Two Part Query Question

Part 1: I'm 6 hours ahead of US East Coast, and most of my answers came at the end of the US workday or while I was sleeping.

I can only answer for part 1, as I am not currently represented by an agent. Usually responses to queries from agents happen when I least expect them. In the middle of the day, around noon. I would anticipate emails late at night, but I guess agents read my material during lunch? Very curious to see what others say for both parts.

I couldn't find any pattern to my query responses -- they came in at all times of day, on weekends, whenever. (Oh, but more on Sundays than Saturdays.) I think some agents read them on their phones and just reply whenever, and some save them to do in batches. I do think more rejections came in on Tuesdays/Wednesdays for some odd reason.

My agent took a day to request my full and then two months to read it. I nudged the agents who still had the MS at that point, and most of them hadn't yet started it. I'd also gotten some rejections on fulls in the meantime, so those agents were reading faster. Again, I don't think there's much of a pattern. But QueryTracker was very helpful in terms of figuring out patterns for each specific agent I queried. I highly recommend getting the subscription because there's even more data you can access (and drive yourself nuts with).

popmuze said:

I'm taking a little query poll. Based on my years of querying, I find I usually get answers (yea or nay) either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Anyone else identify with this time frame?

Part two: For those who have agents. How long did it take your agent to respond to your original query? And how long did it take from query to pages to an offer of rep.

Click to expand...

1. Got most of my responses when I checked my email in the morning. However, I'm on the Wet coast, so they could be responding mid-morning, New York time.
2. Two days. Received the response in the morning.

For the book I signed with my agent on, I got a response for a full request 8 minutes after sending the query. It was late afternoon. But obviously that was a crazy fast response.

Part 2: The next day for a full request (and I queried by snail mail!! The mail system in the UK is amazing). Two months for revise and resubmit. One week after I resubmitted for offer.

(I should add only one agent wanted a full, just one. But she was amazing, and she loved my work, and that's all it took! )

I got responses at all times of the day and didn't sense any sort of pattern there.

I got a full request from my agent four minutes after sending it. Phone call to offer rep came about two weeks later. (I had some other full requests that came within a few days of querying, and some as far out as five months. The rejections after those requests were mostly in the four to six month range.)

Sounds like the majority received offers shortly after their manuscripts were sent. Should I be worried if it takes them longer than a week after sending mine to get back to me? I know everyone says response times for fulls vary, but hearing how fast people have gotten positive feedback / offers makes me a little nervous.

The thing about getting an offer is that it is an issue of an agent falling in love with a MS (in a businesslike sort of way). The agent who wants to offer on your MS is probably going to have a gut reaction of "Oh, yes!" when they read it. Even if no one else has had that same response.

But that doesn't mean that every agent will respond immediately if they want to offer. Schedules may prevent them from looking at it for several weeks or even months. They might have other stuff going on that prevents them from scheduling a call right away. Some agents work in groups where they all review MSs before making an offer. Etc. So just because you've not heard back from someone right away doesn't mean they won't read it and love it.

My agent responded that fast because I happened to catch him during lunch time (which is when he typically sorts through his email and reviews queries) so he read it as soon as he got it and asked to see the full MS.

In general, enthusiasm and quick response is a good sign, but you should always remember that agents are busy people so just because they don't get back to you immediately does not mean they aren't enthusiastic. (Until you get a rejection, that is. I got almost 200 of those before I got an offer of rep and my agent was one of the last I queried (due to a misunderstanding about which genres he reps) so stick with it.)

Aggy B. said:

But that doesn't mean that every agent will respond immediately if they want to offer. Schedules may prevent them from looking at it for several weeks or even months.

Click to expand...

This. My agent apologized for taking so long to read my MS and said she just hadn't had the time to pick it up. I know plenty of people whose agents have taken 6+ months to offer. It really just depends on the person and the timing, and trying to read too much into it will drive you crazy.

Most agents read queries before or after work, or on their lunch breaks. It's not a part of their paid work for their agency, as prospective clients aren't actual clients. So, early morning, late night, and in the afternoon is about right in *most* cases. Having said that, there's no pattern to hold to. In one case, I had an agent request a MS within minutes because it hit her inbox as she was opening her email and she clicked on it "just 'cuz," even though she had a 2-3 month queue.

Sometimes weird things happen.

My agent took over a month to request a full. I wasn't expecting any response at that point.

But after that, she read it in a week or two, IIRC, and has been a quick reader/responder ever since. So you just can't be sure about this stuff. Most of my full requests have come quickly, so I tended to give up on queries after a few weeks. In this case I was pleasantly surprised.