Ok, so agent has had my work for three months now.
Emailed me two weeks ago to say he will be in contact 'next week' and still hasn't!
Do I chase in this situation? Or would that look pushy??
I'm guessing its a negative anyway but would like as much feedback as I can get.

Thanks guys

Eve

I don't think I'd chase just yet since he was in email contact so recently and clearly hasn't lost or forgotten the work. In my (limited) experience it seems you can always add a few weeks onto a 'very soon' or a 'next week'.

Yhe main thing is he's very recently indicated his intentions of getting back to you.

Good luck! I always think that waiting in these circumstances is a GOOD sign - after all the worst of all possible outcomes is a very swift 'No!'

Hope you hear some good news soon

merry

I'd second that all that. You just have to bide your time, which is impossibly hard to do. Good luck!

Emma

Still no news and I did a bad thing last week and emailed him (I know I shouldn't have done, but was having such a bad day at work and I just did it without thinking about it)

Hes had the work now for over 5 months and it was a month ago when he emailed to say he would contact me the following week.

I know they are very busy people, but I hate this feeling of not knowing. Or the worry that he has already thrown my work in the bin and deleted my email!

Oh well, life goes on...nobody said it would be easy after all

Eve

Eve, have you sent it to anyone else? You'd certainly be within your rights to do that, with or without telling him. Telling him might just propel him into concentrating and getting on with it. And it would dilute the agony of waiting if you know it was out there in other places.

Emma

Hi Emma

Do you have any ideas how I can subtley let him know that I ma approaching someone else. I don't want to upset him, as it is a very small world out there.

Also have been dying to ask you - what does FWIW mean? I've seen you write it before and its been tormenting me!

Eve

Oops! Sorry. FWIW means 'for what it's worth'. One of the few netspeak abbreviations I actually know.

Well, I don't think you need to be subtle - subtle emails obviously haven't done the trick - just polite and businesslike. First of all, write, don't email. This is a a formal thing, and letters can't sink out of sight at the bottom of his inbox. How about something like:

"Dear X, As you know, I'm very pleased that you are interested in my novel X [give the title - he may not remember], and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of it. However, as you can imagine, I'm anxious that it should be seen by as many potential agents as possible, and so I'm writing to let you know that I shall be submitting it elsewhere in the near future. With best wishes..."

He's a business man - this kind of thing happens. If he throws a tantrum (as opposed to saying, 'fair enough, here's the MS, good luck with it', which is the likely outcome, perhaps) he's not the agent for you anyway.

Then in your place I'd do a big submission to 8 or 10 others. Or if you've had time to brood on it, consider an overhaul of the whole beast with the clear sight you've gained over these months.

Good luck! And it's an achievement to have got this far, don't forget. 99% of submissions don't.

Emma

Thanks Emma, thats great advice and I like the letter idea too.

Think I will spend a few weeks tightening things up and then try again! I will try and put this agent out of my mind for now! (its difficult to stop the compulsion of checking your emails every two mins though!)

Thanks again!

Eve