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How long do I wait to hear from an agency who have my full manuscript?
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KJPlayer
 22 Nov 2010, 10:30 #105727 Reply To Post
Five weeks ago an agency received my full manuscript, which they requested in mid October, and asked to have it on the exclusive. They were very positive about the first three chapters so I have my fingers crossed, while anticipating rejection all the same.
After six weeks, if I haven't heard anythin, would it be appropriate for me to contact them? (I will be polite and it will be a friendly email, of course!) If anyone has any ideas, they would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks
markgayle
 22 Nov 2010, 10:46 #105728 Reply To Post
Quote: KJPlayer, Monday, 22 Nov 2010 10:30
Five weeks ago an agency received my full manuscript, which they requested in mid October, and asked to have it on the exclusive. They were very positive about the first three chapters so I have my fingers crossed, while anticipating rejection all the same.
After six weeks, if I haven't heard anythin, would it be appropriate for me to contact them? (I will be polite and it will be a friendly email, of course!) If anyone has any ideas, they would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks


After this amount of time, it is perfectly fine to send a quick mail asking if they are closer to making any decision. Given they've asked for exclusive looks, it is normally considered appropriate to let a writer know within a couple of weeks. I'd suggest giving them more time, but commenting that you will soon start submitting elsewhere.

And if that makes them reject, fine. They were not the agents for you. A poor agent is much worse than none at all.
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KJPlayer
 22 Nov 2010, 11:28 #105733 Reply To Post
Thank you!

This was really helpful.
sulcus
 22 Nov 2010, 11:45 #105737 Reply To Post
I would have thought a month to 6 weeks as your MS full request or not, may not be top of their reading pile, or they may have to then push it to their head honcho, all sorts of internal things at their end.
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mkrobinson12
 22 Nov 2010, 12:54 #105753 Reply To Post
I've had three requests for the full ms of my last work this year and all three came back within a couple of weeks (three weeks for one agent). Of course, the answer was 'no' (except, please send next work from one agent), but they still replied promptly. I'm pretty certain from the correspondence that at least two of them read to the end or near enough, so I'd say that five weeks was plenty of time to make a decision. If they seemed enthusiastic and asked for an exclusive, then they would do the work and ignore the slush pile for a bit (a bird in hand comes to mind). I don't think there's anything wrong w/ a polite email asking where they are w/ the work. Shows you care, in my opinion. Mind you, if it's a big agency then there might be some bureaucracy going on.
This post was last edited by mkrobinson12, 22 Nov 2010, 12:55
KJPlayer
 22 Nov 2010, 15:51 #105778 Reply To Post
Thanks for your comments! I shall wait until six weeks have passed and then I'll send a polite and friendly email.
dholm
 22 Nov 2010, 22:05 #105800 Reply To Post
Thanks for answering this. I have one sitting at a publisher right now and I wondered how long I should wait before "checking up." Just so excited to have someone ask for the whole thing. I'm only a few weeks in though, so guess I'll wait a while longer.
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