Reality Check Should I nudge an agent? If so, when and how?

[E G Logan]

Not sure this is the correct heading, but seemed nearest.

I have just come across a very clear description from a US agent, Danielle Burby of Nelson Literary, of how to approach the question of whether, when and how to prompt an agent you've queried/submitted to. And also whether it's worth doing.

I don't know whether this applies 100% to UK agents, but it seems very likely.

Burby addresses the two situations of:
1. having sent a query/submission a reasonable time previously – for example, several weeks – do you then nudge? and
2. having received a full ms request, do you notify anyone else to whom you submitted?

Where I was confused was with the second situation. Her answer for that is in two, very different, parts. She recommends NOT nudging after receiving a full request – and her advice here differs from some I've read from UK agents – because 'agents ask for fulls all the time'. (A bit depressing but probably very true.) Only prompt other agents who have your submission when you have received an actual offer of representation, she says, and then only carefully and selectively.

Burby was posting as a guest on a website for crime/mystery writers and agents.

https://heydeadguy.typepad.com/heydeadguy/2015/10/guest-post-when-and-whether-to-nudge-an-agent-by-danielle-burby.html

 

[Ed Simnett]

Honestly listen to what an agent sez and do the opposite. Why? On the margin you want to be to different and pushy, not samey and diffident.

And in this case agents absolutely do not "ask for full all the time." Look at Query Tracker, full is 2-5% of queries, at best.

This agent is optimizing for an easy life not new author success. #bedifferent

 

[E G Logan]

What particularly interested me about Burby's posted comments was the light they threw on an incident from my fairly recent past.

Having been fortunate to receive a full ms request – which in the end went precisely nowhere – I followed what I understood to be the UK industry received wisdom, taken from the published advice of at least three UK agents. I notified the other 4 or 5 agents and publishers who had received my submission.

One 'gentleman', whom I had imagined (ha!) I would want to work with, took grave offence. He considered this pushy, and said so, rather rudely, withdrawing himself from the submission process. I recoiled, hurt, but mainly puzzled. What had I done?

Burby offers another slant on this: I.e. that a full request for many, maybe most, agents is no big deal. (That is what B means by "They do it 'all the time'.") Consequently agents may well feel that a nudge at the 'full ms request' stage is... over the top, out of order, whatever. And that the person nudging is not someone they would want to work with.

BTW, Ed, two questions: how do you define 'on the margin'?
And, do you find being 'different and pushy' pays off? Please quantify.

 

[Ed Simnett]

What particularly interested me about Burby's posted comments was the light they threw on an incident from my fairly recent past.

Having been fortunate to receive a full ms request – which in the end went precisely nowhere – I followed what I understood to be the UK industry received wisdom, taken from the published advice of at least three UK agents. I notified the other 4 or 5 agents and publishers who had received my submission.

One 'gentleman', whom I had imagined (ha!) I would want to work with, took grave offence. He considered this pushy, and said so, rather rudely, withdrawing himself from the submission process. I recoiled, hurt, but mainly puzzled. What had I done?

Burby offers another slant on this: I.e. that a full request for many, maybe most, agents is no big deal. (That is what B means by "They do it 'all the time'.") Consequently agents may well feel that a nudge at the 'full ms request' stage is... over the top, out of order, whatever. And that the person nudging is not someone they would want to work with.

BTW, Ed, two questions: how do you define 'on the margin'?
And, do you find being 'different and pushy' pays off? Please quantify.

Just to repeat- if you do the analysis on Query Tracker it is objectively simply not true that a material percentage of submissions get full requests. Looking at agents I have tried I see percentages in low single digits, if that. As I said anyone saying this is lying saying something that can't be challenged that makes their life easier #myopinion.

On the being pitched side (day job), I often take calls based on the second or third email, and have moved some of those projects forward. One of the agents whom I met at an event and got an instant full from apparently simply forgot, and was nice (but ultimately a no, with some feedback) about being reminded. Had I waited and assumed the worst, he would never have even cracked open the word doc.

On the margin- expected result is a no, so I can't get too upset if I get a no, so on that basis why not stand out. The dictionary suggests I mean "pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour." Sorry about your experience, but that guy sounds annoying.

This google search suggests ~70% of the internet is "yes" tell people you have a full: should I tell literary agents I have a full request - Google Search (and interestingly the ones I saw saying "don't" have datestamps from 10+ years ago...)

 

[Hannah F]

Thanks for asking the question - it got me thinking. So far, I haven't nudged other agents when I've received a full request, but I will in the future. "Oh really? I'd better pull that out of the slush pile and have a read. I might be missing out on the next biggie." - That seems to be the consensus of agent thought (there'll always be outliers). Now, here's hoping when I embark on the submission trail again, I get some full requests!

 

[Trey]

Not sure this is the correct heading, but seemed nearest.

I have just come across a very clear description from a US agent, Danielle Burby of Nelson Literary, of how to approach the question of whether, when and how to prompt an agent you've queried/submitted to. And also whether it's worth doing.

I don't know whether this applies 100% to UK agents, but it seems very likely.

Burby addresses the two situations of:
1. having sent a query/submission a reasonable time previously – for example, several weeks – do you then nudge? and
2. having received a full ms request, do you notify anyone else to whom you submitted?

Where I was confused was with the second situation. Her answer for that is in two, very different, parts. She recommends NOT nudging after receiving a full request – and her advice here differs from some I've read from UK agents – because 'agents ask for fulls all the time'. (A bit depressing but probably very true.) Only prompt other agents who have your submission when you have received an actual offer of representation, she says, and then only carefully and selectively.

Burby was posting as a guest on a website for crime/mystery writers and agents.

https://heydeadguy.typepad.com/heydeadguy/2015/10/guest-post-when-and-whether-to-nudge-an-agent-by-danielle-burby.html

I have listened to hundreds of agent interviews and they are generally grateful and happy to have a short, polite email nudge after usually 12 weeks. However, if it is the initial submission not a full request, i wouldn’t bother unless the website suggests it UNLESS you have a full ms request from another agent. In that case, the vast majority WANT you to drop them a polite email letting them know you have a full ms request (and say from whom) so they can bump you up their TBR list.