Summer Slump?

I think this refrain is probably exaggerated. I, too, have heard that things slow down, especially in August, but I doubt an entire industry would put on the brakes simply because people want some beach time. You might miss a specific agent, or editor, for a week here or there, but not for the duration.

My agent is submitting now, and will continue to do so, through the summer months. I say go for it!

Well...I was represented in July...I queried WMA in June...I really think if your writing is good and your premise is good...

I just signed recently too with an agent - Orion's right - if the writing's is good - that's all that matters.

I'd best get on it, just in case...!

I've heard of the summer slump and that agents are slow to respond but I've never heard anything about them not being interested in new author's because it's summer and they don't want to consider anything at that time.

As far as landing an agent, there is not much of a slowdown. Some agents will be on vacation while others won't.

Where the slowdown actually takes place is especially in the larger imprints. Here's the main reason. Normally nowadays, you may get one editor who champions your novel at the imprint, but there's a whole committee of editors and others that has to read and approve whether to take it to the next level (usually an offer). And a lot of the time, one or more of these editors, or someone else at the next level, is on vacation at one point or another from, say, mid-July to Labor Day. Your book may be making the rounds among the editors who are there, but the chances of a decision being made are nearly nil. They may leave one editor in charge in the event of an important auction and do some quick work via a teleconference to cover it, but in the normal submission process, very few decisions are made until everyone's back.

It's absolutely true, and if you've ever been to New York City in August, you'd understand why. I encountered this very same phenomenon last summer.

I've read that even though the agents are at work, they are hot and miserable and so harder to please. Miss Snark eluded to this in one of her posts.

This is one of the things I want to answer with QueryTracker.net. If all writers add their query info to to this database, we can look for trends such as "are there more rejections in the summer months?" and answer the question once and for all (and many more, I hope).