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- Mar 5, 2014
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Hello,
I have a fairly new agent. She's great in all things (communication, subbing me to great houses, her editorial feedback, her friendliness, etc.), *except* for the fact that she is unwilling to nudge editors more than every 6 months. This unwillingness to nudge is reflected in our response rates... after about 5 months on sub, we have only 3 passes, and are waiting to hear back from 17 editors (after two rounds of sub). It might be worth noting that she has sold other clients' books, but all very quickly (so people have either sold within a month or two, or not at all).
I've heard that editors actually *want* to be nudged more frequently (as in, every month or two). If the agent doesn't nudge that much, editors get the sense that the project isn't hot. And then the MS sinks in their inboxes.
A few sources:
Now that we're approaching the six month mark with the round 1 editors, I've tried asking about nudging, but she just gives me vague responses and changes the topic. I think she's worried that she'll annoy editors and ruin her reputation or something.
So how can I convince her that nudging editors every 4-8 weeks is something she should be doing? I really don't want to have to tell her how to do her job, yet I don't want to have to part ways with her because she's not aggressive enough. I feel like this could be a really fixable thing... I'm just not sure the most tactful way to go about this without making her upset. Any ideas?
Thank you!
I have a fairly new agent. She's great in all things (communication, subbing me to great houses, her editorial feedback, her friendliness, etc.), *except* for the fact that she is unwilling to nudge editors more than every 6 months. This unwillingness to nudge is reflected in our response rates... after about 5 months on sub, we have only 3 passes, and are waiting to hear back from 17 editors (after two rounds of sub). It might be worth noting that she has sold other clients' books, but all very quickly (so people have either sold within a month or two, or not at all).
I've heard that editors actually *want* to be nudged more frequently (as in, every month or two). If the agent doesn't nudge that much, editors get the sense that the project isn't hot. And then the MS sinks in their inboxes.
A few sources:
- http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2008/02/waiting-to-hear-back-from-your-agent-on.html
- http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-to-find-out-if-your-agent-is-idiot.html
- http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2014/11/an-epic-post-about-submission-process.html
- Conversations I've had with a couple editor friends.
Now that we're approaching the six month mark with the round 1 editors, I've tried asking about nudging, but she just gives me vague responses and changes the topic. I think she's worried that she'll annoy editors and ruin her reputation or something.
So how can I convince her that nudging editors every 4-8 weeks is something she should be doing? I really don't want to have to tell her how to do her job, yet I don't want to have to part ways with her because she's not aggressive enough. I feel like this could be a really fixable thing... I'm just not sure the most tactful way to go about this without making her upset. Any ideas?
Thank you!