What's an acceptable Agent response time?

Opinions will differ

Greetings Cowboy,
The agents who did not get back to me in the time promised at least gave me a reason when or why once I asked the status of the mss. And the agent who signed me for dual YA books me got back to me in less than 2 weeks of the promised 3. He said he was a slow reader but 2 weeks worked just fine for me. Recently, he surprised me and requested an adult literary novel of mine. I want him to take his time for I am so grateful to have a chance and of course, him.

People say it takes months sometimes but I honestly believe that if you ask the status of your mss via e-mail or telephone and he is interested in you then he will not mind at all giving you some sort of a time frame.


Good wishes to you. And my honest advice is go with your instincts and call or e-mail asking anything you wish.

Keep writing!

I don't think so

Never assume anything esp. in the publishing world or with an agent or even an editor...
I'd either call or send another e-mail if it were me.
I have been told by agents that "silence hurts" and they had rather not hurt anyone. Maybe he's on vacation or whatever. Sometimes they are bogged down, busy or have a personal crisis like the rest of us in the real world.

I'm a big phone person and I have never had but good luck calling an agent, never. My agent now calls me whenever he takes a notion. Although e-mail is great, I believe the phone is even better. Again, others disagree with this on the board however as always it's your choice.

Never put all hopes then dreams into a single agent unless you are sure it's a deal. Always be on the lookout for the perfect match for your voice and work. I will tell you what I have told others, find an author that you share a kindred spirit with, write a brief hard copy letter or send him an e-mail telling him about yourself and your kindred spirit, ask for his agent's name, etc. They may or may not give it to you, then again, what happened for me was the author forwarded my query to his agent who then contacted me the same day. It was a dream come true for me. I looked back at it all recently and first thought it was 3 days but saw it was about 3 hours after my e-mail query instead. Anyway, the agent requested a sample, etc. That is what did it for me save for prayer amid years of hard work!
Find an author that you share a kindred spirit with and see what happens from there. That is what got me noticed and I am so "in sync" with my agent that it is beyond words.

All good wishes to you.

Keep writing!

cowboy said:

So, I would like to know what his silence means. Should I assume he's not interested in my project?

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Did he give you a timeframe when you originally sent the submission? Does his website provide guidelines on a timeframe for response? You should wait at least a couple of weeks beyond this before contacting him to ask about status.

That's more or less moot, though, since you've already contacted him. I'd give it another couple of weeks, and then contact him again, saying that since you haven't heard from him you're wondering what the status of your submission is. If he still doesn't respond, it's reasonable to assume he probably isn't interested.

Having a partial out to one agent doesn't mean you can't still be querying others.

- Victoria