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KJPlayer
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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
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markgayle
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Quote: KJPlayer, Monday, 22 Nov 2010 10:30Five 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.
Now and then I write: http://www.mofanning.co.uk
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KJPlayer
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Thank you!
This was really helpful.
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sulcus
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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.
"A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."
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mkrobinson12
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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
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KJPlayer
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Thanks for your comments! I shall wait until six weeks have passed and then I'll send a polite and friendly email.
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dholm
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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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