Do most offers come in quickly after a full MS request?

[richardclin]

I think it was Victoria Griffin of Blue Pen who wrote in her blog how it took her five years of querying to get her first agent. Sandra Lu (who just rejected my query the other day) got back to her with an offer to rep over a year after requesting her full...

Mysticatical,

Brent Weeks, best selling fantasy author, mentioned that his agent, Donald Maass, offered representation 9 months after requesting a full. So if an agent doesn’t make that call right away, it doesn’t mean he/she has written you off.

Good luck!

[mysticatical]

Mysticatical,

Brent Weeks, best selling fantasy author, mentioned that his agent, Donald Maass, offered representation 9 months after requesting a full. So if an agent doesn’t make that call right away, it doesn’t mean he/she has written you off.

Good luck!

Wow that's mad! Thanks for sharing. It reassures me. Every minute that passes I feel like I'm further from representation. I know that's not the reality, but my brain tells me it is, haha. I wonder if an agent is reading it right now :S

[richardclin]

Mysticatical,


I know the feeling. You can go quite quickly from elation (receiving a request for a full yesterday) to dispirited (received three query rejections this morning) in this rough-and-tumble literary realm.


Hang in there, I'm sure an agent somewhere is reading your work (or soon will be) and enjoying it.


Sincerely,
RCL

Mysticatical,

Brent Weeks, best selling fantasy author, mentioned that his agent, Donald Maass, offered representation 9 months after requesting a full. So if an agent doesn’t make that call right away, it doesn’t mean he/she has written you off.

Good luck!

Wow that's mad! Thanks for sharing. It reassures me. Every minute that passes I feel like I'm further from representation. I know that's not the reality, but my brain tells me it is, haha. I wonder if an agent is reading it right now :S

[mysticatical]

Mysticatical,


I know the feeling. You can go quite quickly from elation (receiving a request for a full yesterday) to dispirited (received three query rejections this morning) in this rough-and-tumble literary realm.


Hang in there, I'm sure an agent somewhere is reading your work (or soon will be) and enjoying it.


Sincerely,
RCL

Mysticatical,

Brent Weeks, best selling fantasy author, mentioned that his agent, Donald Maass, offered representation 9 months after requesting a full. So if an agent doesn’t make that call right away, it doesn’t mean he/she has written you off.

Good luck!

Wow that's mad! Thanks for sharing. It reassures me. Every minute that passes I feel like I'm further from representation. I know that's not the reality, but my brain tells me it is, haha. I wonder if an agent is reading it right now :S

Thank you! I really hope that's true. Even better, someone has a clear vision for it to improve. I keep trying to imagine it being true as if magical thinking will make it happen. It would change all of our lives.

[richardclin]

Indeed it would, Mysticatical. And I am sure you will succeed in publishing your MS one way or another.


I wish you a splendid new day.

[Miss Plum]

Agents sometimes go so long before they say Yes to requested materials that they approach almost timidly.

I queried one of the top 5 nonfic agents and he got back to me in one day with "Please send the proposal." I sent it. A couple of other agents also read my proposal and offered me rep, and I was considering them. Then Mr. Top-Five entered my Inbox after about 7 weeks. "If this project is still available, I'm interested in repping it." He even KNEW it might have slipped through his fingers -- but there you go.

btw, I did wind up going with him, and he couldn't sell the book. Another brush-with-success story for another day.

[kciswriting]

Mysticatical,


I know the feeling. You can go quite quickly from elation (receiving a request for a full yesterday) to dispirited (received three query rejections this morning) in this rough-and-tumble literary realm.


Hang in there, I'm sure an agent somewhere is reading your work (or soon will be) and enjoying it.


Sincerely,
RCL

1 full request vs 3 rejections? I still consider that a success. 

[richardclin]

Thank you for sharing, Miss Plum. You're like the third author in this community who landed an agent but then the agent couldn't sell the book. I wonder whether QT or other source has stats on what percentage of books repped by agents get trad published in the end?


On a related note, from QT it appears that most agents end up offering rep to about 2-6% of the authors from whom they requested MS. And before that, it seems the majority of agents request partials or fulls from about 1-5% of author queries. So it is quite a remarkable achievement to be trad published these days...

Agents sometimes go so long before they say Yes to requested materials that they approach almost timidly.

I queried one of the top 5 nonfic agents and he got back to me in one day with "Please send the proposal." I sent it. A couple of other agents also read my proposal and offered me rep, and I was considering them. Then Mr. Top-Five entered my Inbox after about 7 weeks. "If this project is still available, I'm interested in repping it." He even KNEW it might have slipped through his fingers -- but there you go.

btw, I did wind up going with him, and he couldn't sell the book. Another brush-with-success story for another day.

[Miss Plum]

I wonder whether QT or other source has stats on what percentage of books repped by agents get trad published in the end?

I've seen this question raised on other forums. The stats, as I recall, were a bit discouraging. Getting an agent is just placing yourself at the foot of yet another summit.

[Johnny 5]

  Those figures are heavy.

I try find hope in seeing it as an elimination game. As long as you follow guidelines well, choose the right agencies, the right agents, have a good story, a well written manuscript, are friendly and easy to work with, willing to make changes and take advice, can meet deadlines, have no baggage that will impact your relationships with this process, can continue to create more work . . . those must lift you up into the single figure percentages.

Luck must then just ride in on its horse and glue it all together.

[richardclin]

Hilarious, my good friend Jonny, but sadly true. One good thing though, we've been speaking in percentages across all queries. If we are superior authors with superb manuscripts that reflect our extraordinary literary and commercial savvy (which is true for all of us in this esteemed forum, of course), then our chances may even ascend into high single digits!
 

Those figures are heavy.

I try find hope in seeing it as an elimination game. As long as you follow guidelines well, choose the right agencies, the right agents, have a good story, a well written manucript, are friendly and easy to work with, willing to make changes and take advice, can meet deadlines, have no baggage that will impact your relationships with this process, can continue to create more work . . . those must lift you up into the single figure percentages.

Luck must then just ride in on its horse and glue it all together.

[mysticatical]

I am sitting here anxiously wondering when/if my agents will come back to me 

[Johnny 5]

Holding thumbs for you mysticatical

 

[mysticatical]

Holding thumbs for you mysticatical

 

Thank you  crossing my fingers for all of you, too. May we all receiving exciting and life-changing news soon!

[Odd John]

All of this detailed anxiety (which I share) at the last reminds me that I will write no matter what. Why?:

            a) It's in my bones, my marrow.
            b) I enjoy it (mostly). Mostly in the sense of personal satisfaction.
            c) It beats doing what I used to do too much of, hanging around in bars shooting pool and such.
            d) After a certain period of time, I'll self-publish. There's always a chance of being "discovered" later.
            e) I feel a "duty" to write.

That's the whole ball of wax, made into a candle and burning at both ends.