Q&A Thursday

What Are The Chances Edition

Friends!

It’s question time!

H asks: I have just finished my third book, which has been reviewed by beta readers and is ready to be sent to my agent. Here’s the problem: My first two books withered on the vine, after just one round of submissions. My agent sent me a list of the editors who would receive the manuscript, and they were all heavy-hitters, very impressive. Feedback came quickly, and to a person they were all extremely complimentary and encouraging of both books. (The feedback was so great, I even made them my screensavers.)¹ Alas, no buys. The responses were always “This won’t fit on my list at the moment, but I can’t wait to see where this lands.” (My genre is literary speculative historical. The three books are unrelated to each other.) So with each book, after just one round of editors, my agent pulled the ms and encouraged me to write something else. So I’ve just finished my third book, which I’m very happy with … as I was with the first two … but I hesitate to go on submission again if my agent is only going to pull it after just one round of editors. In each instance, my agent sent the ms to about 12 editors and then stopped, explaining that it would be best to shelve the first two manuscripts for the time being, and try again with a new book. Is this normal? Should I take a chance on my third book with the same agent, or end the relationship and look for a new agent? I spoke to another agent at a writer’s conference, who said that they would keep sending the ms out to editors until it sold. I appreciate your thoughts.

Ugh, this is frustrating. I’m sorry. But is this normal? Probably, for your agent. There are definitely times when I’ve sent something out to a small or medium list and could tell that we were not getting the response I hoped for and the book might not sell.