Once you're at the stage of trying to find an agent I've been told it's good practice to only approach one at a time (fair enough). I was just wondering in everyone's experience, how long does it usually take to get a response from an agent? How many submissions is your average agent having to sift through? I appreciate every agent is different but I'm just ineterested in your experiences.

I've been told it's good practice to only approach one at a time

My agent told me they'd expect multiple submissions from new authors.

I've always sent out to three agents at a time, sometimes more. The repsonse time varies, but it took me 9 months from original submission to last week in order to secure my agent. I don't think there is a set time period because it all depends on how busy/freed up that agent is, and also what takes their interest above other things. It also depends on the staff. My agency has only two agents, and a reading team who decide what said agents should take a look at.

JB

If you wait for each agent to get back to you before you move on to the next you'll be there forever. I don't think any agent who says they expect to you to submit one at a time has the first idea of the realities of the situation. If you knew you'd hear back in a week, it would be different, but 6-8 weeks seems to be standard for even the efficient ones. And as Dee says, virtually all of them nowadays assume that you're doing multiple submissions of sample chapters and synopses. (It gets a bit different when you're into full MS territory.)

For what it's worth, my agent gets 1000-1200 scripts a year adressed to her personally, the 5 other agents there probably average the same each, and the (medium-sized) agency gets another 1000 addressed to it generally. Of those she might take on one.

Emma

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Ooops! Sorry Lammi, I meant you, not Dee! ;)

Thanks for that.

Is that normaly then that only around one in a thousand scripts make it? That's pretty depressing!

That's why - IMO -you are mad to send out one at a time - they have all the others to read, if they take 3 months to get back to you, you'll only be submitting 4 a year.

I submit in batches of 6, and when i receive about 4 rejecs i send out the next 6, so that i've always got a good number on the go.

If any agent is really bothered they'll ask for an exclusive if/when they request your full.

That's pretty depressing!

My agent is pretty high profile and has a very full client list (round about 120, I think) so she rarely takes on someone new, but I know from other agents that her figures aren't unusual. And that's only being taken on by an agent: they've still got to sell your book to publishers. Your chances of success improve hugely once you're through the agent filter, but it's still not guaranteed.

One thing you have to remember is that anyone who's been around on WW for a while, or had other input, is already in the top 10% or so of that thousand: it's hard for us to believe just how utterly incompetent, not to say totally inappropriate, a huge proportion of any slushpile is!

Emma

I've got the statistics somewhere, but basically your chances are 1:50

Of course if you're not submitting, then your chances are 0:infinity



- NaomiM

I also have a high profile agent. Within his genres, he is widely considered the best in the field. He told me he takes on one new writer a year, two at a stretch. He recieves around 100-150 subs a week, and only he and another agent operate the agency.

Of course, this information flummoxed me. I looked around at all the stacks of manuscripts languishing in almost every available space in the office, and I couldn't help but fill up. I was promptly told I deserved to be standing there, and of course, that didn't help me much in terms of needing a hanky.

It's eye of the needle stuff all right. That's why it's so important to send out only your best work, that is polished to the nth degree. I think that by being a member of WW, you've already tilted the odds in your favour a small degree.

JB

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He also proposed that the 3 chapter rule is more or less a myth. Most agents read anything from a couple of paragraphs to a page. If nothing hits them upside the head, it's a rejection. There is no leeway. It may seem cruel, it has done to me, but when you realise the volume of incoming work these people have to deal with, plus the authors already on their books, I can't see how they could function in any other way.

Yeh, i reckon your average agent gets 200 a week, of them requests 2-3 fulls a week and of them takes on 1-2 new writers a year...

so i try not to get too excited, save that for signing any contract...

Bearing in mind that that agency will be recieving virtually the same 1000 submissions as the one down the road (of course, we're talking London here)

Yes, you don't have to multiply that 1000 by every agency in WAAYB.

Emma

My god, it's shocking, and also a little daunting. Do I think I'm that good? Not at all.

JB

It's partly good, but it's also right, in hitting the right agent, and that the publishers s/he's got his eye on haven't just signed up someone who would sell into very much the same market.

Emma

Thing is, the agent is so on the same page as I am. Half of that meeting was just a thrilling discussion on all these stories and books that very few people I know have read. I got the sense he has a genuine love for this game, the people involved, and the specified genres. In short, it's an honour, probably one of the best things that's happened to me in my life. Now I just have to come up with the goods, but by Jove, what a motivator this success is. I've written 10,000 words in a week with no sign of quitting, and I think it's the best I've ever done.

JB