Finding An Agent

[Damian North]

Hi guys,

At the beginning of August I select two agents to send my novel to. I researched well and picked the two I thought would be interested in reading my work and hopefully represent me. I haven't heard back from them.
Should I take it as a sign, twelve weeks on that they won't be getting back and is it an appropriate time to send my material out to other agents?

Several years ago the postal submission with the SAE was very straight forward, but these two submissions were i) via email & ii) via website submission.

What do you think?

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Twelve weeks is probably a good number to decide that they aren't going to respond.

My suggestion to any writer wanting to get their work published is to query very widely. Agenting is a numbers game and most people don't find their agent within the first five agents they submit to.

 

[Marc Joan]

Totally agree with Nicole re querying very widely.

I haven't gone down the agent route yet, as I am focussing on building up a portfolio of published short stories first, but I suspect that 12 weeks may not necessarily be negative, it could just be that they haven't got around to your MS yet. Do they not give any indication of their normal turn-around time?

 

[Damian North]

One agent said up to 8 weeks and the other didn't specify a time frame. Pity as they were two good agents.
Going to begin the process once again this evening.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

My first thought is "just two"? This is a long road I'm afraid, you should send out a dozen, wait no more than six weeks and send out more. The reality is that six weeks is the average time they take, others from 2 days to a full 12 months. Also many say they will NOT answer if they aren't interested. If you don't send out a lot more you might well died of old age before you find representation, do the maths as they say. Bear in mind many high profile novels got rejected 27 times (Steven King), to over 100 times. This is where you have to grow a hard shell of patience, perseverance and determination

 

[Damian North]

Cheers Alistair for the advice.
I'm just being careful as the two agents require exclusive submissions. Will take your advice on board and grow that hard shell

 

[Nicole Wilson]

Cheers Alistair for the advice.
I'm just being careful as the two agents require exclusive submissions. Will take your advice on board and grow that hard shell

Well, if they required exclusive submissions, I would have only submitted to one at a time, but you made the right call in not sending out any others.

 

[Jason Byrne]

My first thought is "just two"? This is a long road I'm afraid, you should send out a dozen, wait no more than six weeks and send out more. The reality is that six weeks is the average time they take, others from 2 days to a full 12 months. Also many say they will NOT answer if they aren't interested. If you don't send out a lot more you might well died of old age before you find representation, do the maths as they say. Bear in mind many high profile novels got rejected 27 times (Steven King), to over 100 times. This is where you have to grow a hard shell of patience, perseverance and determination

@Damian North is talking about a full manuscript submission, unless I'm mistaken — which most agents say to give them 8-12 weeks to finish.

Most anecdotes from successful authors have agreed that a positive response came between 3 days and 3 weeks — but in my experience you will generally get your rejection about a week after their final listed deadline, if you will ever get a response. I would say you can begin sending it out again with a clean conscience.

 

[Damian North]

cheers Jason - Appreciate the comment. After a weekend relaxing in Lough Erne i have decided to try again tomorrow.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Those of us who tried the lovely Juliejuliejulie might, like me, have tried quite some while back. I'd forgotten about her actually, though I keep a written record. Checking that, I saw I had sent off a sub, now out of date, in early August. I'd treat it as a no and carry on, Damian. You might always get a lovely surprise.

 

[Emurelda]

Those of us who tried the lovely Juliejuliejulie might, like me, have tried quite some while back. I'd forgotten about her actually, though I keep a written record. Checking that, I saw I had sent off a sub, now out of date, in early August. I'd treat it as a no and carry on, Damian. You might always get a lovely surprise.

The fame of Julie. I forgot too although unceremoniously updated that submission with a red highlight on xl ss.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Bless her kind heart. Posting on twitter how she HATES writing rejection letters. Good of her to do so. Very.

 

[Emurelda]

Bless her kind heart. Posting on twitter how she HATES writing rejection letters. Good of her to do so. Very.

She writes the nicest rejection letters. That is an awesome skill. Certainly made me feel good about myself. How many agents can do that..