Every writer has multiple learning curves.
The obvious first arc is learning the craft of writing, a process that takes a great deal of time and devotion. The more one writes the better they get and despite having written two books, I am still learning at a great pace, every day spent increasing my knowledge and improving my skill.
But what happens once a book is finished?
There is also a learning curve for how to get a book published.
Most people write a novel to be published. It is a natural drive. People yearn to make a career doing what they love, and I have yet to meet a writer who is not in love with writing. Finishing a book is the first step, however, and getting the book into the hands of an agent or editor is the only way to be published and make that dream come true. There is a great deal to learn to make that happen.
I receive a lot of email from hopeful writers every day. They all ask a variety of similar questions and by the large I reply to every single one. I have been where most of them are, unsure of the process one goes through to get a book published but willing to ask the questions, and any help I can give pays forward the help I’ve been given over the years.
To the point of his article, last week I received this email:
- “It has been two weeks since I sent my book to an agent and I have not heard anything back yet. What should I do?”
I receive this kind of question quite regularly. Usually I admire brevity but this is a case where I really need to know more. Did the writer submit her book following the guidelines laid down by the agent? Did the agent request the book or did the writer just send it? Who is the agent and who do they already represent? There are many possible reasons why she has not heard back from the agent—those reasons fodder for a different, much longer article I will write—but I want to point out part of the email that struck me.
The words “two weeks.”
Agents lead busy lives. They have to balance the clients they already represent with finding the next new writer. They spend their time touting clients to editors in hopes of selling a debut book. They read established client manuscripts in hopes of improving them and selling them. They take on writers who never find a publishing house. They have lunches and dinners and conference calls building relationships with new editors and strengthening ties with old ones. They get inundated with hundreds of queries, partial manuscripts and manuscripts a day, a week, a month, and have little help in going through them.
As you can see, an agent has a lot going on.
I know impatience. I have been there. I have needed to know if an agent or editor was interested in the book I had written, if I would be a published writer. I wanted to know as soon as possible. Again, it is only natural. When I submitted my first book several years ago I thought those I had sent it to would get back to me relatively quickly. I had a strong marketing platform. I knew the right people. Most of them were friends anyway.
It took months before I heard anything from the agents who requested my book and even longer from the two editors who had it. In one case it took more than ten months to receive a response. I have published friends who didn't hear back for up to 15 months.
Regardless of what I wrote above, why does it take so long, you may ask?
It's simple numbers. Agents are few in number compared to the thousands and thousands of people submitting books every year.
Here is a real life example of what I am talking about.
In about ten days I will be finished editing The Dark Thorn. I will then send it to the agent who requested it. When I wrote Ralph to inform him I had finished and was in the middle of an intensive line edit, he wrote back to assure me he was still interested. During our couple day email correspondence, he let me know it might take a while to read it since he had just received new manuscripts from clients Robin Hobb and Peter Straub.
Established clients always take precedence over potential clients.
Back to the question, what should a writer do if they haven't heard back from an agent or editor after two weeks?
The answer is don't do anything.
Two weeks is not enough time for an agent or editor on almost any level in the business to read a manuscript and return your query. Not only do they have established clients to care for but they also receive hundreds and hundreds of other queries and manuscripts every week to sift through in the order received. It may take them a while to get to your query, depending upon how busy they are.
That does not mean you should sit idly by. I recommend giving an agent two months with the query or book. If after that time you have not heard anything, send them a pleasant email or letter inquiring after the status. I have yet had a bad experience with an agent and usually they are communicative if they have been given courtesy and enough time to conceivably get to the query.
In short, patience is the best tool a hopeful writer can culture.
I'll be sharing my own journey with The Dark Thorn. Even with my marketing platform and contacts in New York it will still take a month or two before I know anything. When I turn my book into Ralph, I know I will be taking a long vacation and I will ignore my submission as if I had never written it.
Which is good. I need a vacation.
And I can now finally get caught back up with my reading!
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