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We writers always wonder about how long it takes agents to respond (if they do at all) and whether to follow up and so forth, but I was wondering - what about agents and editors? How long do agents (or just you guys, since I'm sure it's different for everyone) wait for a response from an editor before following up?

This is a great question to ask any agent when you get an offer of representation, because the answer is going to differ from agent to agent and situation to situation. Overall, I tend to follow up four to six weeks after a submission. How long I wait will depend on how quick other feedback is coming in, whether the book was submitted on proposal or full, how busy the editors are (sometimes I know that an editor has just returned from vacation or the time fell around a major holiday), generally how responsive the editors are (some tend to respond faster than others), etc.

Generally though, I will follow up in about four weeks.


Jessica

At what point, and how many times, should I follow up on the agents who haven't responded to my full submission? One of the two requested the full four months ago, and I was thinking I should follow up with him soon. However, the real question mark is the agent who requested a full six months ago. Two months ago I sent her a follow-up email asking for a status update. In that follow-up email, I hit reply to her confirmation that she'd received the full and I included the title and elevator pitch in the email, so that she could easily see which project I was referring to. I still haven't heard anything back from her.

Is it ok to email her again for a status update? At what point do I simply shrug and move on?


The first thing you should do when making the decision to follow up is check the agent's website. Does the agent have a time frame for which they plan to get back to authors? If so, use that as your guideline when following up. If not, here's what I think:

Queries: If an agent, like BookEnds, guarantees response to all queries, don't send a follow-up to see if the query was received, but after about 10 weeks simply resend the query. Note that you are resending because you never received a reply, but simply resend. That way the agent can simply respond and you don't need to have a dialogue of wasted emails.

Requested Partials or Fulls: Keep in mind I'm basing this on my own response times, but if an agent has requested something I think it's fair to give them 8-12 weeks to read, but given how sometimes getting the response out can take longer or how often an author will follow up the day I'm writing my response, I would say check in after 13 weeks. If you hear nothing, not a peep, check again every 4 weeks or so. If you keep hearing nothing, I guess I would check about three times and then let it go and move on.

Keep in mind these timelines are approximate, but since this is a question that comes up a lot I think an approximate answer is a good start. In the end, though, do what you think works for you. Some people will check in earlier, some will give more time. Some will try three times, some will figure that if the agent can't bother to respond they'll write the agent off. Do what is best for you.

And keep in mind the agent's guidelines. For example, we ask that you put "query" or "submission" in the subject header. This is what (almost) guarantees you get through our spam filters. Without this I can't promise I'll even get your email.


Jessica

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Danielle asks: Your query packet helped me to form my first ever query for MetroParent, a local publication. Now that I have sent my query, I want to send a follow-up email. My question is: How do I craft a professional follow up query? I don’t know what information to restate or how to not let it sound like I am a child begging for recognition. How do I stand out?

I don’t worry about making my follow-up e-mail exciting — I keep it short and to the point and paste the query (which is the star of the show) below it so the editor doesn’t have to search for it. Here’s what I generally write:

Dear [name]:

On [date] I sent you a query for an article called “Please Buy Me.” Since I haven’t heard back from you, I’m afraid my query has gotten lost in cyberspace! I’ve pasted the query below for your convenience. Would you mind letting me know if this idea sounds interesting to you?

Thanks so much, and I look forward to your reply!

Cheers,

Linda

You want to stand out with your query, but I don’t think you need to spend a lot of time on the follow-up; you’re just doing a quick touching-base. Also, don’t drive yourself nuts wondering if your follow-up is “just right.” Follow your gut and you’ll probably be fine.

Good luck with your first query! Let me know when it sells. [lf]

When the controversy about the initial cover art for Justine Larbalestier's Liar ignited the kidlit blogosphere, the issues all seemed very, heh, black and white. White model on cover of novel narrated by African-American = great big faux pas.

Bloomsbury bowed to the protest. We all cheered. African-American model on cover of novel narrated by African-American = problem solved. Right? Mostly.

I've read Liar now, and the experience has left me with more specific reactions to the jacket art fiasco:

1. Yes, the revised cover more accurately depicts Micah's heritage. No question.

2. However. Ask me if I think the revised cover is an accurate representation of Micah's appearance, and I'd have to squirm a bit before saying, No. (And yes, it matters. For reasons I won't go into -- aside from our apparent cultural preference for non-nappy hair, that is -- before the book hits shelves in the US.)

3. Now, ask me which cover I think best conveys Micah's personality. *gulp* The white one. *ducks*

Incidentally, Justine Larbalestier was absolutely right when she said on her blog that covers affect how people read books. In spite of the fact that I participated in the online ruckus about how racially inappropriate the original cover was, as I actually read Liar I found I had to constantly remind myself that Micah is not white. You'd think my righteous jacket-outrage would have been enough to fix that point in my head, but no. I'm a white girl. White is my default setting. Apparently, if a character comes wrapped in a white dust jacket, it's hard for me to recalibrate the picture in my mind to match the story. How creepy is it that my visual introduction to the white version of Micah so effectively trumped what the text itself told me about her? And is that Bloomsbury's 'fault,' or mine?

*****************

Currently reading:

Sabriel

by Garth Nix

Recently BookEnds had some major trouble with our server. Apparently another domain also using our server (through the web hosting company we use) was hacked into and blocked for spam. That meant a fair number of emails leaving our server were blocked by the email hosts receiving the emails (namely yahoo, msn, hotmail, etc). Which means that a fair number of emails we sent over a two-day period were rejected by servers. Strangely for me, all of the emails that were rejected were responses to queries. Once our hosting company was alerted and corrected the mistake I attempted to go through and resend some of the emails. Unfortunately, many still bounced and I’m sure I didn’t catch them all.

Sadly, I barely have the time to read and answer queries, let alone figure out which got through and which didn’t. The point? Check in! If you haven’t received a response from a BookEnds agent in the “respond by” time posted on our Web site (and I do suggest you give us a week or two beyond that for things like emergencies, vacations, responses that haven’t been written yet, or just a backlog) then don’t hesitate to send a quick email checking on status. If we no longer have the query in our inbox we’ll ask you to resend, or you can preempt that by checking in and including the query a second time. Email is not perfect and I get rejected/returned emails all the time.

While BookEnds agents can, at times, be slow, we do respond to everything, so if you haven’t heard, there’s a reason.

Jessica

Speaking of Gary D. Schmidt...

Remember when I mooed about how crummy Clarion's novel covers can be? I'm thinking seriously about forgiving them:



And look what they did for Linda Sue Park's latest:


I wish I had a photo of Trouble's spine -- even that's pretty. Bravo, Clarion! (At long last.)

A FOLLOW UP...the playwriting angst continues or...'hello - is anybody out there?'


As is the case with most if not all playwrights, I'm always seeking a suitable theatre in which to submit my plays and when I come accross one that is tailor-made for my purposes, it fills my heart with hope.

H-O-P-E. A four letter word that means confidence, faith, daydream, promise...among other upbeat and positive words. When it comes to playwriting, sometimes that's all we have.

Three months ago I submitted one of my plays to a theatre that deals specifically with humor. I'm reading over the information blurb on their site describing the theatre and their needs while thinking to myself: this could be a good match. Both of my plays are comedies and since the theatre accept electronic submissions, I send them/it "Gin: An Allegory For Playing the Game of Life."

Whenever a play is sent electronically there is for me, anyway, a creeping doubt that grows with the passing of days as to whether or not the recipient received the play. The theatre in question acknowledged receipt of the play within a two day period adding that playwrights will be notified as to whether their plays will be used within a month.

One month passes and no news one way or the other so I try to keep a positive state of mind assuring myself that no news is good news, even if deep in my heart and soul this is not necessarily the case at all. My anxiety replaces common sense as it frequently does and I send off follow-up query #1.

"Hi there, ---," I write attempting to sound up beat and cheerful and not to incur the recipient's wrath. "Hate to be a pain and/or pest but... Could you please let me know one way or the other, as to the fate of my play, "Gin: An Allegory for Playing the Game of Life" submitted to you by e-mail on ----. Any type of update would be most appreciated."

This was followed up with query #2 reminding the recipient that the deadline for the promised response had passed and I was waiting anxiously (to say the least) for news.

Still nothing.

Today follow-up #3 was sent: "Since I haven't heard back from you one way or the other and you mentioned in an e-mail that you would be notifying playwrights regarding the fate of their plays in February, which has long since passed, and in spite of two previous requests for information, I would very much appreciate knowing whether you plan to use my play, "Gin..." Any news is better than no news for we playwrights."

And so I wait - and hope. There's that four-letter word again but what else do we have?


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