I know that sales figures are often a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you sold 3,000 of your last book, then the publisher is only going to print 2500 of your next, and buyers are only going to buy 2,000.
Reactions like this could certainly drive someone to self-publishing, but the two books I've got out on Kindle right now are hardly burning up the chart.
The original question was "If I get a request for a full, should I send it exclusively if the agent promises to read it in three weeks?".
The answer has nothing to do with sales, previous agents or the quality of the manuscript. The answer is reading fulls takes time, and my time is prioritized carefully and submissions aren't first.
You'll hear stories about agents who read stuff instantly or overnight; editors too. That happens, yes it does, but it's RARE. And what you don't hear is that the manuscript that got read that quickly hit my desk on a day when a crisis didn't.
You can bet those days aren't frequent.
I have 40 active clients and on any given day six of them need my attention THAT day. Then there are editors who need to update me on just the regular old stuff; my boss wants to talk about our new epublishing initiative. Waiting for a conference call to start is six minutes to post on AbsoluteWrite--not six hours to read a ms.
Since you science fiction writers have fallen down on the job and NOT found me a place to have a 36-hour work day, I have the 15 hour work day everyone else has.
And that means, often as not, submissions wait. Whether you like it or not. And honestly, whether *I* like it or not. I don't like to keep you waiting either. I don't like to see my file folder of "Requested Fulls" hit double digits either.
But, that's how it is.
You're welcome to check in after 90 days and I'll try to respond. If another agent doesn't respond, keep querying.
I hear your frustration but honestly there's simply nothing I can do about it on my end.
The original question was "If I get a request for a full, should I send it exclusively if the agent promises to read it in three weeks?".
The answer has nothing to do with sales, previous agents or the quality of the manuscript. The answer is reading fulls takes time, and my time is prioritized carefully and submissions aren't first.
You'll hear stories about agents who read stuff instantly or overnight; editors too. That happens, yes it does, but it's RARE. And what you don't hear is that the manuscript that got read that quickly hit my desk on a day when a crisis didn't.
You can bet those days aren't frequent.
I have 40 active clients and on any given day six of them need my attention THAT day. Then there are editors who need to update me on just the regular old stuff; my boss wants to talk about our new epublishing initiative. Waiting for a conference call to start is six minutes to post on AbsoluteWrite--not six hours to read a ms.
Since you science fiction writers have fallen down on the job and NOT found me a place to have a 36-hour work day, I have the 15 hour work day everyone else has.
And that means, often as not, submissions wait. Whether you like it or not. And honestly, whether *I* like it or not. I don't like to keep you waiting either. I don't like to see my file folder of "Requested Fulls" hit double digits either.
But, that's how it is.
You're welcome to check in after 90 days and I'll try to respond. If another agent doesn't respond, keep querying.
I hear your frustration but honestly there's simply nothing I can do about it on my end.
Sorry to have dragged you into the fray, Janet; perhaps I was just trying to cause a controversy.
I have 40 active clients and on any given day six of them need my attention THAT day. Then there are editors who need to update me on just the regular old stuff; my boss wants to talk about our new epublishing initiative. Waiting for a conference call to start is six minutes to post on AbsoluteWrite--not six hours to read a ms.
Since you science fiction writers have fallen down on the job and NOT found me a place to have a 36-hour work day, I have the 15 hour work day everyone else has.
And that means, often as not, submissions wait. Whether you like it or not. And honestly, whether *I* like it or not. I don't like to keep you waiting either. I don't like to see my file folder of "Requested Fulls" hit double digits either.
But, that's how it is.
You're welcome to check in after 90 days and I'll try to respond. If another agent doesn't respond, keep querying.
I hear your frustration but honestly there's simply nothing I can do about it on my end.
But do you see in that chain where there's stuff for you to do? Yep, at the beginning, with your query and your manuscript. That is what you can control. That is it.
(also it doesn't change the finite number of publishing spots publishers have)
They've got current clients that are going to take priority over cold-calls from wannabes.