No Response From Requested Work

That happened to me. I had a request for a partial literally 5 minutes after I sent the query. I thought that meant the agent was really interested. That was almost a year and a half ago- no responses to the nudge, etc.

It doesn't really matter if you think it's too long or not. If that's the standard amount of time something takes, that's the amount it takes. Some agents say it takes two months, or one month, and in those cases you can write sooner, but it's not uncommon for people to take several months to read queries and that's just how it is, whether you like it or not.

I have had a couple of requests that took months to hear back (the longest was 11 months). Some took four, most took two or three. I had two that never got back to me, one for each book. One surprised me because I'd actually gotten a call to request the full and the person had seemed rather enthusiastic. However, in that case I was contacting them early to say that I had an offer. It's possible that had I waited another month or two I would have heard back.

There have been a lot of BIG book events and conferences going on in the last few months (Book Expo America, for instance). I would not be surprised at all to find that a ton of agents and editors are massively swamped with backlog right now, due to their work schedules going to shit.

Plus, it's summer. Agents get vacations too, yo.

Three-to-four months does not seem out of the ordinary to me for full or partial reads.

Two months is nothing. Three months is nothing. As Kaitie said, your opinions of speed don't matter. It is what it is.

Patience, Iago.

I had an agent request a full based on a competition entry, so not a query sent to them, but haven't heard anything. It's coming up for a year now.

WriteStarfish said:

That happened to me. I had a request for a partial literally 5 minutes after I sent the query. I thought that meant the agent was really interested. That was almost a year and a half ago- no responses to the nudge, etc.

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I had exactly this happen to me. I would put good money on it being the same agent.

It is not common for agents not to respond to requested material. Most will do it after being nudged, but two months is definitely not a timeline in which one should assume a lack of response is anything official. I had a great and really sweet agent take thirteen months with a full of mine. That happens. A no-response to requested material after nudging is considerably more rare and is probably not what will ultimately be the case with 95% of your req'd stuff.

Author time is different then agent time (I just had a partial request from a query I sent out six months ago). To you, three weeks is long. You're checking your email every day, biting your nails, waiting on the edge of your seat. To a busy agent it's not long enough. I had an agent hold on to my full for four months. And the only reason she got back to me after that time is because I had an offer. Sadly, you just have to wait it out.

It might be your opinion that three months is too long but unfortunately that is the industry standard. I have several fulls and a couple of partials out at the moment. A few are sitting at two months, the rest are at one month. I haven't nudged anyone yet. Agents are busy people and your manuscript is currently sitting in a large 'to be read' stack, just like mine is. Nudging isn't going to get yours to the top any faster. Agents want to know you have patience because when you get one they'll go through the whole thing again with you when they are submitting to editors.

I know it's a pain but that is just the way it is. Unless you self publish, this is a slow business. Best to forget about it and work on something new. That's what I'm doing

Undercover, your impatience and unrealistic expectations about how the publishing industry should treat you do nothing except cause you frustration and anxiety. Maybe, rather than whinging about how agents and publishers don't meet your expectations, you ought to modify your expectations to conform to publishing industry norms. You aren't doing yourself any favours; on the contrary, I suspect you've actually done yourself harm.

I had one out for almost a year before I heard back. That's after I got a request for a full an hour after I sent the query. I'd pretty much given up on it at that point. And no, a year probably isn't typical across the agent spectrum, but I've heard at least 3 months is.

Others make some good points - big conferences just happened, it's summer, and agents typically take months to respond to fulls in ideal circumstances. Two months is nothing in request-land, so deep breath. It's good practice for if it ever goes to editors for consideration.

I don't see anything wrong with a polite nudge after the agents alotted time has passed for a full. If an agents rejects you just because you asked, to me, thats probably an agent you dont want to work with anyway.

Two months isn't really that long, as others have said. On the other hand, if you don't get a reply from your (polite) nudge, I'd write it off as a no-response-means-no.

I would not sign with an agent who took a year or more to get back to me after requesting a full. I don't care if they went nuts over the book and had the best track record and contacts in the business, that's too long. The slow responder agents are probably the same ones who blog and tweet about how mad they get when an author signs with another agent when they're still considering the author's work.

I've signed and sold books that waited for a year. Blanket statements about what you would or would not do don't help anyone trying to figure out how publishing works.

Currently my requested full list has:

1. one ms here since October 11
2. one ms here since February 12
3. three mss here since April 12
4. three mss here since May 12
5. one ms requested in June, received today
6. one ms requested today

I've been reading submissions non-stop for a week and cleared out about six requested fulls. Most of them were darn good books, but not a fit for me sadly.

The longest waiting manuscript is a re-submission, and my goal is to do a full critique on it. If you think waiting that long makes me unfit to represent that work or any other, well, you're welcome to your opinion but I'd like a vote from the studio audience before taking that as majority opinion.

Reading fulls takes a long time. Business intervenes. It's entirely within the rules of decorum to touch base with the agent on a monthly basis after three months.

I do try to respond to those emails because I (like all agents) understand that waiting is hell.

If I had four eyeballs I'd use 'em, but I don't.

It's hard waiting for anything. Trust me, I know. I only queried one agent with a novel and she's still considering it after 8 months.

BUT I do believe it's worth the wait. She's known for giving honest feedback. If she rejects it (and even if she doesn't have time for feedback), then I know that means it still needs some work. This also gives me time to focus my energy on a new WIP instead of obsessing about the days as they pass.

And she's super, super busy. I don't expect her to give me updates or reply right away because that's not her job. Maybe 5% of her tasks entail requesting/responding to manuscripts and potential clients. Her job is to work with existing clients who've already signed with her. Not to mention she needs time to be with her family and she has a life.

Just my two cents. I'm sure you will hear something soon. Chin up.

Undercover said:

I've racked up 4 agents that requested work over the months and I have nudged and nothing. It's really frustrating to know I've sent a polite nudge and not to be answered. I think that's not only unprofessional, it's rude and mean to just not respond like that. I can understand no response from a query, but these agents requested my work.

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Yep, you're right. Much more professional (and a lot less rude) to come here and bitch about them. Just forget about them, they are not worthy of you. Move on and sub your stuff elsewhere, where you're sure to get a much more professional experience and instant representation.

Undercover, how long have those agents had your work? Is it three months? Four? And when you nudged, what did you say?

I agree that it would be great for agents to get back to you quickly, but they get hundreds of queries a week, plus they have existing clients, then they have manuscripts they have to read. I imagine their regular duties with existing clients take a lot of time.

I just recently had a response on a query sent in February! There's nothing we can do about it - it is what it is. *shrug*

To be blunt --

Agents don't set their policies based on what you, I or any other writer thinks is polite or professional. They set their policies based on 1 - the policy of the agency they work for and/or 2 - their schedule and/or 3 - previous experience that's told them "polite" doesn't work.

It's easy to say "How hard is a no thanks?" when you're not the one having to send hundreds of "no thanks" responses a week. All of those seconds add up to minutes and then hours of unpaid work. It's also easy to say when you're not the one getting angry or threatening emails in return for your polite "not thanks" sort of answers, and that happens A LOT.

No one likes to be attacked, and sense there's no way to have authors indicate if they're the sort to go off like an unstable firecracker when handed a polite, professional "no," then the only alternative to the potential verbal abuse is not to respond unless the response is positive. Sadly, this applies even to requested material (though fewer agents take this stance with requests).

It's like grade school. One person misbehaving can ruin things for the multitude who don't misbehave.

Undercover said:

They've been out over three months. I nudged at the 3 month mark and that was weeks ago. Problem is I am not getting any response whatsoever. I figure since it's been a long while AND that the nudge did nothing, it's a "no-response means not interested." It's just rude in my opinion to disregard someone's email like that. How hard is it to just say "no thanks" and press send?

It wasn't like this months ago. It's getting much worse. If they're not interested, even after they request, they don't even bother with you. That's what it boils down to.

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What I said before.....

Terie said:

Undercover, your impatience and unrealistic expectations about how the publishing industry should treat you do nothing except cause you frustration and anxiety. Maybe, rather than whinging about how agents and publishers don't meet your expectations, you ought to modify your expectations to conform to publishing industry norms. You aren't doing yourself any favours; on the contrary, I suspect you've actually done yourself harm.

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Waiting sucks, doesn't it? However many times I tell myself agents don't have time to drop everything for me, I still get impatient within three hours of sending off a full. 'If they really liked it they'd be finished by now!' But then I remind myself that this is: a) irrational and unreasonable,*b) that I'd rather have an agent who prioritises actual clients, c) no one likes a whiner who expects special treatment, d) it's better to presume good intentions in other humans (agents too) until you have pictorial evidence of them spitting on your kitten or equivalent. Then you can say they're rude but, otherwise, they're probably just busy.

Undercover said:

They've been out over three months. I nudged at the 3 month mark and that was weeks ago. Problem is I am not getting any response whatsoever. I figure since it's been a long while AND that the nudge did nothing, it's a "no-response means not interested." It's just rude in my opinion to disregard someone's email like that. How hard is it to just say "no thanks" and press send?

It wasn't like this months ago. It's getting much worse. If they're not interested, even after they request, they don't even bother with you. That's what it boils down to.

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I know it's hard to be patient, but I wouldn't necessarily think that just because it's been almost four months that it means "no thanks." They may not have read it yet. Imagine how much they have to read every day - they've got business documents, client work, rewrites, queries, partials, fulls... That's a LOT of reading and reading takes time.

Be happy you have so many requests for fulls. Something is obviously working for you, so take that as a good sign. It's just going to take a little longer than you had hoped - but it is this way for everyone.