The Everlong Edit

I have a question for people on here about what I should do given my current agent situation.

I signed with an agent about a year and a half ago for my first novel. At the time, the agent said she loved the book, thought it was incredible and said we’d just do a quick edit and then she’d start pitching to publishers within just a week or two. Needless to say, I was very excited.

Well, a week or two quickly turned into a month or two and soon the quick edit turned into a much longer edit. I was told that she had read the novel a few times and had decided that it would benefit from a more thorough edit due to the tone and depth of the story. She said “this one is worth getting perfect” and told me that she doesn’t usually spend this much effort on edits, but really felt this one would benefit from the careful treatment. This agent, mind you, was an editor for a top publishing house for many years before becoming an agent, so she’s well qualified to be doing such a thorough edit. And, though disappointed it would be taking much longer than I originally thought, I felt honored to be getting such feedback—and for free at that. But because this agent is the head of the agency, she is very busy and doesn’t have a great deal of spare time to be devoting to this edit. Because of this, it has been slow going. There has been forward movement, but it seems like the times between feedback keep growing longer and longer and I’m starting to become very frustrated and hopeless.

I sent her my last revision in December and was told I’d have more feedback by the end of February. Contacted her in March when I hadn’t heard anything, and was told mid-March would be when to expect more. It’s now almost mid-April. I sent her two emails last week and haven’t heard back. I tried to call her office, but she’s out of town for the next week and a half.

I can appreciate that a thorough edit can take a while, and I can appreciate that she’s very busy and it’s difficult for her to find the time to devote to it, but we aren’t even halfway through the book as far as edits go and it’s been well over a year already. I’ve written an entire sequel novel in the meantime and am starting a third novel. I do not know what to do or expect. I have expressed my frustration with how long it is taking in the past, but was mostly met with defensive justifications and made to feel like my impatience was entirely unreasonable. I can’t tell if it is or isn’t. All I know is I’ve been waiting for quite some time now for this to happen. My writing career is in her hands and I feel like there is nothing I can do but wait, with no end in sight. I’ll keep writing in the meantime, but I’ve already created a backlog.

Is this situation reasonable and I should stop my complaining and stick it out?

Thanks for the responses everyone.

It isn't that nothing has been happening, it's just that there are long gaps between things happening. Forward motion has occured, but at a snail's pace. I do intend to call her when she's back in her office and try to pin down a definitive plan of some sort. But I could swear I've tried that in the past and about as far as I get is some vague notion that we are on track and there's no way of knowing how long it will take and etc... I don't know.

My current contract with her is essentially a forever-and-for-all-things contract. She will supposedly represent anything I write ever. Contract is only ended by 90 day notice by either party. But I fear if I leave and try to find another agent, I will have given up my one chance. What if I don't find another agent and this was my best hope? I'd be kicking myself forever.

I feel very much stuck. Every time I've brought up my concern with her I've only been left feeling like a complaining dumbass who just needs to be patient and doesn't understand how things work. And maybe that's true. I honestly don't have the experience to be able to tell one way or the other. If the answer is to just sit tight and wait it out and good things will come, then ok. But if the answer is that this is only going to lead nowhere, then I'd like to know that and move on.

Thanks for all the feedback.

Ultimately I just wanted to know what others thought of the situation--if it sounded absurd and like I was being strung along, or if it was within the bounds of reasonable and was likely to work out in the end.

I think there's a distinct difference between the process simply taking a long time and the process going nowhere. My fear is it's the latter, but objectively, it's probably the former. As for feeling like a complaining dumbass, I don't know if that's the agent's fault or simply my own insecurity. She's been in the publishing business since before I was born. She probably knows what she's doing. For the time being I'm going to ride it out. I was able to touch base with her via email today and it sounds like things have not completely derailed. It's just frustrating feeling like my writing career is on hold. But hopefully my patience pays off in the end.

tko—the feedback has actually been very good and thorough and consistent. I have learned a great deal from it. My agent doesn’t typically do this much editing, but she told me that she felt my novel was worth getting as perfect as possible because of the subject matter and depth. She was an award winning editor for some of the top publishing houses for years before becoming an agent, so she is well qualified to be doing what she’s doing. I realize it isn’t typical for agents to edit, but her edits are not major structural changes of any sort, just very careful combing through and teasing out every last detail—making sure all the descriptions are what they should be and that the narrative is consistent, and also doing a lot of fact checking—making sure I have legal details correct and such.

Old hack—I’d prefer not to give out the name of the agent or myself as I’d like to remain anonymous, but she is well established in her field, is a member of AAR and PEN, and has sold books for 6 and 7 figure advances before. No, she is not charging for what she is doing. Our contract is the pretty standard one where she gets 15% when she sells the book.

James—I’m always of the opinion that if someone likely has a great deal more experience than myself that I should give careful consideration to what they have to say. I am still young and still learning and feel personally that my agent has the ability to teach me things. And thus far, much of what she’s helped me with has felt spot on, and not overbearing opinion of someone who is trying to snuff out my voice. As I said previously, she isn’t trying to rewrite my novel, it’s just been a lot of careful fine tuning. My concern isn’t the fact that she’s wanting to edit it (which I do realize is not typical for an agent to do), but that it seems to be taking a long time. When we are actually working on things, it’s great, but the long pauses between leave me worried.

heyjude said:

Even in the slowest of times, it shouldn't take this long. And I'm a ridiculously patient person. I'm sorry you're going through this.

I'd tell her you're seriously considering terminating the contract, though you're sad to have to do so, and explain in very clear language why.

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See, now I just don't know again. The slowness is nothing short of painful. As I mentioned a few posts up, I did touch base with her yesterday via email, and it does sound like I should be seeing more edits very soon and that we are at least over what was the largest editing hurdle. I think I will wait and see what happens over the course of the next month and go from there.

I have told her my concerns before, and each time I get told something similar to: Editing takes time, but she doesn't have a whole lot of time because she's the head of the agency. She doesn't typically do this, but feels strongly enough about the potential of my novel that she wants to put the effort in. It is going to take a long time, but good things will come of it.

But there is a lot of "you'll have edits by X date" and then X date comes and goes and then a month or so later I finally see something again. I suppose a certain amount of that is to be expected, but I just don't know exactly where to draw the line. I have no experience to draw from here, I'm only guessing and hoping that sticking it out will be the right thing if that's the route I go.