Hello. Can anyone help me? I have recently finished my first novel - a crime psychological thriller - I have contacted a few agents and have had 5 replies requesting full MSS. Hodder & Stoughton also requested my full manuscript some time ago and it has been nearly 7 months now. I did contact them recently and my mss has now been passed to a guy in charge of thrillers. I was so pleased initially but now my confidence is waning as I feel surely if they had liked my work they would have been back in touch by now? Has anyone else been in this position and can advise please?

I feel really lucky to have had so many positive replies but its all so confusing. The ones who turned my work down made constructive criticism but what one didnt like the other loved! What should I do? Continue plugging away and keep my fingers crossed or should I take heed of the criticism and alter my book? Please help as I am beginning to feel so despondant!! I could really do with some good advice from someone who has been there!

Thanks so much for listening!

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PS. I have uploaded the first two chapters - I would be very grateful for your opinion. Thank you!

Why do people allow themselves to be treated like trash? If they haven't read it in 7 months, move on. Also send them a letter, detailing at great length the severity of your displeasure. Words like 'disgust', 'outrage' and 'timewasting' should be prevalent. Also combinations of the form 'fatuous peasants', 'witless buffoons' and 'word of mouth' should feature strongly.

Alternatively, if all writers had an unwritten rule to ignore any response from an agent after, say, 4 months of sending a MSS out, I guarantee that the replies would come in much sooner, and would be far more helpful than what we seem to get at present.

Loopyloo, I can't help with personal experience of the kind you're asking for, but I don't think it's unusual for publishers to take a long time over reading 'scripts. You could send them a reminder, but personally I'd be disinclined to resort to words like 'outrage' and disgust'. You've done incredibly well so far to have been asked to send the whole manuscript - I'd say just be patient a little longer, perhaps send out to a few more agents too. As for alterations, if you've had conflicting reactions so far I'd not do anything in haste. Hope this helps a little, and good luck.

LOL! Thanks for the advice - I think I have used plenty of those sentiments in my head but I think I will err on the side of caution. However, I certainly do agree that it would be so much better if agents (and yes, I know how busy they are!) remembered that we too are just trying to get on and make a living. Cheers anyway for making me laugh!

Thanks Nell for giving me some good advice. I will wait a little longer and keep on sending the stuff out! Unfortunately, as one agent 'helpfully' told me, this is a waiting game and you have to be in it, to win it!'. I will struggle on..and just hope that sooner or later, someone will fall in love with my work and give me a break!

Thanks again, much appreciated!

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve been told that the longer a publisher has a manuscript the further along the chain it’s going and therefore more likely to be accepted.

You need to understand the process. A junior editor will read it. If they’re sufficiently impressed it will go to someone more senior to read. If they feel strongly enough to want to offer for it they will take it to a planning meeting where they (and your novel) will have to compete with all the other editors in the house who want their own choice published. It all takes time and in the end, if they only have a budget to choose one novel out of six, you have a five to one chance of falling at the last hurdle.

So, even if your novel is rejected after a long period, it doesn’t mean it’s been gathering dust for months. It doesn’t mean they didn’t like it or want it, possibly just (as happened to me recently) they, as a company, didn’t have the funds to publish everything their editors wanted.

It still hurts like hell when the rejection news comes through but you just have to grit your teeth and wait for the next one.

Good luck,

Dee.

How long does it take to read a novel? 2 days at a stretch? So how many people are reading these novels in this ludicrously elongated process?

The problem isn't ignorance of the process, it's inefficiencies within the process itself, because there is no real pressure on the industry to improve it.

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Further, would it really harm these people to update the author when the MSS gets moved 'to the next level'? This, at least, would avoid stupid 7 month 'hanging by the phone' sessions. Or perhaps, transparency of the process would reveal the extent of the problem?

Don’t get me wrong, IB. I’m not defending them. Just saying that there are reasons for delays other than sitting in a slush pile.

But I do wonder – if they are always, say, six months behind, you’d think a bit of overtime would catch them up and then they could stay that way…

Dee.