Just as I was feeling like a pariah in the publishing world, I got a mood-lifter.
There are many queries out there, but no one has responded one way or the other when I was hoping to get something. Either agents are seasonal workers, and late winter is the off season, or my name is traveling around the publishing community on some literary agent blacklist. Sort of like the 'Do Not Call' list, only my queries generate a shudder of horror and a quick pass into the circular file.
About once a week, I'll run through the list of sent e-queries, noting the non-responders as a 'no' in my database o' queries and deleting them. The time was coming to clean out the file, and Jessica Regel's name was at the bottom of the pile as the oldest unanswered letter after nine days. Housekeeping duties being a real low priority task, I did not clean up, and Blessed Ash Wednesday but she asked for the first three chapters.
Can't give her an exclusive, but I would if I could. Quite high up on the literary agent food chain, Jean Naggar's agency, but there's a couple of other partials out there and I have to be honest. Tomorrow, the packet goes in the mail, and I hope she understands that I can't grant her exclusivity request. Not that it matters, I suppose, since she's bound to reject the material anyway. Who wants an unpublished author when there's so many with credentials? Why kill yourself selling a manuscript from an unknown when you can approach the editor with a bit of 'won this award, earned an MFA, published in Glimmer Train' and all that jazz?
It was looking like I'd never need the Priority Mail envelopes and stamps that I bought about two months ago. Could it be a sign that the agents are shaking off the winter doldrums and getting up to speed?
4 comments:
Having spent a long stretch in the unagented wilderness (I have one now, but it took some time), I can tell you that some of your assumptions are incorrect.
A failure to respond in 2 months does not necessarily indicate a lack of interest. Response times can be long--I've had people come back with requests for partials after five months. In addition, things get lost; and people get sick.
More important, people move on. In one case, I sent a query to someone at an agency and got back a form rejection--only to discover that the person had left the agency and someone else had rejected me (without writing their name on the rejection). In another case, I didn't hear from an agent for three months...and then I noticed that she had left and opened her own agency; her previous agency didn;t forward her any mail. She was quite happy when I recontacted her.
My point is, you shouldn't let your conclusions run ahead of the evidence. And if you don't hear from a query for, say, 90 days, it's perfectly fine to inquire gently if perchance they never received your letter...
Best of luck.
PS. When I finally got an agent, it was at a conference, not through the query letter route. In fact, I had more more than one offer at the conference.
There are always exceptions - I speak from my own experience. Yes, I have had an agent respond after a month or two, and I have sent queries only to learn later that the agent moved on or left the business.
In general, however, delays mean no, and it is in the writer's best interest to move on and keep querying.
It's business, not personal. Rather like the Mafia, so?
I truly appreciate your blog. Since I am a new "author," I did not know what to expect and you have given me hope. I sent, per her request, three chapters, a synopsis, and SSAE to an agent on March 17. She asked for an exclusive, which I granted, but I have heard nothing back and was beginning to worry. Are you published yet? If not, best of luck to you!
There are those that will tell you it's a mistake to grant an exclusive, especially on a partial, but I'm hoping that you set a time limit - say four to six weeks.
I'm not published yet, but I keep trying. Christ, I'm a right idiot. Don't give up, there, Barbara, don't leave me as the only idiot out here.
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