How many agents should you pitch to?

by . .
5th April 2013

Every literary agent likes to believe that they are your first choice. So is it good politics to pitch to just one agent at a time? Or should you adopt a blanket approach and contact as many as you can find?

Replies

Agents/Agencies normally respond within 6-8 weeks. If you send one submission at a time and you get 6-7 rejections, a year will have passed.

I would make a long list of Agents/Agencies that deal with your genre. I would send three submissions every week. If I failed in the UK, I would send to the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and so on.

Out of courtesy I would tell the Agents/Agencies that I have submitted my work elsewhere.

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Adrian
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Adrian Sroka
06/04/2013

More to the point surely... How many pitches can you keep clear track of at any one time?

David

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David
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05/04/2013