I'm new to the publishing world and would welcome some advice.

I'm halfway through a topical travel book and signed up with my agent, on the strength of a few sample chapters, written after one major trip, last October. We then embarked on a fairly lengthy process of me writing more, at her request, with the result that I now have half the manuscript.

During this process, I made it clear (gently but a few times) that I do need to know whether the project is viable as soon as possible, as the next travel season was approaching and I'm curently hanging on, financially and psychologically, without being able to make any life decisions.

She sent the proposal out to an A list of publishers in mid March. When the first few rejections came in - on 'not commercial enough' kind of grounds - she agreed to send it out to a second list of smaller publishers straight away.

That was six weeks ago, and it still hasn't happened. My agent is now in the throes of a major upheaval and has become unusually difficult to get hold of. Meanwhile, the travel season is well underway and time is running out for me. So I'm wondering whether I'd be as well to start sending the proposal to smaller publishers myself.

So my question is: would this be a bad idea, or quite a sensible one? (obviously I'd let her know first) And are the time-scales I've described normal?

any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Jana