I don't put this here to be discouraging, just to inform. It is interesting to see these statistics, regarding reasons why this agent rejected manuscripts, and how many she accepted:

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2009/12/statistics-to-torture-yourself-with-in.html

Useful list, Roger.

I am so surprised that out of 120+ requests for full MSs she only took on 2. That's a very high rate of requests to reject. She must give the benefit of the doubt more readily than most agents. Surely they don't normally request fulls unless the work really excites them do they? I'd assumed a request for full was a 50% chance of acceptance. How sobering to find it's a 1 in 75 chance.

On the other hand, she appears to be actively soliciting submissions with a high-profile blog so she may be dealing with more duds than many agents. That would tend to make the figures sound more alarming. Still, as far as I can gather, most established agents don't tend to take on more than one or two new clients per year, so the 'not for me' pile is always likely to be pretty weighty.

Chris

Interesting reading. Thanks, Roger.
I wonder how far she got in her reading of these fulls. This always fascinates me, and no agent has ever (to my knowledge) said. How many, for instance, did she read right through? As you say, Susannah, it's a heck of a lot of fulls to request.
Susiex

I'd assumed a request for full was a 50% chance of acceptance.

Wouldn't that be nice! But I think these figures are pretty representative, actually...

Interesting and the stats don't surprise me. Let's face it, we all polish our first 3 chaps to their death, more than it is possible to do for the whole script, and i often think agents must regularly be wholly disappointed when they request a full.

Glad she didn't list those she'd simply rejected cos the author nudged her too often

<Added>

request and subsequently read the remaining chapters, i mean.

But I think these figures are pretty representative, actually

Can I ask what you are basing that on? From reading blogs etc, I was under the impression that the conversion rate would be higher than this, but that most agents request far fewer full manuscripts.

124 fulls in 6 months seems like a lot - c.250 fulls a year with maybe 4 taken on.

<Added>

Yes, I just looked up an old interview with Simon Trewin in which he says he gets about 3,500 submissions a year although he can disregard about half of these as they are for material he doesn't deal with. He also says he takes on around 4 people a year from the slush pile (so similar to this woman). However, he doesn't say how many fulls he requests. I had assumed they request a very small proportion of fulls. Say ST requests 10%, this would mean he deals with around 175 full manuscripts a year, leaving us with a conversion rate of around 1 in 43.

I don't know why, but this sounds better, somehow. I think it's because I had always believed that once one gets out of the mass of initial submissions into the more rarified atmosphere of requests for fulls, one's chances were much better.

But don't neglect the figure:

Not right for me, refer to other agents: 9

They don't say how many of those mss were taken on by those other agents, but if they were good enough to refer, they were probalby of publishable standard.




- NaomiM

Just my experience, Saturday. I had full requests from a dozen agents, but in the end received two offers of representation. Last year, my agent told me she'd signed around 10 new authors in the previous year, which sounds like a bumper crop (I suspect - but don't know - that this number will have been quite a bit lower for 2009). She receives lots of submissions, and a fair number of those will be on a personal recommendation (ie. not necessarily from the slush pile).

Sadly, I think we sometimes overestimate the value of a full request. It doesn't mean you have a 50/50 chance of being signed; it can only mean that the writing was good enough not to warrant an instant form rejection, and that the agent is curious to see if you can sustain the quality of writing and build sufficiently on plot, character and theme over the course of an entire novel, not just three chapters. When you think of it that way, a big gap starts to open up: it's relatively easy to write three good chapters, but it's a heck of a lot harder to write a good (and sellable, and all the other considerations!) novel.

Requests for fulls are totally overrated, i know this now. It's nice, but more often than not, the most you can hope for is feedback - or a reply at all.

Not that i'm bitter...

I get the feeling that agents vary a lot in how often they'll ask for the full: some are eternal optimists and can't resist something tasty-seeming, even if they're fairly sure it's unlikely to be sustained through the whole thing; others will only ask for the full if they're pretty sure it won't have a hair out of place.

And they probably vary individually a bit, even unconsciously, depending on how harrassed by other stuff they're feeling that week.

And depending on whether they're a hands-on agent who loves working on novels which aren't quite there yet but have lots of promise, or need the book to be absolutely oven-ready for subbing to editors.

And depending on whether the current assistant has faith in their own judgement and only passes on a few (which may be terrific, or may be not) or lots from the slushpile.

Emma

Sadly, I think we sometimes overestimate the value of a full request. It doesn't mean you have a 50/50 chance of being signed; it can only mean that the writing was good enough not to warrant an instant form rejection, and that the agent is curious to see if you can sustain the quality of writing and build sufficiently on plot, character and theme over the course of an entire novel, not just three chapters. When you think of it that way, a big gap starts to open up: it's relatively easy to write three good chapters, but it's a heck of a lot harder to write a good (and sellable, and all the other considerations!) novel.

Exactly. I've learned something today. this is why I like WW. I'd always just blithely assumed a request for a full would be a battle half won. It's very useful to know it's just another bout in the ring.

I read the submission bit of her blog and she works on a query letter and 3-5 pages of MS basis. Maybe that's why she requests so many fulls and her sifting process - she doesn't ask for 3 chapters to review first?

I found the statistics quite encouraging (ever the optimist). As someone who has sent full MS out and waited and waited for a response, this gave me peek into how agents sift and work.

I read the submission bit of her blog and she works on a query letter and 3-5 pages of MS basis. Maybe that's why she requests so many fulls and her sifting process - she doesn't ask for 3 chapters to review first?

She's based in the US, Karris, that's how they do things over there. If Agents like the sound of the novel from the query they'll then request a 'partial' or a 'full'.