How are exclusives from agents treated?

mkassel said:

Last week, my agent submitted my book to an editor she knows at a big-6 house where she thinks it would be a good match. Ordinarily, I'm a patient person, but I'm turning into a gmail-obsessed nutcase, so I'm wondering if I might expect a response quicker than if my book was a regular submission? Do editors prioritize exclusives from agents they know?

Thank you!

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Honestly, you need to talk to your agent about what exactly she and the editor talked about in terms of timeframe. There is no general treatment across the board and your agent is the best source of what you specifically can expect with regard to this submission.

Talk to your agent

And be patient. Knitting is a good hobby. Painting. Long walks... Or, write something new.

good luck!

~suki

A big-6 publisher had my MS for eight months. Eight. Months. At first it went to one editor. She moved to a new house so it went to another. That editor loved it and took it to committee. In committee, it was given to two other editors to read. One loved it; the other shot it down.

The moral of this story is that it takes as long as it takes to get an answer. Stop checking your email every five minutes and take a deep breath. Sometimes, the trip is fast. Sometimes the trip is agonizingly slow. And either way doesn't mean your MS stands a better chance because it's exclusive than others.

I don't think there's a concrete answer to this, sadly. I agree that you should ask your agent about an estimated timeframe. It could take a week, it could take months. My agents submitted my MS to an editor she's close with for a "weekend exclusive" (aka, my agent gave the editor one weekend to read it and get back to her before she took it elsewhere, and the editor did), so it depends on the relationships, the agent's clout, and about a billion other factors.

I'm sorry, I know the waiting part is terrible!