Waiting on agents

[Hazelwood63]

Hello. I'm just looking for company on this long waiting game. Anyone else waiting to hear back from agents at the moment? I sent out five initial submissions at the end of January. So far I've received a really encouraging rejection and two requests for the full. Nothing from the other two so far. It's coming up to a month since I sent off the first full ms, and just over three weeks for the other one. Has anyone else waited over a month for a response to a full and been offered representation, or is it maybe time to think of moving on?

@NewWriter that must have been incredibly frustrating 😞 I also had a no from a full because the agent had recently signed something too similar. Meaning, the same genre, which was top of their wish list. That was bad enough, without insincere asks for diverse voices.

There was a children's author and illustrator on Radio 4 today. He said that he's had 2 books published, writing and illustrating them, and for that the royalty is 30 pence per book sold. Which is surely absolutely insane. I know a published author of adult books, and his royalties are 50 pence per book sold (and I assume he has to pay his agent out of that). It feels really exploitative. And on top of the ridiculously low pay you have to go through endless rejection and delays.

@NewWriter That’s so frustrating — I hope you aren’t feeling too despondent and that a breakthrough will come soon.

Anyone had any post-Christmas emails from agents yet? I’m hoping all will start up again this week. It’s an agonising wait

No - I sent several queries over Christmas and tumbleweed as yet.

I’ve been browsing dozens of agents’ profiles and client lists and one thing that puzzles me is the surprising number of clients who are described as writers “working on their first novel”. How on earth have these lucky ones already got an agent, when they haven’t even shown they can finish a novel, let alone a brilliant one? Is it through an introduction on one of the many writing courses which seem to be part of the agent-publishing ecosystem? Lots of agents seem to have sidelines working for these courses. One could become cynical…

Good luck! Wishing you many full requests

I would imagine that they have submitted an MS which the agent thinks they can sell, but then the agent has given them suggested edits before the book goes out on submission.

That seems unlikely — why bother to create a profile for them during the relatively short time they’re redrafting. I get it when I see debut authors listed whose books aren’t out yet but not those who are unpublished.

And unfinished

Once they’re signed to an agency then they’d get a profile. This is what happened with me when I was signed by my agent, and she has/had authors who might not yet have a deal. There’s no guarantee an agent will be able to sell a first book.

If I ever get around to finishing mine, I'm not looking forward to having to dip my toe into all this agent/querying stuff.

Ah I see! Congrats on your success—tell us your how-I-got-an-agent story? Any tips?

I got my agent because I was at a conference where we could have a 1-2-1 with an agent - I sent her the first three chapters and query letter beforehand and she asked to meet with me. From there I sent her the full MS and a few months later she signed me.

Wow, that sounds like the dream scenario. Had you queried other agents too? What’s your genre?

I write historical fiction.

After that initial meeting I did query some other agents and had some full requests. But I wanted to go with the agent I had met in person, it felt like more of a relationship as I knew we got on. I’m very happy that I did sign with her, she’s brilliant!

that's great @LouisaMayAlcott - I hope to one day be able to tell a success story too!

thank you for the kind words @Moonflowered and @ferntwist - fingers crossed for all of us!!

I went back in the query trenches on Monday after taking some time off from it. Querying is just as horrible as I remember but I got a full request on Tuesday and another today, bringing me up to 8. Hoping at least one of these turn into an offer but I've seen horror stories of people getting 20+ full requests and no offers. Here's hoping anyway! And in the mean time I'm cracking on with my next project which is so much fun and reminds me why I love writing.

Wow, you queried on Monday and got a request for the full on Tuesday and Thursday! Your manuscript must be good!

Oh my goodness, that’s incredible! Good for you. Can you tell us more about your book/genre? Do you have a high concept hook? This seems to be a huge selling point in the industry and one I had no idea about when I started writing my novel last year

Would anyone be up for sharing their query letters — redacted in parts if needed. It would be so useful to get an idea of how everyone is structuring them in terms of length of each element and what you choose to focus on most

@ferntwist in all honesty i think I'm getting fast responses from agents because I always include a few that are fast responders (you can check query reply rates on query tracker with the paid version and they have a video which shows how to sort agent by fast response times). I don't have a particularly high concept novel - I write YA romcoms. I have had loads of feedback on my manuscript though - worked with a mentor, loads of beta readers etc. I also implemented feedback from literary agents. It's had loads of edits!

For query letters i can't recommend r/pubtips enough - it's a Reddit forum where people share their query letters and get critiques and often literary agents are in the comments. So helpful to see structure and what should be in there - or what shouldn't!

Thanks so much for the tips @NewWriter — will check out that board. I haven’t signed up to the paid version of Query Tracker but it’s very tempting!

Had to jump back on here to ask what everyone thinks of what appears to be a big scandal in the last couple of days — an agent at Kate Nash has been dismissed after reading and rejecting authors’ queries live on TikTok, without their consent. Seems she was opening random emails and reacting to them in real time and although I don’t think she used names, authors could tell who they were. Owch

Apologies, could be the agent hasn’t been dismissed but TikTokers/authors are calling for that. So many posts on the Reddit it’s hard to work out

I've had a look on the comments on Reddit.

I haven't seen any of the videos. So I might change my mind if I'd seen them.

I'm undecided about it.
It seems she didn't name people, but they could tell from time of receiving the rejection email. It doesn't sound from the comments that she was mocking or nasty about the queries either.
I'm wondering whether if she'd done "schedule send" and put it a week or so later whether people would have been able to work it out.

I don't think (hard to tell until you are effected) it would worry me as long as only I knew it was me. And you might pick up some tips from the reaction to your query.

One thing I find frustrating when I query is the lack of feedback. Don't get me wrong, I've had feedback from various places, and people, who should know, seem to be feeding back that what I'm sending is good.
But my typical response is nothing or a few weeks later something along the lines of:
"I liked your submission, but I didn't love it, so I don't think I'm the agent for you. Good luck in finding an agent".
Sometimes they don't go as far, sometimes they go further, but not a lot. I've been told in the letter that my submission "deserved to find an agent" which sounds good - but is that a form rejection? I can't tell.

I'd love to have a little more. "Your query letter was so boring that I didn't read beyond the first paragraph" or "your synopsis needed more on the conclusion" etc.
If the TikToks gave a little more insight then I would find that quite valuable. And if when she's doing the TokToks she makes sure that the person is not identified, but gives tips that would be helpful for other people, then I think I'm for it - while feeling sympathetic to people who may have felt publicly humiliated.

Having looked briefly at the agency (they don't do middle grade, which is where I'm at, so hadn't looked at them before), they ask for submissions through Query Shark. I wonder if they could ask to be added on the submission form permission for people's queries to be used in that way. There may be people, like me, who think they'd like that (possibly until it happens!) and people who know they'd hate it, and that would be a good way of solving it.

Very good idea for them to ask for consent via Query Tracker. It’s a shame as she seems like a lovely person from her public profile and YouTube chats etc. Looks like I got it wrong about her being dismissed, that was another agent.

I agree about the frustration at not getting any feedback on rejections. I get that agents are busy but it’s so hard to know how to break through without it. Have you ever considered paying for feedback from one of the literary consultants listed on Reedsy etc? I’m looking into that at the moment.