Agent has manuscript- how long before u know if they want it

[julieleon]

Hi Nathan,

I met an agent at the SCBWI Conference in NYC a few weeks ago. We had a great conversation and she mentioned she was open to a submission from me (she was not on the panels or in the workshops, just attending for business). I followed up with an appropriate query email and she asked to see the manuscript. She confirmed she received it and looked forward to reading it. Great! So far...

My question is- Is there a industry standard/usual time period an agent gets back to you after they have the manuscript? It's going on two weeks, and I feel like if it wasn't something she was interested, we've engaged enough that she'd at least send me a thanks, but no thanks, etc. BUT I don't know if the process takes days, weeks, months? I'd love your input, please...

thank you!
Julie

[CharleeVale]

The response time for most query letters is 4-6 weeks. Manuscripts can be longer than that.

Agents always take care of their clients first, as they should. This means their days are filled with masses of e-mail, contract negotiations, edits, submitting books to editors, handling rights, etc. the list goes on and on and on. And all of those things take significant chunks of time. So they usually end up reading MSs on weekends etc.

Two weeks is just the iceberg. Keep up hope!

CV

[Nathan Bransford]

Hi Nathan,

I met an agent at the SCBWI Conference in NYC a few weeks ago. We had a great conversation and she mentioned she was open to a submission from me (she was not on the panels or in the workshops, just attending for business). I followed up with an appropriate query email and she asked to see the manuscript. She confirmed she received it and looked forward to reading it. Great! So far...

My question is- Is there a industry standard/usual time period an agent gets back to you after they have the manuscript? It's going on two weeks, and I feel like if it wasn't something she was interested, we've engaged enough that she'd at least send me a thanks, but no thanks, etc. BUT I don't know if the process takes days, weeks, months? I'd love your input, please...

thank you!
Julie

Hi Julie, it can really vary greatly, and I've heard anecdotally that response times have been getting longer. You can always check check http://querytracker.net/, which gives you the typical response times of most agents, but even that varies depending on the agent's workload and what else they have going on, which you can't know.

And here's my post on how/when to follow up with a prospective agent: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/08 ... -with.html