Exclusives?

[bizess]

Hey!
So I sent out queries and got a few requests for proposals. I sent out a few proposals and then I got this today:

"Thank you for your interest in *** Agency. I’m intrigued by your project and would like to review the book proposal and sample chapters for, *** on a four-week exclusive basis. Can you please email it to me as an attachment?"

Can I send her the proposal or should I not bother?

Liz

[Doc]

Congrats on the requests!

I'd reply that you already have a few proposals out there, and are thus unable to grant her an exclusive.  Ask if she's still interested in reviewing your material.  Chances are the agent is still going to want your proposal.

Good luck!

[Tabris]

Dear Agent:

Thank you so much for your interest in {TITLE}. I'd love to send it to you, but unfortunately I am unable to grant an exclusive at this time because it's already under review elsewhere. I could send it now on a non-exclusive basis and let you know immediately if I receive an offer, or I could wait until the manuscript is free. Please let me know how to proceed.

Thanks,

Bizess

[islechile]

Congrats, Bizess!  I received an exclusive request from an agent (a very good one) more than a month ago, by mail. I've got other subs out, so I thought I would wait until I hear back from those before sending. But I didn't say anything back since the request I got also said something like "Take your time and polish the ms before sending." Now I'm wondering if I should have written back right away and said what you are suggesting, Tabris. This is for a novel, BTW.

[dzolidis]

I agree with the above posters. An exclusive only benefits the agent. And if they read it, and don't like it, then you've just wasting four weeks of querying.

Most likely, they'll agree to look at the book without an exclusive. If they liked it before, why wouldn't they like it if they knew other people liked it too?

[GennAlbin]

If you already have it out there, you should let them know and don't wait on the other agents to send it.  Most agents will still consider it.  Three of the agents who requested my fulls, usually ask for exclusives and waved it since they knew I had others out.