Is it time to remind the agents I exist?

You're nearly at the 4 month mark; it's fine to send a polite status query.

It's the three month mark since the January 21 conference, and not quite that yet.

Is it you query letter or partial/full manuscript you are waiting to hear on?

Did you actually give these agents your query and/or manuscript at the conference, or send/email it to them later?

If it's been three months on a full or partial, I would definitely send a polite nudge. For a query letter, I'd figure no response meant no and move on. Keep in mind three months is not that long anyway.

Ditto the above.

Susan Littlefield said:

I'd figure no response meant no and move on.

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I would see what you can find out before making this assumption, though. It's usually not too hard, given sources like AW's B&BC forum and querytracker to find out if the agent in question is a "No answer means no" or if they just forgot your stuff.

Luis said:

Well, I'm ready to get the bad news and get on with the business of self publishing.

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How many agents have you queried? How many books have you written? How much do you want a commercial book deal?

If you are going into self-publishing with your eyes open, that's OK. But it's not the magic bullet that people seem to think. It's hard work, at least if you want to succeed - just like landing a book deal in commercial publishing!

Susan Littlefield said:

If it's been three months on a full or partial, I would definitely send a polite nudge. For a query letter, I'd figure no response meant no and move on. Keep in mind three months is not that long anyway.

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I'd probably wait another month before sending a nudge.

But yeah, if it's a no response for a query, then it means "no."


And how many agents have you queried? Why give up so soon? Maybe there's something wrong with your query? Have you posted it in Query Letter Hell for a critique. If something is not working, maybe it's not your book but the query itself. It's good to fix that before giving up altogether.