I was lucky enough to have a meeting with an agent following a debut submission earlier this year. All very encouraging, lots of lovely things were said about the work and some helpful and reasonable suggestions for revisions were given. So far, so good - I got busy with a rewrite. Now comes the tricky bit - 4 months after resubmitting (longer than the response period to my original submission) I've heard nothing. I've chased via e-mail a couple of times and left one phone message, so I hopefully haven't been a nuisance. I'm very aware that I'm not officially a client and therefore not a priority.
That said, the question is, is it bad form to start submitting elsewhere? Am I being unreasonably impatient in feeling that 4 months is too long to give an agent an exclusive viewing period (as there have been no other agents in the mix)?
Any thoughts would be appreciated as I can't find any sources that give advice on something like this.
Many thanks
Sarah
This is common with amamteur writers, although, I don´t know how amateurish you are and when we submit unsolicited material. True. They´ll always be pleasant and encouring, but they won´t regard it essential to go to as it wasn´t requested or commision. If you like writing as much as I do, I´d suggest you to write your pieces whatever you write without a deadline and editing as much as you can. Do your research so as to find an editor who might be interested in one of your articles or stories, but don´t send them the whole of the piece. Just submit a fully detailed outline of about 100 words. If it´s a feature article of sorts you wish to sell, offering good photographs will help. In sumary, when material is not solicited, they aren´t to rush with you. Actually, many magazines don´t want unsolicited material.
I think I'd be sending it out to some more agents but then I've never been the patient type!
Hi S W.
I would re-submit to three agents/agencies that deal with your genre if you haven't given your present agent exclusivity. No more than three unless you're confident your manuscript is tight and error-free. You don't want to receive multiple rejection slips, exhaust your list of agents, and then struggle to find more.
I would never submit to one agent at a time. To use an analogy.
When selling a house its best to use more than one estate agent. The reason being they have to compete with each other and you're more likely to get a better price. If you give an estate agent, sole-agency it doesn't matter how long it takes them to sell your house, because they're still guaranteed their commission. In theory your house could be on the market for many months, a year, or longer.
You have waited 4 months for the agent to get back to you. I would contact them again. Tell them if you don't receive any concrete feedback within two months you will re-submit to other agents.
I hope that helps.
Good luck.