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.