Timeline for Full MS?

[mysticatical]

I have sent out my MS to 8 agents.

2 haven't replied yet.

4 full MS requests thus far, one came the following day, one within 20 minutes. Two came last year off the back of an anthology and writing festival. Those two haven't confirmed receipt and I sent it them almost a month ago. The new ones confirmed receipt immediately.

2 agents, unusually, wanted the full MS from the get-go (it was stated in their submission guidelines). Both rejected it. Both said the writing was beautiful and complemented the strong atmosphere. One that she unfortunately didn't connect with the voice, for whatever reason. The other thought the story was too vague.

How long might I expect to wait? Can I be guaranteed a response? Or is there a chance I'll be met with radio silence? I'm not sure whether to be patient and play the waiting game (and potentially get useful feedback), or send out to more agents. I feel for my genre, literary fiction, there are only limited agents I can send it to. I made a shortlist of about 49.

[MegTravelz]

Generally, you can nudge after it's been 6 months on a full (unless the agent specified a different timeline). Sometimes it takes a year for a full! 
Sometimes, yes, you will get radio silence, and can consider it closed if after nudges they never reply.

Since your full is already out with 6 (8?) agents, it's up to you which way you want to go. Clearly the query and pages are working, but you also don't know if there's a snag in the middle or end. With that many fulls out, I would tend to wait and see if anyone respond and says "hey, I love ABC, but XYZ isn't working for me" etc. I also lean towards waiting because you mention you have a limited list to query, and you def don't want to use up everyone if there's a way to strengthen your manuscript. But there's really no right answer. Maybe your manuscript has no snags! I'd also say maybe pick one agent that you reallllly want to work with off your list, and query them. Just in case haha.

Congrats on all the fulls Best of luck!

[mysticatical]

Thank you!

Yes I might do that. I meant to say, 4 currently have the full MS - I've sent it to 6 in total but 2 passed. One very kind and encouraging pass with no real feedback - the other didn't ask for the full MS from me specifically but oddly it's a query requirement for her. I may well just try my luck on a dream agent and then play the waiting game. Do agents often ghost?

[mysticatical]

Please share your experiences, for this! Waiting as 6 agents read my full MS. No idea how long it'll take.

[littlewritings]

I think the fastest response to a full I ever got was about 2 weeks later, but I've also gotten responses several months later. (I've also sent fulls that I never received a reply to.)

I don't know if you have a premium account on QT, but if you do, you can look up individual agents' response times to partials and fulls.

[Viddiest]

In my cases, the responses have been close to 2.5 months, and in each case, I had to nudge. One agent did write periodically through this waiting to let me know she was still reading, so I felt she was still invested. This agent eventually asked for a revise and resubmit with detailed feedback. I have nudged a third agent who has my full twice and she has not even bothered to respond.