Offer of rep - letting other agents know

Yep! That's what I did. Let the others with partials and fulls know I had an offer. I've even heard it might be a good idea to send a quick letter to those who have only queries, too. One of the members here received a bunch more offers when she did that and I've heard more than one agent complain that they didn't get a chance to look at the ms before they were informed the author had accepted an offer from someone else.

In the meantime, congrats!!

Yup, let all agents with partials and fulls know, up to you whether you also contact those with queries only. Give them a deadline to get back to you on whether they are interested - somewhere between 3-7 days seems "usual."

And good luck!

~suki

I told everyone with a partial, full, or unanswered query that I had an offer and a one week window to answer. Several of those who hadn't yet gotten to the query in the queue asked to read it, so IMO, it's worth it to give them a chance.

I would, but I think you should give each a short, absolute deadline -- like one week or so. You can buy a week from the agent who wants to rep you, but you don't want to do anything to alienate her.

NOTE:

You should definitely use the old emails with correspondence to reply - but DO change the subject line of your email to read something like "OFFER OF REPRESENTATION" -- and most agents will get back to you right away and read, or bow out, quite quickly.

If you leave the same "query" subject line, the email might get sorted straight into the query bin again and not be seen till it is up in the queue for reading.

(I say this because this happened to me last week - something I was quite interested in got another offer of rep, but I didn't see it till it was too late - which is fine, I mean, whatever, it happens, but, I was sad that the author thought I was just ignoring him!)

Toni1953 said:

OK, so I have an offer of representation - there are a few other agents who have partials. It's good form to send them an e-mail, correct? Advising them I've received an offer of representation? Do I give them a timeline? Been a while since I've had to do this, so can someone refresh my memory

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I would give them a week and tell the person who has given you the offer you will let her know in a week. It's only fair to everyone involved and the professional way to go. Then the ball is in their court and you can sign with a clear conscience. You never know who knows who in the industry, who you might run into 5 years from now, and who you might want to contact if at some point you need a new agent.

does anyone have an email they sent they will share

i have an offer of rep too- just came in late last night- and need to let others know. I guess I'm wondering what the best wording would be for the agent who requested rep and the others...
specifically- I said this to the agent who wanted to rep me.
i said this to other agents.

Thanks!
Happy Day!

This is what I used.

Dear Agent (use their name though, of course. )


I know you’re still reading XXXXXX, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve received an offer of representation. I’d like to see if you’re also interested in the project. Please get back to me by XXXXXX and let me know. I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Excited author

Congrats!

I said something like:

Dear ___

I wanted to let you know I received an offer of representation for TITLE. I'd love to hear from you if you're still interested. Please get back to me by DATE (I gave them one week).

Thank you,
Ink

I didn't have to say anything to the agent who first offered because we talked on the phone and she knew others were reading. She just asked if I let her know within two weeks.

we are supposed to talk this am

i don't want to say the wrong thing and turn her off- but I do need some time to let others know...

Unless it's an exclusive, agents should assume you have other people reading. And giving everyone reading a chance to respond is good for you, and professional courtesy for agents. You don't need to worry about giving offense unless you say something like "Well, my dream agent is still reading so I'll have to get back to you."

If she doesn't bring it up herself, at the end of the conversation just thank her (again) for the offer and tell her you have a few others reading and you want to give them a chance to respond before making your decision. So you'll let her know in ___ days. Any agent worth having will be okay with this.

thanks... i'll let you know how it goes...

Jennifer_Laughran said:

NOTE:

You should definitely use the old emails with correspondence to reply - but DO change the subject line of your email to read something like "OFFER OF REPRESENTATION" -- and most agents will get back to you right away and read, or bow out, quite quickly.

If you leave the same "query" subject line, the email might get sorted straight into the query bin again and not be seen till it is up in the queue for reading.

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Great point.

if you want to get agents to email you

say you have an offer of rep.... 8 emails in 2 minutes! only one said no so far...

These are great templates. Thanks. Is it appropriate to send something similar to a publisher if you get an offer of publication from one - send an email letting the other publishers who have it know? I've only seen this in the case of offer of rep, not offer of pub, so just wondering. So far I've let some agents know about offers of publication - but not sure what the etiquette is regarding letting other publishers who have full MS know.

ink wench said:

Congrats!

I said something like:

Dear ___

I wanted to let you know I received an offer of representation for TITLE. I'd love to hear from you if you're still interested. Please get back to me by DATE (I gave them one week).

Thank you,
Ink

I didn't have to say anything to the agent who first offered because we talked on the phone and she knew others were reading. She just asked if I let her know within two weeks.

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