So I pitched an agent at a Writing Workshop in April of 2015. She wanted me to send her my manuscript exclusively. I agreed. She was excited! By mid June I hadn't heard back so I emailed asking for update. She wrote me back immediately asking me to be patient, that "they were working on notes". I waited somewhat patiently. A couple of weeks ago I emailed again to see if she might still be interested and still wanted an exclusive. "Just checking", I wrote. No reply. I'm not sure what to do. If she's genuinely interested in it and working on notes, I'm ok to wait. But I don't want to wait forever if I can send it out to other agents/publishers. Feels like a long time. 6 months. Is this normal? She seems like a really good agent from a good agency and she seemed genuinely into my story when I pitched it to her. Thanks for any advice.
How long to give an exclusive?
- Thread starter Ms. Bean
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Exclusives - if you ever agree to them, which is questionable - should be short term. Like 2/4 weeks short term. I also got stung with an exclusive way back when who didn't actually reply. Like ever. And this wasn't even a small agency, this was literally the biggest agency in the UK at the time. So I held out hope and waited and waited to no avail.
im not an an agent but I am agented - I learned from my mistakes!
what I would do in your shoes is politely email the agent and tell them you'd still love them to consider your work, but you're withdrawing the exclusivity and querying other agents as well. They won't be offended. This is completely normal behaviour. Also assure them that if anyone else makes an offer you'll be in touch. With any luck it will jump you to the top of the queue, but my experience tells me they won't contact you unless you have a solid offer elsewhere - which you ain't gunna get if you've stopped querying! So query on, soldier!
im not an an agent but I am agented - I learned from my mistakes!
what I would do in your shoes is politely email the agent and tell them you'd still love them to consider your work, but you're withdrawing the exclusivity and querying other agents as well. They won't be offended. This is completely normal behaviour. Also assure them that if anyone else makes an offer you'll be in touch. With any luck it will jump you to the top of the queue, but my experience tells me they won't contact you unless you have a solid offer elsewhere - which you ain't gunna get if you've stopped querying! So query on, soldier!
The only exclusives I've done have been with agents/publishers who requested a specific time frame, usually 2-4 weeks. If you have no other indication, you can always send an email that says, unless they have a specific request, you're withdrawing the exclusive and submitting elsewhere. That should get a response. If not, then it's not really a loss.
Jeff
Jeff
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If they do get offended, well, they're probably not the sort of agent you want. They've had your MS for 6 months on an exclusive. That is a lot longer than any agent should reasonably expect. Like others have said, exclusives are usually granted on a very limited time basis. 2 to 4 weeks max. Reason being there is no guarantee that they would lead to an offer, and you should be maximizing your chances by querying widely.