Can you send a revised version to an agent who has your full?

[railroad]

At one point, I had four agents considering my full manuscript. Three have since rejected it. The one person who still has it is my DREAM agent. However, she's had it for a very long time. I sent a nudge a while ago, and she said I was still in her queue. Frankly I'm not sure if I will ever hear from her, but since she hasn't outright rejected it when she had the chance, I'm holding out hope.

Since then, I've made some small but substantial changes to the novel that I think make it better. Would it be out of line to reply to her latest, "You're still in the running" email and attach the revised manuscript, saying I've made some changes?

If this would be okay to do, how would I best handle it?

 

[writera]

I've done this before. I still get tempted to do it. I think we all do as we often continue tinkering with our manuscripts, especially if the waiting periods on fulls are long - and sometimes we end up giving them quite a big overhaul.

It depends how significant the changes are and if she's started reading and how far along she is. I've seen agent Jennifer Laughran say you can do this but it can be annoying for the agent so, if you do it, only do it once - and only if the changes are major or significant (i.e. you really, really feel they'll move the needle one way or the other). If they're small fixes/typos, etc., I wouldn't bother. You could also email the agent and ask and let her choose if she wants to see the revision - but again, only if the changes are significant. It could also put you back to the bottom of her queue depending on how she works.

 

[Unimportant]

At one point, I had four agents considering my full manuscript. Three have since rejected it. The one person who still has it is my DREAM agent. However, she's had it for a very long time. I sent a nudge a while ago, and she said I was still in her queue. Frankly I'm not sure if I will ever hear from her, but since she hasn't outright rejected it when she had the chance, I'm holding out hope.

Since then, I've made some small but substantial changes to the novel that I think make it better. Would it be out of line to reply to her latest, "You're still in the running" email and attach the revised manuscript, saying I've made some changes?

If this would be okay to do, how would I best handle it?

You might find these threads of interest: here, here, here, here.

 

[Maryn]

Let me scoot this sideways to Ask an Agent, if I can figure out how on this device.

Maryn, in a crappy airport