Dear All
I have recently submitted the first three chapters of my novel to a number of agents and one has come back asing to read the rest. I sent this off by email as requested, and got a nice email bac saying they would get bac to me asap. Can anyone tell me how long it is liely to take for the agency to read and consider the full mss and get bac to me? The suspense is killing me!

Many thanks
Jane

Great news on being asked for the full thing!

I hate to say it, but it can be a long time - three months isn't uncommon, and after that you can always nudge them and see what they think. Reading a whole MS takes a wodge of time and focus which they can't always easily find, because they have to be thinking about who they'd sell it to, and what work it might need doing, and whether they can take it on as it is, or they'd want to suggest some revisions and then perhaps look at it again, and so on... and the normal working week has to be spent on their existing clients.

The only cure is to get on with something else, hugging to yourself the fact that an agent is thinking that she/he might be able to sell it. And come on WW and have a shriek every now and again.

If another agent gets back to you and wants to see the full, you can use that to nudge this agent to see if they can give you an answer.

<Added>

Meant to say, welcome to WriteWords. You've obviously found your way in - if you need any help just stand in the forum and shout!

Thanks so much for your reply. I've done my writing so far without taking part in any forum, but I've read a lot on this site for some time. I used the services of the Literary Consultancy to read my last book, which was never taken up by any agent, although I got a good crit and some generous comments from agents. This is my second attempt. Like everyone says, I now look back at my first stab and see lots of weaknesses.

It's great now to have joined up to the forum, and I am seriously grateful for your comments. I had no idea it could take so long to get news back from this stage. I still have several agents who haven't yet replied, so it's early days yet all round, I guess. I am impressed by the members of this forum who have been working for years to get an agent and are still hanging on in there.

Well done on getting a request for a full. Fingers-crossed for you

wow, a request for the full has to be about the most exciting moment of all! Congratulatons on that. it could be a fortnight, it could be several months. Nothing for it but to get cracking on something else to ease the waiting!

some generous comments from agents. This is my second attempt. Like everyone says, I now look back at my first stab and see lots of weaknesses.

Sounds like you're getting there - best of luck with it!

Emma

Congratulations on getting a request for a full. As you have read you can wait quite a while to hear back. I have two fulls out with agents - one for 4 months the other for just over 3 and am still waiting for a reply. However some agents just don't reply at all.

Ben Yezir

Just echoing what Peter said. It seems to be an increasing practice, that agents and editors simply don't reply, even after requesting a full. Peter has a theory about this, which makes sense: that some are terrified of turning down what might go on to be the next big thing, so better not to respond because then at least you won't be fingered as the idiot who missed out.

I know an editor with a huge publisher who never tells a writer anything until the book has been passed by its various committees - presumably because she doesn't want to disappoint the author. But given she can also take up to 2 years to deal with a book, you'd have thought most authors would give up long before then.

Terry

Well done Jane! I would echo what others have said and in my experience, the ONLY thing that makes the wait bearable is to get excited about another project. I know this seems a bit impossible right now, but it just has an anaesthetising effect like no other. Waiting is hell. But you've done so, so well to have the ms requested. Crossing fingers for you.

Thanks so much to everyone for helping me to understand where I now am. The agent who asked for the full did so within a week, which seemed incredibly quick. Since then I've had 5 standard rejections, and I have 6 agents still to reply three weeks on. Still, as I say, given that last time I didn't get a single request for a full, this time is already one hundred percent more positive! I am indeed looking at the next project and beginning research.

It's great to find a site where people support each other so much - so important in what can be such a frustrating, negative industry it seems! I'll be like everyone else when I get into book number 3 without having found any market for either of the other two! It's just a compulsion, this writing business...

Well done Jane. Encouraging news. Just sit tight and revel in the fact that you were asked for the full ms; and you are worthy.Wishing you hopeful results.

Glyn

If she asked for the full quickly, I suspect she might respond to it quickly as well. It's true that agents can sometimes take quite a while to come back, but equally, if they get the bit between their teeth and happen to have a quiet-ish week or two, they'll come back fast.

My agency came back to me pretty quickly, partly because I was able to tell them that a couple of others had asked for the full and were also reading it. Maybe you could nudge some of your other agents to see if you get any further interest? I know opinions are mixed on this, but I've always found it pays to be proactive. Maybe leave it a bit longer though...

Thanks for this. I was thinking I might contact her after 4 weeks if I don't hear anything before - it's only 2 weeks since I emailed the full to her, so as you say, rather early to pester!

I was interested to read that a Sunday newspaper sent the opening chaps of 2 Booker prize novels to 21 agents and publishers, and all but one sent back standard rejection novels. So it does seem as though you can be a truly great write with a great story and still get nowhere at all, and that agents are on the whole not really reading what they get in with any great attention.

Dispiriting!
Jane

Hi
Just got a dispiriting rejection, because it was from someone who liked the first chapters of my last novel but thought then she couldn't place it, and now she has replied thus about this novel:

'I have read the material carefully and admired the fluidity of your writing but I'm afraid that, after discussions with colleagues, I have decided not to take this further. I'm very sorry, but we worry we'd struggle to place this in the current, very competitive market for women's historical fiction.'

It's nice that she has sent a personal email and not a standard rejection, but I'm a bit sad, because she was my best hope for a second agent to ask for a full. So I just have the one agent with the full novel so far, and 8 out of 12 agents have replied. Ho hum - continue the waiting game for the one agent who was interested! I don't think I'm toughened enough yet to this game...

Sorry you've had a rejection today, Jane, that must sting, especially coming from someone who liked your first novel (been there, twice, with screenplays, moons ago). But to get a request for a full is a pretty big achievement and fingers crossed for a great outcome.

Others will give you better advice than I can but my feeling is that four weeks might be a bit quick to chase. A polite enquiry after 12 weeks is more the accepted way of doing things, I think.

Hope it's good news when you do hear.