Saturday, March 05, 2011

When Does As Soon As Possible Come

As a rule, I wait about three weeks on an e-query before checking it off as a rejection. I haven't been wrong yet. What a track record.

The minute I learned that Lisa Gallagher was working as an agent at Sanford J. Greenburger, I jumped on the information. New agents are looking for new clients and it's always best to be at the head of the line.

Apparently, I'm far back in a very long line.

The auto-response to my query said that Ms. Gallagher would get back to me as soon as possible. So do I keep waiting? Or is she so swamped that she's becoming a "no response means no" agent?

It's well over six weeks and counting, but there's been nothing. Of course I could just move on, but Ms. Gallagher has such unique submission requirements that I hate to give up so soon.

Fill out the form on her website and submit, and there are other literary agents doing the same. In Ms. Gallagher's case, however, she asks for sample pages in PDF format and large print.

She's using a Kindle to read her submissions.

I went to the effort of copying and pasting the opening chapters. I sat there at the computer and converted the font and then saved it all as a PDF file. Takes time to do all that, and there isn't enough time around here to be wasted. So if I mark the submission as a rejection, then I'm admitting I wasted precious time.

I will not be so easily defeated. I will wait it out, checking the e-mails daily. Eventually, I'll learn just how much time is involved in "as soon as possible".

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