I have admit I'm getting pretty discouraged here and wonder if my experience is standard going with agents. I have two full manuscripts out and having heard no response to either after three months, I politely nudged each agent. No response. Now it's ticking close to six months on one, eight on the other and I'm not sure I should bother nudging again.
I also did an intensive R&R and that too, I received no response to despite nudges at three and six months. Briefly, I worried it was my email program but I send and receive tons of email with no problem.
I realize agents have zero obligation to writers querying them but its very frustrating to see on query tracker an agent sending rejections to queries at the same time they aren't responding to a full. And the R&R was literally a waste of months of work. Someone in my local writing group said agents often request "promising" fulls but don't bother reading them unless you nudge with an offer of rep from another agent -- then they know it's really worthy checking out. That seemed a little strange to me but after these experiences, I'm starting to wonder...
First of all, don't be discouraged; be annoyed. Having been an agent myself for many years, I know very well that they're not little godlings; they're just salespeople who like books. If an agent requests a full ms., he/she knows perfectly well that the author is sitting on tenterhooks waiting for a response. If you know you won't be able to read for many months, don't ask for the full! If you do ask, read the damn thing in a timely manner....or read as much of it as necessary if the answer turns out to be no. All the more so if you actually requested revisions.
That said, I think your theory is overly Machiavellian. Agents ask for full mss. because they see commercial/literary potential; but reading those mss is a much lower priority than reading the work of existing clients and actually selling books. So the requested mss. pile up, and agents get overwhelmed. They might spring into action if the writer notifies them of an offer; like most salespeople, agents hate being bested. But they're not requesting mss. just in case; that would make no sense.
My advice is to keep submitting to new agents as if you never had those requests, and keep nudging those who requested fulls or R&R's every few months. Also, if you keep getting "close but no cigar" reactions, you might consider taking me up on this offer to find out why.
Last edited: