Hi there,
I wonder if anyone could help me with a small dilemma / question regarding the good old agent process. Basically I have sent the full ms of my novel to an agency who have (nothing signed) agreed to 'work with me'(their words). I sent the full ms at the beginning of May and haven't heard a squeak since. I just wanted to know is this a normal time for a revision reading, should I give the agent a friendly email to ask how it's going? I don't want to be pushy and I know how busy these guys are. But until I get the novel back with revision notes I can't really start to re-draft the book. Please tell me if I'm being impatient!

thanks

J

Give them till mid-July. Two and half months.

Thanks Colin, like I said, don't want to stuff things up after getting so far down the line.

J

No, you're not being impatient – you're being a normal writer!

Did you post it to them, and have they confirmed they’ve received it? If you did, and they haven’t, you could send them a polite email asking if they can confirm they got it. (you did include a postcard for them to return, didn’t you?) If they haven’t got it, you need to know urgently. If they have got it, your email will remind them. You need to word the query very carefully, though, to avoid any suggestion that you're nagging.

Good luck,

Dee

I agree with what Dee's suggested. From my experience agents won't mind a polite and reasonable email, but do expect them to say 'Yes, we've received it and we'll be in touch.'

Nik.

Thanks for the reassurance Dee. I guess impatience is ingrained in us from birth right? Thing is the agent actually asked for the ms as an email attachment and when I sent it, he replied that afternoon saying he'd be in touch asap. I suppose I couldn't ask for much more than that right?

Okay okay you can call me impatient now!

J

Hi, Impatient… well, I guess there’s nothing for it but to stick it out. Best of luck. Let us know how it goes.

Dee

I'm feeling this. None of it is half as straightforward as you'd expect, and I am quickly learning that it can be more about what isn't said, then what is.

But I think it's reasonable to ask after a certain amount of time. I don't think it can damage your chances, but half of it is just the dread of the answer, I find.

JB

I know JB. A couple of my friends who have succeeded in this game say the most important quality of any aspiring writer is perseverance and that the publishing / agent process is almost completely arbitrary. Not helpful advice for the rest of us!

J

I think Dee's advice is very sound. Having just read Miss Snark saying that she spent a long weekend catching up by reading ninety (yes, 90) submissions, I can see why sometimes it takes a while.

the most important quality of any aspiring writer is perseverance

certainly one of the most important, but

and that the publishing / agent process is almost completely arbitrary.

I don't think this is true, though it often feels like it. There is an element of luck - of happening to be in the right place at the right time. But what often looks like luck is often not actually arbitrary: where and when you put your work out is something you can control, so in a sense you can make your own luck.

I think you need talent, hard work, perseverance, and luck. Plenty of any three can make up for a lack of the fourth.

Emma

Yeah I think you're right Emma, it does often feel like a lottery although you can 'play with the balls' if you have the 4 qualities. Still, I can't help but think of the recent Times article about the guy who submitted a set of operating instructions for a washing machine to a dozen or so publishers. Most of them returned his 'manuscript' saying they loved it but couldn't commit etc etc..'

you have to laugh, or else...?

J

Yes, you have to laugh. It makes a change from crying. But so much of this trouble comes from the publishers being swamped with submissions. It's a good story, but I suppose all it means is that it's quicker to stuff a standard reply back in the SAE than it is to construct the honest one, which would be 'thank you for submitting your washing machine instructions, here's the address of Hotpoint, which must be where you were trying to send them.'

Emma

Washing machine instructions are always difficult to pitch. Getting the right balance between authority and patronising can be tricky. Maybe he didn't have the right voice.

It's a very selective market too.

Someone once told Stephen King he'd that with a name like his, he'd be able to sell his shopping list. He wasn't.

Colin M