What time did your agent say...

gettingby

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I have only recently started looking for an agent and the few queries I have sent out are all by email. Because of this I find myself hitting refresh on my email all day (and some of the night). OK, maybe I am starting to sound a little nuts, but I just want to know my email is getting through and perhaps a little attention. So I am wondering from all of you what time of day agents seem to respond the most to you? Does good news come in the morning most of the time? Do you get late night rejections? I thought it would be fun to see if there seems to be any pattern out there.
 

Prickly Pear

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It seems to me good news often comes in the morning, early in the week (Monday or Tuesday). That's when I usually got most of my requests. I imagine a lot of agents catch up on their reading over the weekends.

I got "the call" on a Monday morning, before 10. :)
 

RoccoMom

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i find most of them send out rejections and requests late at night, so you have them the next morning. some of them send them during the day. I guess it depends on the agent's work schedule.
 

Kasey Mackenzie

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I got "the call" from the first agent around 11:00 a.m. my time (noonish NY time) on a Monday (after having emailed the full to her on Sunday...I am still HIGHLY flattered by that!) and after speaking with that agent that evening, I emailed/called the other agents with material the next day and gave them until Friday to respond. I got "the call" from the second agent, who I ultimately signed with, around 11:30 a.m. that Friday. So both were late morning/early afternoon calls.

Still, two agents is hardly enough to judge a pattern by. *grin*
 

Nakhlasmoke

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I never got the call. :(

I think it's because I live on a pimple on the arse-end of the world.

Seriously though, I'm putting it down to the cost of long-distance calls.
 

ORION

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I got a response to my email 40 minutes after I sent it. My agent called to chat one afternoon and I got the call to offer representation at 5:30 am
(That was because I live in Hawaii and no one knew the time difference LOL) I didn't mind. I also got the call that my book was going to auction at 5 am.
That one I DEFINITELY didn't mind...The day of the week didn't seem to matter.
 

gdaniel

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Well, I'm an agent, and I do all my query reading first thing in the mornings and respond then.

By the way, it's almost as much fun making the call with good news as I imagine it is receiving it.
 

JennaGlatzer

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Thanks for weighing in, Mr. Daniel. Glad you've joined us. Let me know when you're ready for me to inundate you with questions about what it's like to make the crossover from the publishing side to the agenting side. :)
 

gdaniel

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Feel free to fire away with a few questions. I have enjoyed popping on to AbsoluteWrite from time to time to read some of the success stories and whatnot. I figured that I may as well start weighing in every once in a while to give an agent's perspective. There are a number of agents who write blogs (many of which are really good sources of info for writers, by the way), but I just don't have the time to blog regularly, so I figure this is a good place to offer some occasional advice without the weight on my shoulders of regular blogging. How's that for lack of commitment? ;--)
 

gettingby

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I woke up early monday morning, hoping the phone would ring. RING! RING! RING!
 

stormie

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I've had requests for partials or fulls at all hours, day or night. Don't forget, there could be a time-zone difference. I got a phone call from my first agent at around 7PM to discuss my ms. etc. He didn't email first. We're in the same time zone. Now, with this second go-round, again, it's at different times of the day or night. And that's for negative responses to the query or requests for partials or fulls.
 

gdaniel

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Most agents I know, when it's time to consider offering representation, will call and talk to the author. At that point, I need to start seeing how this author and I will interact. This is presumably going to be a longterm relationship, and I want to make sure that not only do I feel comfortable with the author as we're talking, but does he/she feel comfortable with me? I'm looking for rapport, and it's tough to determine that via email.
 

gettingby

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So when are you going to call me? (hehehe)
 

gettingby

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But really, how long does it take you to read a requested proposal? If it came referred to you, do you read it faster?
 

gettingby

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I know what you're saying. I guess I am just going a little crazy. It is starting to feel like that.
 

rachel.moore.hawkins

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Gettingby, I usually heard from agents in the late afternoon/evening. When I got The Call, my agent emailed me at around 2 to ask if I'd be around later for her to make said call. She then called around 5-ish. Needless to say, that was a pretty tense three hours, ha ha!

My biggest surprise was that I got a request for a full at like, 9 on a Tuesday night, and another at around 10 p.m. on a Friday. I was shocked they kept working past 5, since, um.. I don't. ;)