I was offered an exclusive REALLY fast. Is this common?

ewizz31

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I started querying the first installment of my book series last week. I started on Thursday, received two rejections that day and then by some miracle of the lit gods, I was offered a three week exclusively for the full MS. After some research I decided to take it as I have nothing to lose and no other agents have the full MS.
I sent this agent the first three chapters per the agencies query guidelines around 9:15 a.m. then was offered the exclusive around 5:00 p.m. I know this is a short response time.
I'm assuming this is a good thing?
I'm new to publishing and querying and am not familiar with any of this and had to do a lot of research before I started. Obviously I know this isn't a done deal and don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket, but I feel like this a step in the right direction. It is from a good agency from what I've seen and read about online.
I sent this agent the full MS on Friday which I'm assuming is the start of the exclusive. It expires on February 19. What I'm thinking of doing is giving the agent another week if I don't hear from them, then following up. If there is no response in a week after the follow up, I will assume they passed and start querying again. Is this a good idea/the way to go?
Just trying to get some insight into this situation.
 

Parametric

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Congratulations on the interest. Although a full manuscript request is a great start, I understand some agents routinely request exclusives so they don't have to deal with competition from other agents, so the exclusive doesn't necessarily mean any more than a normal full request. My personal feeling is that an exclusive is basically never in the writer's interest and I wouldn't give the exclusivity a day longer than you've already agreed. Once the time is up, resume querying elsewhere.
 

mrsmig

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This is great, although due diligence is certainly required. Check AW's Index to Agents, Publishers and Others in the Bewares, Recommendations and Background Checks subforum, just to see if there's any more information on the agency there.
 

Cyia

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Exclusives are bad for writers.

That doesn't mean it's a bad agent, just that the exclusive limits your options, and it gives the agent no reason to act quickly. Same day turn-around requests aren't all that uncommon. It just depends on the agent.

Usually, what you want to happen, is for more than one agent to request fulls (or longer partials), and then have one of them offer you representation. At that point, you tell the others that you've got an offer, and they'll hurry up and read your MS, if they can. Then you can end up with multiple offers of representation.

That can't happen with an exclusive. You have to be prepared to accept or refuse on the spot, and why would you agree to an exclusive with an agent you wouldn't accept an offer from? (I hope this person is at the top of your agent wish list.)

It can still work out in your favor, and hopefully it will, but going forward, try and avoid the exclusives if you can.
 

ewizz31

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The reason I took the exclusive is because this particular agent takes the exact genres my story is (a cross between historical fiction, crime, and romantic suspense). The agency is Pinder Lane & Garon-Brooke Assocs., Ltd.

 

tsharpe

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What an exclusive usually just means is that the agent likes exclusives. Like Cyia said, exclusives don't help writers, all the benefit is to the agent. It's good that there's a time frame on it, but I personally wouldn't wait another week on top of that to send out more queries. If, when the exclusive period ends and you haven't heard from the agent, go forth and query as normal. And then check in with them after an appropriate amount of time.

You might be surprised at how your perspective on certain agents and the right agent can change when you actually get to talk to them on the phone. I know for me it was a game-changer. I started my offer-week thinking I wanted one thing out of my career and after talking to multiple offering agents, ended that week with a very different game plan. If I had given out an exclusive to the first agent who requested the MS, I would have never had the opportunity to talk to those other agents and hear their perspective on my work and my career. And that would have been my loss, really.
 
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ewizz31

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You mean you would start querying again after the three weeks on the 19th?
 

Parametric

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When the exclusive expires, resume querying other agents. You might send the original agency a polite email letting them know the exclusive expired and you're querying elsewhere, if you like. There's no need to pull the manuscript from consideration with the original agency - they may get around to it eventually.
 

CL Polk

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I just checked Publisher's Marketplace. This agency hasn't made a deal in years. they mostly handle the backlist of authors who published long before e-books were a thing. They don't appear in query tracker, and the only action they see in publishers marketplace is announcing that they're working with Argo Navis Author Services in 2012.

Sorry. It could be that they're trying to get back into the industry, but consider how different the market is now than it was four years ago. How'd you even find them?
 

ewizz31

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They were listed on a lit agent site and I was able to find them in query tracker.
 

Jamesaritchie

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There's nothing at all wrong with exclusives, and maybe one writer in a hundred thousand is in a position where an exclusive harms them. Assuming this is a good, reputable agent, an exclusive is a good thing.

An exclusive does not mean you can't keep querying other agents, it just means you can't send another agent a full until the three weeks have passed. Chances are that will not be a problem. fit is, we should all have such problems. You shouldn't query any agent that you haven't checked out, and don't want representing your book, so when one of them asks for an exclusive, the smartest thing you can do is go with it.

Agents only ask for exclusives when they're interested enough to request a full, and this does not happen often. When it does happen, an agent has every right to ask for an exclusive, and a writer is nuts who doesn't allow it. Three weeks is a very short time period, so why take a chance on throwing away a great agent in order to save three weeks where nothing is probably going to happen, anyway?

Fast happens. If an agent or editor reads something and really likes it, then you'll hear from them immediately. There's no point in waiting and letting some other agent or publisher grab what you like. Slow happens because an agent or editor can't find the time to read queries in a hurry. As long as you know this agent is legitimate, don't worry about fast, be thankful for it, and allow the exclusive. The exclusive can't harm you in any way, and may land you a great agent.
 

ewizz31

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Thanks! I needed to hear that. This was someone I checked out and researched both before and after I sent the query and accepted the exclusive. I was thinking it was a good thing as well.
 

anoop judge

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Thank you for this clarification, James. An agent who is well-respected in my genre, and whom I queried yesterday, requested the first fifity pages this morning and asked if they "would be reading it exclusively"? I told her only one other agent has the full ms whom I met a conference last year. However, what has changed for me is that a novel excerpt got accepted for publication in a literary journal. I'm relieved to hear you say here that I can still go ahead and query other agents.