Tenacity or stalking?

[AnnMB]

Suppose you find an agent that you are convinced is absolutely the right one to represent your work. He/she refuses to respond to e-mail query, and has not even seen a synopsis or partial ms. Is it appropriate to keep after that agent, refusing to give up unless he/she agrees to at least look at a sample of your work? How much is too much? Sending additonal e-mails? Sending a hard-copy query to follow up the e-mails? How do you think agents respond to such pestering, and when does tenacity become stalking?

[kristie911]

Just my 2 cents:

If you haven't gotten a reply by e-mail, it's time to send a hard copy of your query. Make sure it's as absolutely perfect and as interesting as it can be. You have to hook the agent and make them want more.

But if the agent rejects your query...sorry but it's time to move on. I just can't believe that pestering them will help.

[MidnightMuse]

Um . . . First I'd find out if that agent even wants to be queried by email. Many (if not most) of them prefer snail mail queries.

If you're getting no response - how long has it been?

If you're getting a No. Well, No means . . . No.

[Variant Frequencies]

I agree. If you get no response to an email, maybe the agent doesn't like queries by email or maybe the email never arrived. Try a paper query, following the agent's guidelines. No response, or a no, give it up.

[NeuroFizz]

My experience -- many agents who accept e-mail submissions do not respond if they are not interested. Some even say that they will only respond if they want to read more. In the past, I've found a response rate of somewhere around 50-60% for e-mail queries. My advice -- if you want responses, go the snail mail route with a SASE.

[Shiraz]

This is an agent you are querying? S/he isn't representing you?

Stop pestering. No response is a -no-. Badgering through persistent emails and/or phone calls will not be received well.

Double check the submission guidelines of the agent. If s/he only accepts snail mail, by all means, send one out. If email queries are accepted and you haven't received word, s/he's not interested.

How long ago did you send out your first query? It could take weeks/months before you hear anything anyway.

Don't want to sound like a drag, but I'd hate for you to end up on a "now she's just pissed me off" list, ya' know?

[Jamesaritchie]

Suppose you find an agent that you are convinced is absolutely the right one to represent your work. He/she refuses to respond to e-mail query, and has not even seen a synopsis or partial ms. Is it appropriate to keep after that agent, refusing to give up unless he/she agrees to at least look at a sample of your work? How much is too much? Sending additonal e-mails? Sending a hard-copy query to follow up the e-mails? How do you think agents respond to such pestering, and when does tenacity become stalking?

Always query in whatever manner the agent prefers. And make certain you know what manner this is.

Once you have queried in the manner the agent prefers, accept the results. In other words, go away and leave that agent alone until and unless you have a brand new project to query.

You get one shot with each project. When used correctly, persistance is a good thing. When used incorrectly, persistance just makes you a pain in the butt that no one wants to have anything to do with.

[writeorwrong]

You get one shot with each project.

And that is the most important thing you need to know. Which means don't waste postage/bandwidth/angst on agents whom you aren't 100% sure represent your genre, or aren't currently accepting new clients.

Make sure the work needs no typographical editing, and the prose is as perfect (in your estimation) as it can be.

Trust me, trying to force an agent's hand will only leave a bad impression, however tempting the ease of e-mail has now made it.

[DamaNegra]

Plus, if you pester her/him too much, you may get on her black list and other agents may hear about it, which is not good.

[Gillhoughly]

Um...you better go here. Fast.

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Read past postings (they're indexed now) before you put your foot into things and this perfect agent starts mentioning you by name to his cronies over lunch.

If this person is too busy to look at your stuff and/or ducking you then drop it.

Your idea of the perfect agent may be at odds with the target's agenda. I was positive I'd found the perfect agent (she'd gotten a friend a high 6-figure deal and that SO made her right for me!).

We had a brief phone conversation. She was firm about not taking on new clients even if they'd been multi-published. However, when I asked, she did give me the name of another agency to try.

The head of the agency was also too busy--but passed me to one of her young and hungry associates.

I lucked out, and now we're both making some money.

:)

[zeprosnepsid]

I'll go against the grain here and say there's nothing wrong with a polite followup after a reasonable amount of time. A reasonable amount of time may be 6 months.

[Jamesaritchie]

I'll go against the grain here and say there's nothing wrong with a polite followup after a reasonable amount of time. A reasonable amount of time may be 6 months.

A followup to inquire about the first query, yes. This should be automatic. But a new query, no, never.

[jackie106]

Have you posted your query in AW's Share Your Work section? The feedback from other writers can be really valuable.

[AnnMB]

Thank you all for your advice. The agent in question prefers e-mail. I sent the e-mail and received no response for several weeks. I inquired as to the time frame for response and was told (by e-mail) "Immediately or never. Please try again." Unsure as to what, exactly, that meant, I changed the query around, got opinions on what was wrong/right with it, and re-sent it. I also sent it snail-mail with an SASE, just to make sure he got it. I haven't received a response to either.

I had read a "real-life" story about an author who kept badgering a particular agent, even to the point of showing up at his office, until the agent finally agreed to read the manuscript. He wound up taking it, and both agent and author became very successful. So I wondered if that was what I was supposed to be doing.

I don't want the guy to get a restraining order against me. I just wanted to get his attention. Maybe I shoulda sent him flowers :- ) Time to move on, I guess.

Thanks again, all you glorious sages. You have perhaps saved me from making a total fool of myself.

[jackie106]

Your novel deserves an agent who loves it. If this guy is lukewarm or not interested, try someone new.

[IThinkICan29]

Oh my gosh...the restraining order thing was just too hilarious. I totally believe that the stories we hear about people badgering agents and ultimately becoming successful are definitely the exception not the rule. I'd hate to see you on the 5 o'clock news being handcuffed outside the agent's office....LOL

[LightShadow]

Persistence is admirable. Tenacity is expected. Harrassment is punishable by law. Take your choice. . . but don't give up!

[Gillhoughly]

I had read a "real-life" story about an author who kept badgering a particular agent, even to the point of showing up at his office,

Yes, there are always going to be the big lottery winners who give us hope, but the odds are against this working. If a writer turned up on my doorstep demanding action I'd be going "WTF?" and set the dogs on him, but that's just me. Follow their guidelines, be professional, and write well; that's all they want.

Start looking at other agents. If the first gets off his duff and takes you on, you can always tell the new ones thanks-but-nevermind.

Check the websites of writers whose work is similar to yours and ask them (polite, brief, and with no synopsis of your book) if they would share the name of their agent with you. Most don't mind doing that much. Then you say thanks and vanish from their radar. If you get representation and a sale send them a copy of the book as a thank you. ;)

[blacbird]

What part of "NO" don't you understand?

caw.

[waylander]

it is one of those irregular verb conjugations isn't it?

I am a determined and persistent writer
You annoy people
He has a restraining order

[AnnMB]

What part of "NO" don't you understand?

caw.

Gee, blacbird, did you take a nasty pill or something? Besides, he never said "no." He said "try again."

And if you will stop being lazy and read the previous posts, you will see that I have already conceded the point.

[Jamesaritchie]

Gee, blacbird, did you take a nasty pill or something? Besides, he never said "no." He said "try again."

And if you will stop being lazy and read the previous posts, you will see that I have already conceded the point.

I don't think it's been pointed out that "try again" is a good thing. It means try again with a new project, of course, but it's still a good thing.

[blackbird]

I had my "perfect agent" in mind a few years ago. I sent a hardcopy query; never heard anything back. A few months later, I sent a follow-up by email. Never heard back. After that, I figured it was time to move on. There are still times when I wonder if I did everything I possibly could have to get my query in front of her, if I'd left any potential stone unturned. I would wonder if I, in fact, had the correct address, or if maybe another agent at the agency received that email and never forwarded it to her. Recently, I discovered that a published writer who visited our creative writing program while I was at MSU happened to have this particular agent whom I was courting, though I did not discover the fact until about two years after her visit. The irony is, I spent hours talking one on one to this writer because she had been told by my instructors what a "great" writer I am. Well, I could have kicked myself for not knowing (or should I say, perhaps, for not asking). And, of course, most published writers don't go around broadcasting that kind of information unless you do ask them. That might have been a perfect opportunity to make a personal connection with this agent, but I was unaware and so didn't take advantage of the opportunity.

However, unless another such godsent opportunity comes my way, I probably will not pester that agent again. Two queries is certainly enough.
I moved on and found someone who was interested.

[FloVoyager]

If you haven't gotten a reply by e-mail, it's time to send a hard copy of your query.

I'd say so too. About half my e-mail queries never got a response, and it's been a while so I'm going to follow up with a snail mail one. Given that some e-mails never make it to their destination, get snagged by spam filters, or even deleted by accident, I think this is reasonable. But that'll be it. No response to a hard copy with an SASE and I'm moving on.

[Gillhoughly]

Sometimes it takes awhile for an agent to work down the pile to one's letter.

Imagine getting all at once 100 letters that must be opened and read, evaluating whether the writer is worth your time or not (using spellcheck and a return SASE gets you points there) then making a reply of some sort to that person.

Then you have to read and evaluate the hundred sample chapters that also arrived with their SASE's & outlines and either put them into the slim "maybe" pile, trash the ones with no SASE or drop in the much taller "return" pile.

And with all this mail to check you still have to bathe, eat, look in on the family, and try to have some kind of life.

Then imagine getting ANOTHER 100 query letters & sample chapters the next day and the next and the....

One week of that and I'd go back to flipping burgers. :eek:

[AnnMB]

As a follow-up to anyone who might care, just today I received a written response to the agent I was intending to "stalk."

It was kind of nice because it was not a form response, was written to me personally (instead of "dear author") and explained that, in my specific genre, their agency is only considering those writers who have some author credentials to back them up. I, unfortunately, don't, and was advised that it will be very difficult to find an agent for my genre without having some writing credentials in that genre (i.e short stories, etc.)

Catch 22, isn't it? Need to be published to get published.

I won't give up, though. Every published author was unpublished at some point.

[Jamesaritchie]

their agency is only c
I won't give up, though. Every published author was unpublished at some point.

A goodly number of agents follow this procedure, but aren't so up front about it. My last agent did. So did her sister agent. So does my current agent.

Credentials do not necessarily mean having a novel published. More often than not, it means having short stories published in good magazines. It can also mean a good contest win.

Look at it this way. You're an agent, but you can only take on so many new writers each year. Maybe only one. Certainly no more than four or five, absolute tops. You receive 100 queries from writers with credentials. What reason do you have to look at, or take on, writers who have no credentials?

[blacbird]

Every published author was unpublished at some point.

I used to think this, too. Now I'm not so sure.

caw.

[Birol]

You think published authors were always published? ;)

[maestrowork]

You don't have to publish THAT particular novel ms. to be "published." There are many other ways -- writing for magazines or newspapers or getting short stories or poetry published by literary journals, etc. I started out getting some essays published by a literary journal and writing for an e-zine. That gave me credentials. Now that my novel has been published, I still write short stories, poetry, etc. and submit them.

IMHO, writers need to be flexible and you build your career via many different ways. As Uncle Jim said (and I paraphrase): it would be a mistake to write one book and spend the rest of your days trying to sell it. Keep writing -- anything, everything -- and get them out there.

[TeddyG]

I really hate to say this..cause I used to hate to hear it....
but my agent always told me (and still does just to make me ballistic!)
Teddy you want to publish that specific novel then get some short stories under your belt...
I hated hearing it, I was stubborn, but I gave in of course...
Which I did. I returned to writing short stories....and have had quite a few published since Jan. 2006
I got lucky, and let us say they have been reviewed incredibly favorably...
which NOW paved the way for not my novels! but for a possible short story anthology contract...

So yes, (as much as I hate to admit Ray is right...cause he will never let me forget it) especially in the literary genre (I can only speak in non-fiction, literary and fantasy genre with any knowledge) short stories are the way to go...

HOWEVER..and here is the catch 22 AGAIN
Getting a short story published can be as or MORE difficult than getting a novel published...so don't think this is any type of magic formula...
But if you are serious about your craft, then it certainly is something to consider in building your career

[Jamesaritchie]

HOWEVER..and here is the catch 22 AGAIN
Getting a short story published can be as or MORE difficult than getting a novel published...so don't think this is any type of magic formula...
But if you are serious about your craft, then it certainly is something to consider in building your career

True. There's nothing at all easy about selling short stories, and the better the markets, the tougher the competition. There's almost no room for error in a short story. It has to be darned near perfect. Selling a novel is easy compared to selling a short story to a good market.

I think it was Marion Zimmer Bradley who said that anyone who could sell a short story to a top market should be able to earn some sort of living as a writer, assuming teh discipline was there.

But as valuable as short story credits can be, I think you have to enjoy reading them, and enjoy writing them, in order to stand a chance of selling short stories to makets that are really credential quality.

And they are valuable. I've had two novel deals that were brought about by short story sales.

[blacbird]

Keep writing -- anything, everything -- and get them out there.

"Out there", of course, having a myriad of definitions. In my case, "out there" has become a filing cabinet out in my garage.

caw.