminate.

Is this agent a member of AAR? If so it may be worth approaching AAR and notifying them of your difficulties

suzyq said:

I don't have much money for additional legal fees, so I'm not sure how far I want to pursue this. I think I'll just wait it out and try my luck with publishing on my own--perhaps to a small press or even e-publishing.

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You can and should keep writing the agent/agency yourself, attempting to get the submission list and what each editor responded. Otherwise, it will be very, very difficult to find another agent for this manuscript. With the sub list, you might have a chance - especially if the agent didn't submit it very much. But without that list, you'll have a hard time snagging another agent.

So, even if you write yourself, try to get the sub list and status.

good luck!

~suki

Do you have something like a small claims court where you live? If so, you can bring a claim against the agent yourself : ask for the return of legal fees paid so far arising from fundamental breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duties (refusing to communicate and failure to provide delivery of all information in the agent's possession relating to the contract) and ask the court to order the information be given to you. Up here, it costs about $ 70 to file, court has jurisdiction up to $ 25K, and lawyers rarely appear ... it's set up for the layperson to act on their own. The agent is unlikely to respond now: my guess is that the lawyer's letter has them scared of being sued, and they may not have done much. Hard to say what the backstory is on that one....

If your agent is legit, she should provide the information you asked for, without you using an attorney. If it hasn't been long since you asked for it, maybe it's too early to be concerned that you won't get it. Perhaps she is just busy/slow/disorganized/asked her overworked assistant to do it, etc. In my opinion, if it's been less than 30 days, I'd assume she just hasn't compiled the information yet. This is assuming you've checked her out and she's a legitimate agent with a reputation to worry about.

Good point, Wordwrestler. The contract terms sound reasonable and professional (eg the 90 day holdover) but it is weird that she's just disappeared and is being non-responsive to everything ...

Sometimes I've found that I personalized things when they weren't personal (eg. you don't hear from someone and assume you've offended them when in fact, they've had an illness to deal with or something completely non-personal. Or as WW points out, she could be swamped).

Is it worth trying to call this woman to see if there's something else going on? Getting a lawyer can sometimes escalate things into a conflict (I know how easily this can happen, as I am a lawyer myself -- here I was, giving advice about Small Claims court, which is really the same thing and not very helpful. You know the old adage: when your only tool is a hammer, everything's a nail).

Might be worth making an overture to see if there's any room to resolve things in a less adversarial way, even if the relationship is truly beyond repair -- maybe a call, email or voice-mail, explaining how sorry you feel that things reached this point and that you would like to be able to wrap things up without any acrimony. Seems to me that both of you probably entered into this relationship with sincere hopes it would work out, and it would be good if there was a way to end it on friendly terms and de-escalate the conflict.

Worth a try.