Revision after 7 months of the full being out

[The_Ink_Goddess]

Hi all!

I'm in what may or may not be a tricky position. I'm currently querying and received a full rejection that was so thoughtful and detailed that I've noticed what I consider to be a big flaw (and the rejecting agent did too).

I sent out a full to another agent after a request in early December. So, 7 months ago. I nudged last week (urgh, terrible timing), just to check she'd received it okay, but didn't happen to hear back...yet. Honestly, she may ghost; have had that happen multiple times before on fulls (sob). But now I've spotted the flaw, I want to fix it. Should I pull the full from consideration after the 7 month mark, or is it too absurdly long and silly to do that? I have considered the possibility that, aside from betas, I haven't received much feedback on this novel yet so the beta I asked was concerned that agent #2 might like exactly what the other agent (and now I) dislike about the full, and that retracting it at this point looks sloppy. What do you guys think? To retract or not to retract? Is the fact that I nudged last week a problem?

 

[Sage]

Here’s my thinking, but I’m no expert. I would leave the full for now. Keep your old version & start the revision, which you are convinced will make for a better book. But until you finish the revision, you don’t really know what your book will look like. You made find that this one change requires others or that the change actually doesn’t work for some reason or whatever.

If 7-month agent hasn’t responded by the time you finish the revision, I’d send a note to them that you made a change based on another agent’s feedback and do they want to see the updated novel(?). This shows that you’ll listen to feedback & do the actual work (because you’ve already done some), & 7+ months isn’t an unreasonable amount of time for you to have changed the novel, so it’s not like you queried too early.

If the agent rejects during the time you’re revising, you have the chance to say that you’re working on revising this specific thing based on agent feedback and do they want to see the revision(?). If they reject with notes or ask for an R&R, you modify your answer based on their notes. If they offer, then you include the revision as part of your discussion with them.

That’s my two cents.