I've decided to hold off using an editorial agency - mainly because of the cost - and see how my 30 submissions go.

If no-one requests a look at the full manuscript i have decided that i will get an editorial report.

I've just thought though, is it acceptable to send out a revised script to an agency which has already rejected that work? Am i burning my bridges by sending out to all my favourite agents now??

I suppose i would have to email them first and ask.

Casey

Definitely. Go for it. I shows you are prepared to rework, rewrite and replan. It shows that you are serious about your work and your attitude to work.

I alway put a note in the cover letter to say, "You have seen an earlier version of this" and explain why I revised and outline any major changes, but I keep that very, very brief.

I agree. Editorial agencies are very expensive. I've never been in a position to afford them, and even if I was I think I would be reluctant because of what you get back for the money you shell out. I'd rather submit, see if I can work out why I've been rejected and go back to square one.

Good luck though.

Colin

Casey, I've always got the idea that they don't want to see the same thing twice unless they have requested rewrites. I think it wouldn't do any favours anyway on the second attempt to have preconceptions already set up in their minds.

That's what I would have thought but maybe the site experts would have experience/knowledge of this.

They get so many samples that the chances of them having preconceptions are slim. I think I submitted three different versions of The Devil's Prayer to the same agent before she thought it was good enough to request the full script. But I'm glad I kept at it, otherwise I would have never received that request and never got "The Phone Call".

That's what i feared, Snowbell, but clearly Colin has sent out rewrites and had them re-read. I hadn't thought of it from that POV, Colin, i suppose it does show a degree of determination.

Casey

Hmmm. It makes me wonder a bit about the way this site is used and whether there are any more useful ways it could be used - by showing a market for instance, or having a more intense crit group.

I've been told off before for sending a revised work to an agent I'd already submitted to. After a discussion over email, the agent eventually agreed to take another look. That was over a year ago now and I still haven't heard anything, so I'm taking it as a lesson and won't do it again unless specifically asked.

JB

Hmm, i was thinking i'd do it to agents who gave me a 'positive rejection' and maybe asking first.

Casey

Oh sure, that would be ok. In fact, thinking about it, that's what I did, and I still got told off. Some people!

JB

Oh well maybe I heard not to because they discourage it but it's just another myth.

Just do whatever you want, and whatever fels right for you. If they tell you off - which they really shouldn't do - then so what? You never have to meet them.

What about a compromise - send it out to a chunk now and get a feel and if yoy don't get the impression it's being considered then revise and send to batch no. 2?

Casey, maybe you should phone the person at the agency who rejected it first time, asking if they'd be interested in seeing it now it was revised and rewritten?

I think that's what I would do, just phone and ask if they'd be interested in seeing it again.

Then if they say 'no thanks' you've not wasted the time and postage, but they might just say yes.

Katerina

Sensible as usual, Katerina.

Hmm, Snowbell, if i get to number 20 and haven't had a request for more than a sample, then i might just do that.

Casey

It's always going to be guesswork, and you've no way of knowing what the agency will think (or whether they open your envelope before or after coffee/telling off by the boss/boozy lunch with client).

I think it depends on a)whether you had a flicker of interest from the agent in the first place and b)how much you've changed it.

I wouldn't myself send a new version off blind to all the same people who form-rejected it before, just because it costs so much damned money. But if you've had some interest that indicates what they did and didn't like, and you've addressed that in the re-write, I think it would be worth another try with the interested ones - at least enquiring whether they'd have another look, indicating briefly just how much work you've done.

If you've done a root-and-branch rewrite, with scarcely a word or scene the same, and changed the title, then you could send it out to the previously-not-interested ones without saying anything. They may not even notice, if it's been a while since they saw the first version.

But it occurs to me to wonder whether 30 submissions is so much cheaper than an editorial assessment, if you count printing, stamps, envelopes, SAEs, your time etc. Or are you doing it all electronically? Some editorial services do do assessments of synopsis-plus-chapters, which is much cheaper. But I know it's still an awful lump of money.

Emma