Etiquette re: my new agent

Different agents work at different paces. It's possible she has other manuscripts to read, not to mention contracts to work on and other daily job requirements. She's already put a lot of time into your manuscript, so it's unlikely she's blowing you off. Give it time.

If you haven't already, you can also check our Bewares & Background Checks sub-forum for this particular agent/agency. Posters often leave information about response times and experiences with agents. It's likely you just have an agent who is slower to respond.

That doesn't sound long to me. If she said she'd get to it in "a couple of weeks" and a month has gone by, that's nothing.

You can email her to ask for a brief status update, but I wouldn't get too antsy just yet.

She signed you before reading the huge rewrite? That's extremely unusual, so I have no idea what she's doing, or how much time it will take.

You should be working on your next book anyway.

Seriously. Don't put your writing process on hold while you wait for feedback from agents (or editors, or the public).

Fae,

Just curious--did check her out at Preditors and editors? I ask, because I don't think most agents sign you on until after they have seen such a large rewrite.

Good luck, Fae! Let us know how it goes.

My situation was similar. After signing the contract, I did one rewrite that the agent got to a month or two after I submitted it, and another one that took five months before she got back to me. It was longer than I wanted but there were reasons for it. Try not to worry!

Hi Fae. Waiting is hard, especially when we run into the holidays.
Your agent has a life and this time of year is crazy.
You've succeeded where many of us have not yet...you have an agent!
I agree with the others, work on another project and let your agent have the time she needs.
At least, as a client, you are ahead of all the querys and the slush pile.
Relax a bit and know that the extra time will be to your benefit.

This is not out of the ordinary. My agent usually has a lot of rewrites for me, and it sometimes takes her a while to read because her plate is always full. You can always ask her where you're at in her stack (mine tells me if I ask).

I checked in a few times during the wait and was just told they weren't done with it yet. The agency didn't initiate contact with me until they were ready to talk. At the beginning of the phone call she said they wanted to give it some space before reviewing it, to be able to look at it with a fresh perspective. (That's fair, but it might have been easier to wait if I'd known that's what they were doing...)

As for whether the comments were worth the wait... yes in the sense that they were happy with the revision. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, they didn't think it was a good time to try selling it, which was of course disappointing (and may have had something to do with why it took so long for them to get back to me in the first place!) The whole situation might have been easier to deal with if I'd been focusing on and excited about something new the entire time I was waiting, but like you I didn't want to divert my attention too much, in case another rewrite was needed.

If it were me, I would wait to contact your agent until after the holidays, since this is a busy time. When I was waiting, I would always tell myself I'd wait until X date before emailing them... and then when that deadline came, I usually just reset it and said I'd wait until another date. They hadn't forgotten about me, and in retrospect I don't think emailing them more often would have helped at all. Maybe if you haven't heard anything a few weeks into January you could send a note wishing a happy new year and ask about the status.