Is it time to switch agents?

There's another thread almost identical to this if you look down the page a bit.

I don't think anyone can tell you what to do about it. I don't know who the agent in question is, or really what the situation is between the two of you.

I can tell you that I had similar problems with my agent and we parted ways over a year ago. It sucked, but I'd become so disillusioned with her and she wouldn't even read the revisions on the one novel she'd agreed to represent, that I knew it was the right thing.

My guess is the other agents won't be interested in that novel anymore. Though by all means you should contact them, it's highly unlikely to hurt and even if they're not interested anymore, renewing the contact is likely to work in your favour for future projects. I experienced the same thing, once a novel's been shopped around a bit it loses its lustre.

It took me most of a year to get back to novel writing and I'm just getting the first queries out now, so I'll let you know how that pans out.

Can you call him? I would see if there was some way you could chat with him and see where his head is. If you no longer feel like this is the best agent for you, it is probably best to part ways when the contract ends.

As for contacting the other agents...it would depend on how long it's been and how many editors have seen the story. If you did get another agent for the story, you would need a list of all the editors who've already seen your novel.

If he's reluctant to communicate with you, doesn't submit your work anywhere unless you prod him, and doesn't seem enthusiastic about your work any more then you'd probably be better off with a different agent.

Don't be frightened of losing this one: if others offered you representation then you must have a marketable book. Get a list of all editors and publishers who have seen your first novel then part ways with him as amicably as possible, and once that's done send a query for your next book to the other agents who offered. Remind them that they were interested in your first novel, let them know it's been submitted, but that it has not yet sold and you no longer have an agent.

That's a bit long-winded, but I hope you get the gist.

Enthusiasm is critical. Do you have a list of all the submissions your agent has made? If not, you need to get it. I asked my agent to keep me up to date on every sub and every response, and he was great with that. (I'd go nuts not knowing, being a compulsive record keeper.)

My agent has also read every draft I've sent him within a week. Two months, and you've had no word on the new MS? Too much in my opinion. Too indicative of a loss of enthusiasm.

I agree that you need a straight out answer from this agent about where the two of you stand. If you ask for one and don't get it by the expiration date, or aren't satisfied by what you do get, I'd say it's time for goodbye.

As for the other agents who were interested. I'd say the way to contact them is to send them your new MS (the one they haven't seen.) Remind them of their offers of rep on the previous MS. This way you're giving them a fresh start with you (the new, unsubbed MS.) They might also want to sub the previous MS, for which you'll need that list of where it's been.

Good luck!

Every author/agent relationship is different. My agent isn't a hand-holder, so I might not hear back for months on end. But I've learned she's working in the background, even though it might not feel like it. The "quiet time" has resulted in lots of great deals for me over the years.

My advice is to be honest. Send an email with something like "I'm concerned" in the subject line, saying you're worried he's gotten disillusioned with the manuscript and asking if he'd rather you looked elsewhere for representation. Give him a chance to make it right before you go looking on the sly. JMHO, but I've seen quiet inquiries to other agents become quickly not so quiet and feelings can get hurt (yes, even in business relationships.)

What Old Hack said.

You're better off on the query treadmill than with an agent who is unenthusiastic or uncommunicative. And you said you had other offers before, so don't panic, I'm sure someone will snap you up

Berlu said:

For all you agents out there, how inclined are you to take on a client and a book who's already been shopped around? Like Drachen Jager says, I'm afraid my old ms. will been seen as "used goods"

Click to expand...

Not very inclined, particularly if by shopped around you mean more than 5 or 6, and never went to acquisitions or resulted in revision requests (which you then did, but hadn't yet shopped the revised version.)

I've had 2 or 3 recently where I requested it and THEN the writer mentioned it had been shopped, so i asked for the list. It was 12-13 in two recent cases, and in both the previous agent had hit the high notes. As far as I could tell, no one on that list had taken it to acquisitions or asked for revisions.

It's not that at 12 or 13 you're out of options. It's that you're probably halfway through, and some of your BEST options were on that list and didn't click with it. If I think the editors who would've been most likely to jump all over it already passed, then the next 12 or 13, I likley have a variety of reasons for choosing them but not always in the "This person is PERFECT for this book" kind of compelling way.

As an agent, I prefer that I take on a person with a new project who happens to also have an older book that has made a round or two, and we can hopefully make use of the older book as an option book or a back up plan.