In Limbo -- need sanity check

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sasmom

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Novel is out on sub by my agent. Strong interest, passing read after read, editorial meetings, etc. at multiple publishers, but no offer. OTOH no rejects. Agent says reads within the house are intended find reasons to reject, but editors/readers love the writing, plot, characters, etc. Agent is confident we'll hear good news, but I'm waffling now on how long to stay in this limbo before deciding to yank the novel and try the self-publish route.

I know I can't leave things in limbo in perpetuity, yet...

Any thoughts? Should I set an internal time clock or just simply forget and continue writing book #2? Agent has been pitching for about 3-4 months.
 
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KTC

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Wait. Write your next book. That is not a long time AT ALL.
 

Buffysquirrel

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There are good reasons to self-publish, but tbh I don't think impatience is one of them :).
 

jjdebenedictis

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I would just like to point out what an incredibly shitty thing that would be to do to your agent.

He has been busting his ass for a quarter of a year for you, and you want to cheat him out of any possibility of ever getting paid for that work?
 
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Beachgirl

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There are good reasons to self-publish, but tbh I don't think impatience is one of them :).

^This. First publishing rights are too valuable to toss away simply for being impatient and once they're gone, they're gone. There are some very valid reasons for self-publishing, but impatience really shouldn't be high (or anywhere) on that list, IMO.
 

Lillith1991

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I would just like to point out what an incredibly shitty thing that would be to do to your agent.

He has been busting his ass for a quarter of a year for you, and you want to cheat him out of any possibility of ever getting paid for that work?

Agreed. Your agent isn't your slave. He's been working hard I bet and has other clients to cater to as well. This is something you should have thought of before signing with him.

^This. First publishing rights are too valuable to toss away simply for being impatient and once they're gone, they're gone. There are some very valid reasons for self-publishing, but impatience really shouldn't be high (or anywhere) on that list, IMO.

Again I agree. I tghink if you really want to self publish and the only reason you can come up with is wanting to make the story avalable now, then you shouldn't be self pubbing at all. Least of all now that you have an agent involved.
 

BethS

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Novel is out on sub by my agent. Strong interest, passing read after read, editorial meetings, etc. at multiple publishers, but no offer. OTOH no rejects. Agent says reads within the house are intended find reasons to reject, but editors/readers love the writing, plot, characters, etc. Agent is confident we'll hear good news, but I'm waffling now on how long to stay in this limbo before deciding to yank the novel and try the self-publish route.

I know I can't leave things in limbo in perpetuity, yet...

Any thoughts? Should I set an internal time clock or just simply forget and continue writing book #2? Agent has been pitching for about 3-4 months.

Oh heavens. That's not long at all. Give your agent* (and your novel) time to find the right home. From the sound of things, it's only a matter of time. Yanking it now would be a big mistake, IMO.

Meanwhile, get to work on something else.

*And I agree with what was said above. Pulling the novel now would show an appalling lack of confidence in your agent, not to mention being a thoughtless act in itself. Your agent deserves to have a chance to earn his or her pay.
 
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chompers

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I would just like to point out what an incredibly shitty thing that would be to do to your agent.

He has been busting his ass for a quarter of a year for you, and you want to cheat him out of any possibility of ever getting paid for that work?
While I think it's too early to pull the plug yet, this is an extremely personal view to be approaching this. It should be a business decision. You wouldn't be "cheating" him out of anything. If there aren't any results, that should be the main concern. Would you say the same if the time is much, much longer?
 
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bearilou

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Personally, set a limit on the number of rejections (I'd suggest 100) you get before you decide to head down the self-publishing route. 2 or 5 or 15 is not a good number of rejections, that's just the start of the submission cycle and is barely any time at all.

In the meantime, like others suggested, write your next book.
 

Becky Black

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Three to four months is nothing. Certainly too soon to give up the ghost on being accepted. How long "should" you wait? There is no should. How long are you prepared to wait? It could take over a year, especially for big publishing houses rather than small ones. But is "nobody wants it, so I'll put it out myself" a good reason to self-publish?

One thing you need in this business is patience. And more patience. And then some more patience. Because it's a long long game. Of course you should be continuing writing book #2. Not only will that keep you distracted from stalking your email inbox, it will mean you've got a good answer when a publisher does buy your first book and asks "what else have you got?"
 

Jamesaritchie

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While I think it's too early to pull the plug yet, this is an extremely personal view to be approaching this. It should be a business decision. You wouldn't be "cheating" him out of anything. If there aren't any results, that should be the main concern. Would you say the same if the time is much, much longer?

Yes, and pulling it would be a horrible business decision. Yes, you WOULD be cheating the agent. If a writer is going to pull somethng this fast, he shouldn't approach an agent at all. When you let an agent take on your book, there's a bond of trust there that says you will give that agent a fair chance to make up for all the time and effort that agent puts in.

Of course no one would say the same IF the time were much, much longer, and IF the big publishers had actually rejected the novel, but that's not the case, is it?
 

KTC

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Yes, and pulling it would be a horrible business decision. Yes, you WOULD be cheating the agent. If a writer is going to pull somethng this fast, he shouldn't approach an agent at all. When you let an agent take on your book, there's a bond of trust there that says you will give that agent a fair chance to make up for all the time and effort that agent puts in.

Of course no one would say the same IF the time were much, much longer, and IF the big publishers had actually rejected the novel, but that's not the case, is it?

This is an excellent point...hadn't even thought of that. The agent has committed to your book. They worked hard so far...you'd be wasting their time if you pulled out at this point.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Novel is out on sub by my agent. Strong interest, passing read after read, editorial meetings, etc. at multiple publishers, but no offer. OTOH no rejects. Agent says reads within the house are intended find reasons to reject, but editors/readers love the writing, plot, characters, etc. Agent is confident we'll hear good news, but I'm waffling now on how long to stay in this limbo before deciding to yank the novel and try the self-publish route.

I know I can't leave things in limbo in perpetuity, yet...

Any thoughts? Should I set an internal time clock or just simply forget and continue writing book #2? Agent has been pitching for about 3-4 months.

Seriously? You're in a situation just about every new writer out there would kill for. You're in a situation that should make you extremely happy. Three to four months? That's nothing. And just what do you think will happen to this book if your self-publish it?

More, what happens to the next book if you self-publish this one? The answer is almost certainly zip. Nothing. Nada.

Why are you even thinking about this book? It's finished. Forget about it. Learn patience, and write your next book. Writing is called writing because it's all about writing, not waiting, not worrying, not time frames, and certainly not impatience.
 

job

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My first book got turned down by all the Big Seven publishers in NYC.
A year after first submission, my agent sold it.
To one of the Big Seven.
For good money.
And sold the subsequent five books.

Be patient. You're in this for the long run.
 

chompers

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Yes, and pulling it would be a horrible business decision [my bold]. Yes, you WOULD be cheating the agent. If a writer is going to pull somethng this fast, he shouldn't approach an agent at all. When you let an agent take on your book, there's a bond of trust there that says you will give that agent a fair chance to make up for all the time and effort that agent puts in.

Of course no one would say the same IF the time were much, much longer, and IF the big publishers had actually rejected the novel, but that's not the case, is it?
I'm not talking about because of the short time. Of course you should give the agent a reasonable time to do their thing. Like you said, pulling it in such a short time frame would be a bad business decision. And I agree. And that was my point. It should be a business decision. Emotions shouldn't go into it. Her argument was that the agent had already put in so much time, so therefore it would be unkind to pull it after so much invested already (or at least that's how it read to me). That's why I brought up the longer time frame. It would be foolish not to pull it then. But then if more time had been invested, by that definition, wouldn't it be even more unkind? It wouldn't make sense.



Maybe I misunderstood what she was saying, but it's amazing how many people approach business dealings personally. "Why did they sever ties with me? My work wasn't up to par, but we were friends!" Or, "I'm friends with this person. I can vouch for what a nice person he/she is." So what? They can be a good person and still do a bad job.
 
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Bolder

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If i had an agent I would never yank the book.... i would just give him another one if this one can't sell. Then once you're a famous author they will publish the first one anyway.
 

sasmom

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Thank you for all your well-reasoned responses. I appreciate them all. There are other intervening factors, so there would be no cheating him (the agent). But you are all correct. Patience has never been my strong suit, and the agent is stingy with any sort of information (even where it's being read), so my anxiety is greater that it might otherwise be.

I'm about 20,000 words into the second novel, so I am working on the next project. I just need to forget about novel #1.
 
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