The Long Wait Thread (For Literary Agents, Publishers, etc)

[Willowhugger]

Well I've sent off my author's query, synopsis, and first five pages to the Donald Maas Literary Agency.  Now it's just a matter of time for them to get back to in order to say whether they want to represent me or not.  It probably arrived about Thursday of Last Week and now it's just a waiting game until they get back to me with my self-addressed stamped envelope.

I'm confident that this is my best work yet.  I mentioned that I'd been published before and I have a second book in manuscript form waiting for them to look at if they're interested in it.  There's so little that can be told from just that initial letter though and they're a prestigious firm (in addition to Jim Butcher, they also have my other favorite author in Elaine Cunningham).

I haven't sent any other queries out just yet but I'll probably deluge out for others if I don't get this agency.  It's hard waiting for an answer. 

So who else is playing the waiting game?

[Josh]

It always seems slow from the writing perspective, doesn't it? Yet it seems that editors and agents and the like are always going at breakneck speeds with the amounts of queries and submissions they get. I wonder if there is a way we could exchange a little of the time difference and make everyone a little bit happier.

Right now I'm in the "getting a novel shopped around" mode, and my biggest challenge is to not make an annoyance of myself by checking up on the status of submissions, rejections and the like. I'll only make myself paranoid, anxious, and one of those writers that people flee from whenever they see me coming. I've heard the horror stories, I just don't want to be one.

[Donna]

Well I've sent off my author's query, synopsis, and first five pages to the Donald Maas Literary Agency.   

Do you know that Jim's agent, Jennifer Jackson, has a LiveJournal?  http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/
In her last entry from yesterday she mentions having pages to look at. 

[Willowhugger]

Well that blog gives me hope.

Now I've started Graduate School and am merrily typing away but still it nags on me whether or not I should have sent out to more groups or done an e-mail query instead of a snail mail.  Intellectually, I know she gets hundreds of queries and it's very unlikely mine is going to be anything special to them but it's special to me ya' know?

So I just keep thinking on it.

Yeah, waiting blows ;-)

[resurrectedwarrior]

Well that blog gives me hope.

Now I've started Graduate School and am merrily typing away but still it nags on me whether or not I should have sent out to more groups or done an e-mail query instead of a snail mail.  Intellectually, I know she gets hundreds of queries and it's very unlikely mine is going to be anything special to them but it's special to me ya' know?

So I just keep thinking on it.

Yeah, waiting blows ;-)

So . . . did you query Jennifer Jackson or Donald Maass?

Just curious. : o )

[Richelle Mead]

Good luck with the wait!  I know how nerve-wracking it can be.  In my opinion (which is all it is!), I'd start sending out other queries too.  First, it'll give you something to do to pass the time.   Also, if the Maass Agency is your first choice, and another agent makes an offer before they get back to you, you can then go to MA and say, "Hey, I have an outstanding query with you and just received an offer..." etc.  It'll make them move to read yours and expedite things.

And yeah, the amount agents and editors have to read is staggering.  Those people do not get breaks.  When I ask my agent to check over things in a manuscript for me, I'll get crazy responses like, "Well, I was reading right up until the curtain went down at this Broadway show I was at..."  Every spare moment is reading.

[Willowhugger]

So . . . did you query Jennifer Jackson or Donald Maass?

Just curious. : o )

I just sent it directly to the agency as opposed to Jennifer directly as I didn't think that specifying it would be a necessarily good idea.  I figured anyone who would read it at the agency would be good even if I imagine that Jennifer would have been the best choice therein.

It's been a few weeks at this point so I suppose I should expect my answer of whether or not they're interested to come back anytime now.

[Willowhugger]

Oh well, I just got my first rejection notice.

Donald Maas was kind enough to respond by e-mail and say that it just wasn't quick enough at the start.

Now to seek someone else.

[CynDe]

I am waiting for a response from the agent I really want right now. She asked for a full submission, and I e-mailed it to her 6 weeks ago. Now I am paranoid that the e-mail didn't go through, or that something went wrong, or...the mind boggles!
 

[blgarver]

I've played the waiting game with my short story.  I submitted it to two or three places, and it was like a month or more before any of them got back to me.

All rejections of course, but it was awesome to get any response at all.

I did pretty well keeping myself busy.  It was nagging me, that anticipation, but I busied myself with working on my novel, so it took the edge off.  And now I'm almost finished with that novel, so I guess it's about time to play the waiting game again.

But I already have a short story planned after this novel, so I'll have something to do.  But I have to imagine that waiting to hear back from an agent about a novel submission and representation is a lot more nerve wracking than waiting to hear back from a mag or ezine about a short story.

So I've got some bullets to sweat in the near future, it seems.

[LizW65]

I'm curious - do those of you who have publishing experience recommend mass mailings - i.e. sending out query letters/sample chapters to EVERY agent you can find in your genre?  I've heard that one can expect around a 2% return rate; in other words, only 2 out of every 100 agencies queried will even bother to respond at all.  What's your experience with this?
-Liz

[RMatthewWare]

I just got a rejection from Realms of Fantasy.  It took about two months from the time I sent the submission off.  When it comes to short stories, I go to duotrope.com.  It will tell you how much each mag pays, how fast they respond, and what percent of submissions get published. 

I feel good about myself, despite the rejection, that I resubmitted to another publication today.  You have to keep trying.  Every aspiring author that quits ups my odds of getting published.

I'm writing a fantasy novel now that I'll start shopping to agents, hopefully in the next six months.  After that I'm debating between writing my scifi novel, or my ghost novel.  Both ideas intrigue me.  Does that hurt you as an author, if the things you write are drastically different from each other?  I wonder how well an agent would do with someone like me.  I write fantsy, soft sci-fi, urban fantasy, and I've started with ghosts.

Matt