What next

Oh, dear. I am sorry that you are having this experience.

I don't think it would be unreasonable for you to end this agency relationship based on the agent's response time not working for you--seven months is an awfully long time to wait for partial notes!

But then you would be back to looking for an agent, and that's no fun either.

If you want a beta-read, send me a PM; I would be glad to take a look at it and give you this book reviewer's opinion in its current state.

If I were in this situation, I'd probably start looking for another agent. She should have given you notes at the same time she sent you a contract for representation. Then, I can see taking a month or so to read the revision on 50 pages, not several. At this rate, she'll be subbing your book during the next ice age. Whatever you do, don't make any rash decisions. Take some time, talk to people, and listen to your gut. I wish you luck!

It does happen, agents asking for rewrites. BUT to be so vague, only mention the first 100 pp., and string you along for seven months--something just doesn't seem right.

Can you email her to have her call you about it? Talk to her on the phone first, then you can make a good decision whether she's the right agent for you. (Also, look at your contract and what it says about severing ties.)

cate townsend said:

She should have given you notes at the same time she sent you a contract for representation.

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I'm going to disagree with this point. It isn't uncommon for notes to come after the contract is signed, sometimes several months later. New authors don't get first priority for agents, and if another client needs their attention, that client will come ahead of the new, unproven author. Agents have a long list of tasks to complete in a day, and giving notes on a new author's manuscript is not going to come ahead of a lot of things.

However, seven months is a long time to wait for notes on only 100 pages. And this is a tough situation for you, popmuze. Frankly, you should try to set up a phone call with your agent, so you can address these concerns with him/her. It's the only way to know if you both are still on the same page with regards to your novel.

popmuze said:

I've talked to this agent a couple of times; we even had an in person meeting. They have been very difficult conversations. I have a feeling the agent signed up every writer in sight without really reading things through. And now is overbooked. Of course, now I'm thinking, if the agent had read the book carefully the first time, maybe I wouldn't have been asked to sign. This is not a productive way to be thinking. What I'd really like are comments on the entire book before I make my decision. But judging from previous conversations, I'm not likely to get what I want.

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That sounds frightening. Maybe time to have a frank conversation with him/her and a discussion of what you both consider reasonable timeframes?

popmuze said:

I've talked to this agent a couple of times; we even had an in person meeting. They have been very difficult conversations. I have a feeling the agent signed up every writer in sight without really reading things through. And now is overbooked.

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My god this is a nightmare. Was she a new agent filling up her slots?

popmuze said:

But still, this is an agent who seven months ago said she loved my book. She held onto it for seven months and now tells me it's a mess. And I still have no information on the last 200 pages.
So, do I rewrite the first 100 again. Do I try to force the agent to comment on the book as a whole? Do I have any basis to trust this agent?

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Wow. I feel for you, Popmuze, this sucks. This wouldn't be okay with me -- 7 months for revision notes? 4 months alone just to hear what the agent thinks about the first 50 pages? That would be a red flag for me. It's not unreasonable to wait a bit to hear about revisions, but 7 months is way beyond reasonable to me.

You asked if you have any basis to trust this agent... well, I'm not sure. What has he/she sold? Are their other clients happy? From what you've told us, it doesn't sound like his/her time management skills are great. I think you really need to have a heart to heart. Be honest about your expectations. See if they mesh with the agent's. And don't be afraid to walk away if it comes to that. Trust your instincts -- a bad agent can be a worse experience than having no agent at all.

popmuze said:

The usual time frame, assuming I call on Monday is "I'll have it finished by Friday."

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Did you tell her this? And is her idea of a 'fast turnaround' the same as yours? You need to make sure you're both on the same page. She might think a fast turnaround is 3 months.

(which doesn't necessarily excuse your current situation, but still)

Oh man, that stinks. That seems like an awfully long time to wait on revision notes. I don't have any advice since I'm pretty new to the game, but maybe it is time to look around for someone else to rep?

One reason I knew an ex-agent and I were not compatible was that when I sent her (requested) revisions on my manuscript, she took five months to give me feedback - and that was with me emailing her for updates. When I finally made it clear that I was upset about the delay, she told me that she'd found a different problem with the manuscript. By then I wasn't sure how much longer it would take to fix the new problem - resubmission could potentially be years into the future.

I later learned that another client faced the same issues. Thankfully I only went through it with the one book, and learned a lesson about what to ask my next agent.

This is your book. You do not need to do anything you don't feel comfortable with.

I would suggest you figure out where you stand legally and take the appropriate steps to sever ties.

Also, I wouldn't recommend signing with an agent before you've gotten revision notes. I 100% agreed with all that I got, and that confirmed that it was the right choice--if you can't work well together with that person, there's no shame in choosing to go elsewhere.

Ryan_Sullivan said:

Also, I wouldn't recommend signing with an agent before you've gotten revision notes.

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I'm gonna go with Chaos here and say, ime, it's not uncommon to get notes after you sign. Not at all. I never got them upfront. None of my friends who are with agents did. And I don't see it as a red flag. I will disagree about it being okay if it takes several months, however. I've been with two agencies in my lifetime, and the first I only waited days. The second I waited less than two weeks. And again, ime, that seems about typical.

Popmuze, you're far more tolerant and patient than I am. My head would have exploded. Good luck.

Twizzle said:

I'm gonna go with Chaos here and say, ime, it's not uncommon to get notes after you sign. Not at all. I never did. None of my friends who are with agents did. And I don't see it as a red flag. I will disagree about it being okay if it takes several months, however. I've been with two agencies in my lifetime, and the first I only waited days. The second I waited less than two weeks. And again, ime, that seems about typical.

Popmuze, you're far more tolerant and patient than I am. My head would have exploded. Good luck.

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I agree with this too. It took my agent a few weeks to get me notes. I know many more people whose agents gave them notes after signing than before. Although, I did know the couple of bigger changes my agent was going to want from when she first called me, and I do think it's probably a good idea to have at least a bit of a summary of what they had concerns with before you sign, so you'll know if what they want and what you want are going to mesh.

But I also agree that seven months is an excruciatingly long time to wait for only 100 pages of notes. Maybe you need to have a really honest conversation with your agent about this relationship and what needs to be improved.

Ryan_Sullivan said:

Also, I wouldn't recommend signing with an agent before you've gotten revision notes. I 100% agreed with all that I got, and that confirmed that it was the right choice--if you can't work well together with that person, there's no shame in choosing to go elsewhere.

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Ryan has a good point: getting some sort of revision suggestions/notes before you sign is a good indicator of how the agent views your work, and how their vision of your story compares to theirs. This happened with me as well; my first conversation with my agent related mostly to revision suggestions, and I knew right away whether they were suggestions that I felt I could reasonably implement while preserving my overall vision for the story. Also, this can indicate whether you feel the agent understands or "gets" your work.

Like others have said here, it isn't necessary to get revision notes before signing, but I think some sort of discussion regarding a generalized overview of revisions is helpful - in your case, Popmuze, she's asking you to change the MC and plot in ways you think are ridiculous, and if you had known about those earlier, you might have realized sooner it wasn't the best fit. Then again, she didn't come out with these suggestions until later, so it's possible that notes before wouldn't have helped.

It's your book, not the agent's. Rewrite if you wish, don't rewrite if you don't wish, but no writer should wait on an agent, or take anything they say about a rewrite too seriously. Darned few agents out there have the faintest clue about rewriting, and listening to them is the surest way to kill, stall, or lessen a career.

cate townsend said:

Ryan has a good point: getting some sort of revision suggestions/notes before you sign is a good indicator of how the agent views your work, and how their vision of your story compares to theirs < snip >

Like others have said here, it isn't necessary to get revision notes before signing, but I think some sort of discussion regarding a generalized overview of revisions is helpful - < snip>

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This. What Cate said.

My issue was Ryan said don't sign without revision notes. I don't agree with that at all. Yes. Absolutely discuss. Get a clear idea. It should be part of your list of ques for The Call. But requiring the actual full notes? Insist on them? No. You're not a client yet. Why would you insist on that?

And to be honest, after thinking back about this, I think I'd be surprised if an agent actually made that commitment of time (and it's a lot of time and effort), esp away from their actual clients, to write up full editorial notes and offer them to you before you've committed to signing w/them. ESP in a multi-offer situation. I've never had one do it. I don't personally know anyone who has. Though, obviously it does happen as Ryan says that was his exp. I just don't view it as the red flag Ryan believes it to be if they don't, that's all.

An aside, but I'm not sure I'd do it were I an agent? You could end up wasting your time by helping another agent's client-if that writer doesn't sign w/ you. But sorry, that's an aside.

Oh, popmuze. Good thing is you can't explode it again. Win-win. Good luck.

popmuze said:

Anyway, as of today, we're no longer an item.

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Ah, crap. I just saw that. Sorry. *sigh* That sucks.