Ghosted by agent, querying hell (please ignore my previous thread)

[Writermum123]

Hi, I'm new and would appreciate hearing other people's experiences regards being ghosted by agents

I received R&R 5 months ago and had call with the agent. She was very keen and excited about my book. She sent some notes 8 weeks after we spoke on phone. I made the changes and sent to her in August but heard nothing since. I sent her a polite nudge 2 weeks ago and she hasn't replied. I've seen on QueryTracker that she has asked for couple of fulls recently and has been rejecting people, and so I know she's still working as an agent and alive!

I have found out that she has ghosted many other writers according to QueryTracker's comment section, and many of her successful clients have left her and gone on to sign with other agents. This is a huge red flag. I still can't help but feel disheartened though. She was so excited about my book and gave excellent notes, which has made the book better (silver lining). I knew it was too good to be true when I got the R&R a week into my querying journey!

I have queried other agents and in total received 6 requests for the full manuscript. 3 of these turned into rejections- 2 on same day which was soul-destroying. Still waiting to hear back on the 2 fulls and many partials. I've now ran out of agents to submit to!

I have taken the plunge and paid to have ms professionally edited just in case I'm luck enough to receive another full request. If I fail to get an agent I will submit the ms to publishers that accept unagented writers.
If I fail to get a book deal then I'll self-publish.

Querying has taken its toll on me and left me miserable. It has been so up and down. I'd really appreciate hearing other people's experiences, especially from those who have been ghosted and those who have gotten book deals without an agent.

I’ve only just seen this thread @Writermum123 but wanted to come on and say that exact thing happened to me a few years ago. I hadn’t even finished my first draft and was clueless at the time about agents etc. but was attending a book fair and applied for an agent one to one without even knowing what it meant. Turned up, told agent about my book, she asked for a full. I literally finished writing it on the train back home! Then she asked me to come into the agency and it was a big flashy one, I was so nervous and excited. Anyway she didn’t sign me, gave me an r & r with really extensive (very useful!) notes, I worked on it for a few months and sent it back and then - nothing! Not even an acknowledgment.
In retrospect both me and the book were not ready. I was down for a bit, then paid for a professional edit, which was mostly useful for validation as they told me I can write and honestly at that point that was what I needed. So I rewrote it all again and then started querying properly feeling much more sure of what I was doing. Got an agent, went on sub - still nothing and I don’t think this one will sell but that’s another story 😂 I am working on another book and remain hopeful. This is a bloody tough industry. Keep going, that’s all you can do!