When is the right time to follow-up?

[Viva Forever]

Hello all,
I have submitted a full manuscript about a month ago. It was requested, and now I am getting ancy as to what their verdict is. How long should I wait for until I can gently and politely follow up?

Thanks!

[aka eraser]

Hi Viva and welcome.

What did the agent/pub's guidelines say about reading times? It's a decent rule of thumb to add a couple/few weeks to that - especially during the holiday season.

Requested material generally gets (or should get) preferential treatment. If a response time isn't found in their guidelines, I don't think you'd be out of line to send a short, polite follow-up shortly after the New Year.

Good luck.

PS- This question comes up a fair bit. I'm going to port your thread over to the good people at Basic Writing Questions.

[Danthia]

If they don't say on their site what the typical response time is, I have heard that 3-6 months is average.

One thing to keep in mind with submissions is that reviewing material is the last thing on an agent's To-Do list. Clients come first, and there's a lot of client stuff to do every day. If the agent happens to have several projects in negotiations or a few ms. to review, the query/submission pile sits until they can tackle it. Requested material doesn't mean priority. Everything in their to-read pile is something they requested.

I know it's hard to wait, but try not to get too antsy Start a new project to distract yourself. And good luck with your submission!

[Mayntz]

I would definitely wait until after the holiday season, probably until about mid-January, then send a friendly reminder, letting them know that you'd be happy to send any further information they may need. You are in the frustrating stage of waiting and waiting and waiting some more, but it's also a big hurdle you've gotten over to get to this point. Best wishes!