Re: Slow Response Time
Copperpockets,
I can hear and understand your frustration. I can also understand why you'd be tempted to write an assistant to ask about the hold up. I just don't believe a letter like this wins any friends.
Think about it. Though technically you are the one hiring an agent, the fact is you're having to audition for that privilege.
Put yourself in their place. Trident is a top agency. Not only are they avalanched by new queries and manuscripts every day, they probably already have all the clients they need. They can pick and choose, and naturally, they're going to want authors with whom they can establish a friction-free working relationship.
Let's say your book is just what they're looking for, but there are also five other authors whose books are equally solid. Who are they going to select to represent, the author who's writing bitter letters before they've even established a relationship? Or the author whose personality they don't know yet? Probably the latter. That other author may turn out to be a total pain in the butt, but they don't know that yet. What they do know is that you've written them a letter accusing them of not doing their job and reading your manuscript in the time frame you'd expected.
I'm not only a writer, but I've worked as an editor going through slush. I can tell you the first thing I would do after receipt of such a letter.
Jettison your material.
You would have already communicated to me that you will be difficult to work with. I know that's a hard truth to hear, but it's just the way it is in this business.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan of lengthy response times. In fact, my full has been with Trident since last summer, and I'm beginning to suspect I'll never hear from them. I seriously think that Trident needs to work on this aspect of their business. They probably shouldn't be requesting so many fulls that they can't review them in a timely manner. They're only human and there are only so many reading hours in the day. Judging by the comments on this board, they could also do a better job of responding to potential clients and keeping them in the loop. I do think it's less than thoughtful to ask for a full, sounding excited about it, then proceed to ignore the author for the next year. They've gotten the author's hopes up for nothing. If you haven't heard something in six months or a year, it's much more likely that you're in the reject pile and just don't know it.
It's not that Trident wouldn't be a terrific agency to have representing your work, or that you shouldn't continue to hold out hope, it's just that publishing grows more and more like the film business every day, where writers are ignorable until they're not. If some agent or editor finally decides you're hot, then you're going to be hot with everyone in town. The lack of courtesy shown to those who aren't "anybody" yet tends to happen more often with the larger, more prestigious agencies, but it is also just as likely to happen with smaller, one-agent shops. There's just so much "product" out there that agencies such as Trident really don't need us slush-pilers, in theory.
In L.A., they have a phrase, "He's a real mensch," meaning he's easy to work with, professional, no need to stroke the ego. That, IMHO, should be the goal of any novelist seeking to make it as a working writer these days. To be a mensch, a savvy one who knows the score, and doesn't let a lack of response get them down. Write the best manuscript you can, and send it out. When you don't get that immediate success you're hoping for, don't take it personally, just move on.
You can sell, but it wastes your valuable energies trying to hit an agent over the head for not responding as fast as you'd like, or not responding at all. When you do that, you're just butting your own head up against a very hard and resilient wall. Believe me, things are not going to change for aspiring authors anytime soon. My best advice? Get some more query letters out there to other agents so you aren't so focused on the one you want the most.
Think practical. Think like a business person. I know they (the agents) are.