Can we ignore "exclusive submission"?

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
Okay, so I know back in the day the advice was pretty much, "It's ridiculous to ask for an exclusive submission on a query so just send it to whoever." I found an agency that I was considering, though, that says they want exclusive submissions and if you've submitted elsewhere not to send it to them. I'm probably going to just cross them off my list, but I wondered if the advice was the same in case I come across this again. What are your thoughts, AW?
 
  • Wow
Reactions: capricornair

Unimportant

As subtle as a brick in a sock.
Staff member
Administrator
Super Moderator
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 8, 2005
Messages
23,536
Reaction score
30,248
Location
Aotearoa
Okay, so I know back in the day the advice was pretty much, "It's ridiculous to ask for an exclusive submission on a query so just send it to whoever." I found an agency that I was considering, though, that says they want exclusive submissions and if you've submitted elsewhere not to send it to them. I'm probably going to just cross them off my list, but I wondered if the advice was the same in case I come across this again. What are your thoughts, AW?
Well, in practice, there's nothing to stop you. The internet isn't going to refuse to send your submission because it knows you've submitted elsewhere.

It's up to you to consider the cost/benefit.

Benefit: It's one more agent getting eyeballs on your work, one more agent who might be The One that offers representation. Cost: If you get past the auto-reject stage and they're seriously considering offering rep, are they going to find out you've subbed elsewhere (since agents talk to each other, like people in every other industry)? What then? Will they decide they won't offer representation two minutes before that coveted phone call to you? Put you on their personal No Way Ever Ever Until Eternity list? Tell other agents you in effect lied when you submitted to them against their restrictions and that they too should avoid you?
 

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
Don't think I would want to be represented by an agency that is so unreasonable.
This was why I didn't send the query haha. I was annoyed by the presumption. But I remember back in the day agents used to say, "Just send it anyway" and so I wondered.
 

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
What, if anything, are they offering in return? Fast turnaround? Lower fees? Writers you trust who love working with them?

If nothing, I’d avoid.
I'm sure they're so absolutely amazing and the best literary agency in existence and that any author who would send to someone else first is clearly misguided and not an author they would choose to work with.

Unimportant--this seems like it would be a problem to me, too. If you got an actual offer and had to say, "BTW, I need to contact the other people with the manuscript," are they going to just say, "Okay, no biggie, we figured you were sending to other people anyway," or are they going to say never mind because you didn't follow the rules? Like you said, might get your manuscript in front of eyes at a good agency, but it just seems like a poor way to start the relationship, too.
 

Janine R

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 19, 2022
Messages
4,195
Reaction score
10,302
Location
West Coast Canada
This was why I didn't send the query haha. I was annoyed by the presumption. But I remember back in the day agents used to say, "Just send it anyway" and so I wondered.
I suppose you could reveal in your query letter that you have submitted elsewhere which might obviate the risk of Unimportant’s doomsday scenario of having a representation offer yanked away on discovery of your multiple submission treachery.
 

Lakey

professional dilettante
Staff member
Super Moderator
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 20, 2017
Messages
3,243
Reaction score
5,361
Location
New England
I'm sure they're so absolutely amazing and the best literary agency in existence and that any author who would send to someone else first is clearly misguided and not an author they would choose to work with.

Unimportant--this seems like it would be a problem to me, too. If you got an actual offer and had to say, "BTW, I need to contact the other people with the manuscript," are they going to just say, "Okay, no biggie, we figured you were sending to other people anyway," or are they going to say never mind because you didn't follow the rules?
I suspect they've created this rule because they've been dinged in the past by extending offers to writers who are using the offer for leverage with other agencies, and don't want it to happen again. It's part of the business and probably most agents just live with it when it happens, but maybe this particular agency had a particularly nasty burn and is smarting from it.

In my day job, I once extended an offer to a candidate who turned me down in favor of a job in the state where she lived (the job I offered would have required her to move across country). This, despite the fact that she had explicitly told us that she wanted to move away from her state. She either lied to us, or changed her mind -- either is possible. But it's not hard to imagine that she used our job offer for leverage either to speed up the other company's process, or get a better offer from them. It stings to know you're someone's second choice. It sucked, it wasted a ton of my and my team's time, and I wouldn't want to experience it again if there were any way to avoid it.

So, I get where this agency might be coming from, even if it isn't the industry norm. By the time you extend an offer to someone -- and this is true of agents as well -- you've already invested a lot in them, both in the time you've taken to consider them and the emotional investment of getting excited about working with someone new.

:e2coffee:
 
Last edited:

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
I suspect they've created this rule because they've been dinged in the past by extending offers to writers who are using the offer for leverage with other agencies, and don't want it to happen again. It's part of the business and probably most agents just live with it when it happens, but maybe this particular agency had a particularly nasty burn and is smarting from it.

In my day job, I once extended an offer to a candidate who turned me down for a job in the state where she lived (the job I offered would have required her to move across country). This, despite the fact that she had explicitly told us that she wanted to move away from her state. She either lied to us, or changed her mind -- either is possible. But it's not hard to imagine that she used our job offer for leverage either to speed up the other company's process, or get a better offer from them. It stings to know you're someone's second choice. It sucked, it wasted a ton of my and my team's time, and I wouldn't want to experience it again if there were any way to avoid it.

So, I get where this agency might be coming from, even if it isn't the industry norm. By the time you extend an offer to someone -- and this is true of agents as well -- you've already invested a lot in them, both in the time you've taken to consider them and the emotional investment of getting excited about working with someone new.

:e2coffee:
This is interesting. My husband and I work in academia and he's been told explicitly that he needs to apply to jobs elsewhere so that he can use that as leverage to get a raise or promotion. The idea, I guess, is that your current institution will give you a raise or promotion to keep you from leaving, but if they refuse, you can always take the other position instead. But he has been told this is the norm and the expectation at universities and the understanding is, as I get it, that the ideal situation is not taking the new job.

But I also see how this could be a massive issue, especially if you are paying someone to come for interviews if they aren't actually planning to go with you.

It's interesting that this could be seen the same way in publishing. I have two or three agents I'm not sure if I'll ever hear back from on a full unless I go to them with an offer. I wouldn't be trying to get that offer unless I was really willing to consider it, but I could also see someone thinking that if I went with someone else, I was just using them for a boost from someone more desirable, especially knowing some agents ghost us on fulls.
 

Brigid Barry

Crazy horse person
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 22, 2012
Messages
11,270
Reaction score
20,532
Location
Maine, USA
To Lakey's point, I have seen the (godawful, despicable, insert adjectives here) advice on Twitter (back in the good old days) that if you get an offer from an agent, hurry up and cold query the agents you REALLY want to work with and see if they make an offer too! When I got a publishing offer I actually heard back from an agent that had originally ghosted me. Offers are taken seriously.

Because queries are a dime a dozen and close to 100% of them get rejected, my fragile brain can't wrap my head around an exclusive *query* submission. What is their turnaround time? Do you give them the full MS up front? As was asked upthread, what's the benefit to you having only one query out until they can be arsed to get back to you?

The only way I would consider just sending it anyway is if they are your #1 dream agent who, no matter what, would be your choice no matter how many offers you get or from whom. The risk being that if you get an offer from somewhere else you have egg on your face (because you really would have to let them know) and they'll most likely reject you regardless at that point.
 

Mevrouw Bee

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 27, 2022
Messages
2,035
Reaction score
2,170
Location
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Okay, so I know back in the day the advice was pretty much, "It's ridiculous to ask for an exclusive submission on a query so just send it to whoever." I found an agency that I was considering, though, that says they want exclusive submissions and if you've submitted elsewhere not to send it to them. I'm probably going to just cross them off my list, but I wondered if the advice was the same in case I come across this again. What are your thoughts, AW?
You saw that post on r/pubtips too yesterday, eh?

So far, I've seen two agencies use that "exclusive" language. The agency mentioned in the post, I can state for the record, sent me a form rejection in 9 days when I queried them 3 years ago, so at least they don't ghost.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kaitie

Nether

is working on something super-secret
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 23, 2021
Messages
7,780
Reaction score
16,994
Location
New England
Personally, I've been saving agents asking for exclusive submissions on queries for the very, very end. At that point, it's indeed exclusive -- because I don't have anybody else to query at the moment.

And, considering I've only seen maybe one or two places asking for exclusivity on a query, they might be able to take their time on that.
 

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
You saw that post on r/pubtips too yesterday, eh?

So far, I've seen two agencies use that "exclusive" language. The agency mentioned in the post, I can state for the record, sent me a form rejection in 9 days when I queried them 3 years ago, so at least they don't ghost.
I didn't, actually, but now I'm going to go look!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mevrouw Bee

kaitie

With great power comes
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
11,402
Reaction score
3,507
Just a weird coincidence that this was mentioned twice in as many days!
It's funny how that happens. This was a different agency but I'm not going to name it. If I found the one you mean, they do exclusives on the full? I'm not entirely sure how that works or how it can be required because I have other fulls out. Is it just a preferred thing that can be refused, or would they actual not consider you if you couldn't give an exclusive on a full? Because that seems kind of crazy to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mevrouw Bee

Mevrouw Bee

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 27, 2022
Messages
2,035
Reaction score
2,170
Location
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
It's funny how that happens. This was a different agency but I'm not going to name it. If I found the one you mean, they do exclusives on the full? I'm not entirely sure how that works or how it can be required because I have other fulls out. Is it just a preferred thing that can be refused, or would they actual not consider you if you couldn't give an exclusive on a full? Because that seems kind of crazy to me.
I agree. I think it's a holdover from the olden days of putting manuscripts in the post (ie, before my time!).

I've only found two that request this. If you haven't found the same one as I did, then you found the other one!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lakey