Hi all, I'm catching up on the thread. Lots of things happening, which is great to see after the summer slowdown. Very quickly...
utesfanami - Good luck with your new manuscript. I'm sorry the last submission didn't go well, but keep hope. You never know what order your work will get published in.
MercyMe - I know all about the long wait for comments. The waiting is so hard, isn't it?
Carrie - Good luck with your queries. Hopefully responses will pick up now that summer vacations are over. It sounds like you're being very focused and targeted, so it will just be a matter of finding the perfect fit.
Elle - Congrats on the cover! Double congrats because you love it.
Fuchsia - I think you need to write the story inside you. If that's upmarket, character-driven work, so be it. I'd totally read that!
Harlequin - Congrats on your first blurb. That's so exciting!
Raggy - That's great that your agent loves your new manuscript, especially after your very long wait. Good luck with the edits. At least you agree with the feedback.
Putputt - Okay, you can't say, but ... yay?! Sounds like you've got great things cooking.
A.P.M. - Good luck with your submission round!
To everyone here, thank you so much for the condolences for my husband. It's been a pretty gut-ripping year, but I know I'm not alone in that. Nearly everyone I know has experienced major loss and tons of change.
After six months of waiting for edits from my agent, I fired her last week. Before I did, I spoke with the director of my MFA program, who confirmed that six months is far too long for a client to wait for a read. It is not at all the norm. He said even three months is a long time.
So she either has way too many clients, didn't care for my manuscript but couldn't bring herself to cut me, or liked my manuscript idea but wanted significant changes and thus was procrastinating on getting back to me, or had no idea what the hell to do with it. However I slice it, something was going on that was indeed unfair to me.
I was getting radio silence between my patient, polite nudges. And when she would respond, even though she was always prompt, she never gave any indication that she was reading, that she liked what she'd read so far and just needed more time, or anything like that. Meanwhile, my friend who's her shiny new client has had significant back and forth with her in email, multiple calls, via phone and Zoom, and got a mention in a Poets & Writers article due to her coordination of it, etc. So I had clear evidence of how she was actively working with other writers. And I know my novel is equally as good as my friend's. We're critique partners.
The other thing, and I'm putting this here in case it helps someone, is that I checked my agency's contract. If one of their agents provides editorial feedback, whether in a letter, a call or line comments, they reserve the right to commission for that work, regardless of who sells it or whether the final version of the work conforms to the suggested edits.
So if my agent had commented on my manuscript, in theory, if she had wanted to, they could have forced me to stick with the agency for the entire submission process. Or they could have tried to take the commission for a sale my future agent might make. That made the decision to cut ties very easy. It seemed like a now-or-never thing.
So, long story short, I'm back in the query trenches (Hi, Carrie!), and I'm excited about it. On to Agent #3. Now, I can hopefully get my head into my next novel and also maybe a memoir.
