R&R but don't know if I've been forgotten

[elea_ghost]

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit lost with all the R&R stuff. I feel like it's a new thing and I don't know what I'm doing with it. I had an agent once, about 10 years ago, and published a book with them which did well. Then I had a whole lot of stuff going on in my life which left me very little time or energy to write anything, and when I did I wasn't happy with the agent's handling of it so I decided we weren't the right match.

Since then, I've written a new book and it's been a big labour of love over many years. I need a new agent. I've sent it out a lot and had good responses but the two who've been most keen are taking so long to get back to me I just don't know what's going on. I dont' think R&R was even at thing back when I got my first agent and I've been pretty out of the literary world in recent years.

I have one agent who requested and R&R before Christmas and I replied saying it would take me 2 months. I did it in two months and sent it at the end of February. But I've not even had an acknowldedgement that my manuscript has been recieved. I sent it on the same email thread where she requested the R&R. Was this somehow the wrong thing to do?

At the same time another agent who requested the full over a year ago, (who I'd written off), emailed out of the blue asking if I was still looking for representation. I replied saying I was and she said she would read it asap because her reader raved about it. I thought that was a good sign so I sent her my revised version (explaining that I'd done a revision and another agent was interested in it). Again, I've heard not a peep since.

I'm so confused. Should I be emailing them? Expecting a response of some kind? Nothing?

I've stopped sending it out in the meantime but I'm wondering if I should just start resubmitting to new agents.

Any advice on this R&R thing would be hugely appreciated. At this point I feel like they can't possibly have liked it that much, but shouldn't they at least tell me it's not for them?

Thanks so much.

[Tabris]

Getting ghosted on a full is a thing, but it sounds like that hasn't happened yet.

Agent Time and Writer Time are vastly different units of measurement. Agents are, for the most part, fitting in query-reading and submission-reading around other work that's actively making them money. It's not that they aren't excited about a particular manuscript, but they are prioritizing the contract that just came in for a multi-book deal, the author who's sobbing on the phone because the publisher sent out marketing materials with her name misspelled, the editor who wants to know why an author has just blown his fifth deadline extension, and their boss who's demanding they grow the agency this year dammit.

In writer-time, we have one or maybe two manuscripts out there, and we're waiting.

At any rate, when you submit a full, an agent automatically thinks, "I have six months to read this," and unfortunately with an R&R, when you resubmit your full, they still think, "I have six months to read this." That's nerve-wracking, but the February submission can't be nudged, really, until August.

Definitely submit queries to new agents. Don't hang your hat on either of these two. By the time August rolls around, you may have another six full requests out there and one offer will trigger a feeding frenzy.

Additionally, start writing another novel. Have something in your back pocket to make the offer of representation even more tantalizing for the agent.

Good luck!