Following-up with editors agent submitted to. Can you do this?

My agent and I have parted ways amicably. I have a list of editors the book is still out on submission with. My agent has decided not to nudge any of them (one nudge was already sent a few months ago), but told me they will let me know if an offer or response comes in. They said I am free to follow up with the editors directly if I like, just as any new agent would.

Is it okay for me to email these editors directly or not? I am going to seek new representation at some stage, but probably not for this novel, as it's already been heavily shopped and I don't think a new agent would want to chase up these submissions, so not sure what to do.

Thanks for both of your responses. I agree with you both. I have decided not to contact any of these editors - for now. It's still within the realm of possibility they might still offer and contact my former agent. Meanwhile, I have submitted the book to a few small presses.

I suppose I could contact them if someone else offers - or ask my former agent if they want to. Not sure how that will work. But for now, I've decided to leave these outstanding submissions as is. Thanks again for your replies. If anyone else has any additional thoughts or comments, I'd love to know. This forum has been such a great help.

An update of sorts. Well, initially I had decided not to contact them, but then another agent advised me to email them all and withdraw the submissions. But in the end I just sent an email to the outstanding editors to let them know I had parted ways with my agent, was currently seeking new representation, and to check in on the submission. Only one editor replied - and very quickly. To say they never received the original submission! And asked me to resend it. So I consider that a plus and am glad they are now reading/considering. But I sort of regret checking in with the others as I haven't heard anything and am worried I may have annoyed them. I won't send any follow-up emails! But I am glad that one editor asked to see it.

It's a month later and another editor emailed to say they never received the original manuscript - and asked me to send it along! That's 2 now. No response from anyone else yet.

CameronJohnston said:

Well that's not good at all if two said they never received it in the first place :\ On the other hand at least they are now asking to see it, so a silver lining in a way.

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Yeah, I did think it was strange that so few editors responded in the 7 or 8 months it was on sub. I asked my former agent, who told me they were probably not replying because they weren't interested. Hmmm. Turns out it wasn't sent to at least two - maybe more! Oversight? Incompetence? No idea. But this means my former agent must also not have been following up with them.

Anyway, I'm pretty angry about it, but I am very grateful that 2 (of 8) editors have responded and asked to see the manuscript. One of them is a very big editor at a large publishing house so I was very surprised - and grateful - when they replied and asked me to send it along! No idea if any of the others will respond. And it's possible some of the others did receive the manuscript and weren't interested or haven't read yet. But if any more respond to say they never got it, I'm not sure what I'll think! This is pretty much the end of the road for this book, as it's been heavily shopped (or so I had assumed, but now I don't know who actually received it and who didn't!), so really hoping something good comes of this. It's been three years on this one book. In the meantime, I finally have another WIP in, er, progress.