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?

It’s just over 80k. Yes, it was my new agent’s vision for edits that really sold me on her — she asked excellent questions about my intentions for it, while being enthusiastic but also straight-talking about what she felt needed doing. I thought this was someone I could work with, and that we shared a vision of what it could be at its best. I will be excited to start. One of the other agents didn’t think it needed significant work, the other thought it needed less than the agent I went with. But I think it will be a better book with this one.

Mine is book club which is a mix between literary/commercial though leaving more literary since losing agent

That sounds ideal—excellent criteria to choose an agent. Beyond curious to know more about your book!

Wondering how much of a delay in query replies/reading to factor in because of London Book Fair? No idea if all agents are involved. I’ve read differing accounts, that many deals are settled well beforehand, but also that it’s incredibly busy for networking

My (brand new) agent said she wouldn’t be giving me notes for an edit until afterwards, certainly.

Also, for anyone interested in querying Lucy Luck, she’s struck out on her own again — piece in yesterday’s Bookseller.

Good tip @Hagstones. You’re our woman on the inside now!

God, I’m not on any inside! I just saw a headline in The Bookseller, and someone had raised LL’s name on here!

Sorry @Hagstones as in you’ve got an agent telling you stuff now, like nothing doing til after the LBF (which is what I’m obsessing about right now, deluding myself that’s why it’s crickets!)

Ladies, I’ve got some insider juice to keep us all going… chatted to an agent who said that she will specifically be meeting with editors not only to pitch projects but also to find out what she should be looking out for in new submisssions. Post-fair she’ll go through her submissions inbox with this in mind. So we should clearly all brace for a flurry of post-LBF offers and full requests! 😀

Copying over from other thread!
Hi all! May I join your ranks? Here's my baggage:
Book 1: first book i wrote, got 4 offers of rep, got dumped by my agent.
Book 2: thought this was way better both in terms of writing and the story, got requests for fulls but no offers
Book 3: started querying today. I hate it 😂 I think its a stupid, skinny plot but I spent 2 years wrestling with it so very glad its out of my life.
About to start working on Book 4 and I think im going to try my hand at YA/crossover

Still not many responses for me... Got a very nice personalised rejection yesterday saying they liked my main character's voice and sense of humour in my writing which was very nice to receive.

Other than that, crickets. I'll probably chase on the fulls I have out after Easter and if those are a dead end start approaching small presses that accept unagented manuscripts.

I'd quite like to do a writing course to continue to improve my writing if anyone knows if any good ones in London. Or mentor programmes - I had a mentor for six months last year and loved it and it massively improved my writing.

That is lovely feedback @NewWriter! I got compliments on my humour but looks like they didn't like my main character 😂which I get. He's a tough one to love. So, you've already got two strong points here!

I'm not an expert on writing courses unfortunately. I've heard about a self-editing course from The Literary Consultancy if of any interest, via Phoebe Morgan's Substack if you want to have a look.

Was that a rejection on one of your fulls @NewWriter? Sorry to hear. Good luck on chasing after Easter!
It seems so quiet out there at the moment.

Your mentor programme sounds amazing—how did it all work?

@TinySmallSteps haha yes and main characters don't have to be likable! All my characters are problematic at times 😂 thanks for the tip, I'll have a look at her substack!

@ferntwist thank you! It wasn't a rejection on a full, just a rejection to a query. Still awaiting responses for my outstanding fulls! The mentoring I did came about through an author I did a virtual workshop with. Mentoring for writing does tend to cost money unlike in other industries but to be fair she helped me through developmental edits and line edits and I think it was a worthwhile investment! On the lookout for another mentor though as I think it would be useful to learn from another author.

Hello all, just checking in! Ive had seven requests for fulls so far and no responses from that. Its been just under two weeks now, and though I know how slow these things are I cant help but feel the length of time means this MS is dead in the water

That is superb! Don’t forget that it was LBF and now everyone has stopped for Easter (probably for two weeks!). And they have to read manuscripts in their own time so it can take several weeks before you hear back. I’ve got everything crossed for you!

I think, judging by my agent, that the follow-up stuff from a successful/busy LBF can easily eat up ten days or a fortnight, so I wouldn't write anything off so soon.

Sorry, read thread upside down and answered an ancient post.

Wow, seven requests is incredible. How long did it take for those to come in? I’m sure the ms couldn’t possibly be dead in the water with that number of requests and it’s so early. Are you going to send out more queries? Is the full request rate more for thrillers generally, compared with literary fiction I wonder? Seven seems like you must be doing something very right

Thanks for the info @NewWriter. Hoping you get some offers soon

How’s it all going @Hagstones? Are you getting stuck into edits now?

Sorry, @ferntwist — I wasn’t around for a bit! Yes, am getting to grips with agent’s notes. Quite challenging stuff, but going to make the book a lot better and more saleable…

That sounds like a satisfying task to get your teeth into. Was it easy to agree to the edits, any darlings that are hard to kill?!

They’re not line edits, more narrative arc and emotional pacing suggestions eg that I need to get the reader more initially invested in a particular relationship so that they care when it falls apart, or that some of the black humour of my protagonist would be better put into her dialogue with X, rather than just always be in her internal monologue.

Mostly what she’s doing is flagging problems. It’s up to me to figure out how to fix them, though she’s usually also making suggestions — I’m taking the problems seriously, but won’t necessarily use her suggested solutions.

It is definitely making the book better.