Hooray! An Agent Asked for My Full Manuscript
An agent asked for my full manuscript! Yahoo! Now what? In this video post, along with its transcript, you can learn what you need to do when you have a full manuscript request.
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An Agent Asked For My Full Manuscript Transcript
Hi, my name is Mary Kole with the Good Story Company. I am here today to talk about an agent requesting a manuscript, which is always a very exciting thing. But it can also lead to questions. It can lead to all sorts of things that a lot of writers maybe didn't anticipate or couldn't become aware of until it happened to them. So, what happens when an agent expresses interest? As we know, there are several different types of rejections that you can get. There are several different types of feedback that you can get. And it's not just yes or no. When you really get into the process of getting your work requested by agents, there are several different things that can happen. One is encouraging feedback with a decline. Another is a partial request. Another is a full request.
And so, one of the things that a lot of writers are curious about is what happens if I get a full request on my manuscript and how do I handle the situation if, for some reason, more than one person wants to see the manuscript? How do you, sort of, navigate this landscape once you start getting some interest? So one of the things that I would say first of all is congratulations, getting a manuscript request is no easy feat and you should be commended for your achievement in getting this far. It can also be very nerve wracking to have this sort of interest in yourself and your project.
So one of the things right away that a lot of writers ask is, "Well, what if I was planning on revising a little bit more? I wanted to put my best foot forward understandably, and yet I got this request. So what do I do?" There, I would say that the request doesn't have to be a, sort of like, court deposition where there's a very, very strict protocol for it. I would say if you do need more time, be very open and just say, "Hey, I'm polishing up a revision right now. I would love to send it to you when it's done." In that case, do not give a timeframe. Obviously, you do want to respond to the request sooner rather than later so you can respect the agent, respect their time, respect their interest and capitalize on the interest.
But if you're still working on the manuscript a little bit or perhaps you submitted a little too early and you have a little work left to do and you thought you were gonna have more time to do that work, I think it's absolutely okay to then say, "Look, I'm still revising. Can I please...I'll send it to you when I'm ready." That was the terrible example. Don't ask, tell them what you're about to do, "I will send it to you when I'm ready." That way there's less back and forth with the agent. There's less, sort of, time for them to have to invest in you on logistics and, sort of, protocol. You can just say, "Thank you so much for your interest. I will be back in touch soon." And then when you do follow up, say, "Hey, I'm following up on your manuscript request, such and such date, here is the manuscript. Please enjoy and thank you for your consideration." So all of that is completely, totally doable when you want a little bit more time on a manuscript request.
Another situation that happens, that a lot of writers get curious about, is what if you send a manuscript to fulfill a request, then you get another request and maybe even an offer, how do you juggle a situation when multiple agents are interested? Obviously, this is everybody's dream scenario, but it can be tough to navigate because you wanna do the right thing. You wanna communicate. You wanna be very, very fair to everyone that's expressing interest. Again, clear, honest communication is key in this situation. So if a person makes an offer and you have several people reading, I would highly recommend that you get back to the offering agent and you say, "Thank you so much for your offer. Out of fairness to everybody else reading, I'm going to give them some time to respond. I'm hoping to put together responses and get back to you by such and such date." Maybe it's in a week, maybe it's in a week and a half. You are totally within your rights to do something like that.
Will the offering agents' enthusiasm for you and your project cool? Hopefully not. There are people who don't like to compete, who may be turned off by that approach, but I think it is in your best interest to hear from everybody you are going to hear from in this scenario. So I would still request a little time to go back, hear from everybody. The original offering agent may be a little huffy about it or they may ask you who else is reading it, that sort of thing. But that's a competitive response. It's not necessarily something to be nervous about because, you know, if I am after a hot property, sure I get curious about it. I get curious about who my competition is. That doesn't necessarily have to stop you though from hearing all of the responses that you are entitled to.
Once you button things up with the offering agent, potentially, you can go back to everybody else who has a full request, and maybe even a partial request out for your manuscript, and say, "Hey, here's the situation." Be very, very clear about it. You don't have to reveal who offered, but you may wanna say something along the lines of, "I have an offer." And when you do send out a message like this, I highly recommend you putting something like offer received in your subject line. Say, "I have an offer. I would love to hear of your interest, if there is any, by such and such date." And maybe, give them a few days before you told the first agent you would get back to them. So if you told the first agent next Friday, maybe the other agents still reading, you tell them next Wednesday, so that you have a couple of days to, sort of, get all the votes in and make a decision, have some phone conversations, do your gut-check time and just say, "I would love to hear from you. If you're still interested, I would very much appreciate the chance to discuss with you as well." You know, be humble about it. But you are in a favorable position because you have people potentially vying for you.
Don't be afraid to set the rules and communicate everything to everybody potentially involved when you do this. So if you have an offer and you have other people reading and you send out a message that says, "Offer received," be prepared that some people will bow out. They will probably look at your project sooner. They will generate their response, whether it's a pass or a potential offer more quickly. And so it may seem like you did the wrong thing because all of a sudden you may hear a couple no's like, "Oh, somebody else is into this. I don't know if I am. I'm gonna step aside," that sort of thing.
You may get a lot of declines as a result of doing this from the people that were reading. And this may seem a little bit discouraging, but it's a natural part of the process. If these agents that are reading your manuscript, they hear that somebody else's interested, that's either gonna sway them to be decisive one way or the other. Most of them would have probably declined anyway. So it's not like they're changing their initial read of your project just because somebody else already offered on it. They're just gonna let you know more quickly, and of course your problem. Sorry, you're probably gonna hear more no's than yeses on the project anyway, just naturally. So, if a bunch of people bow out, do not be discouraged. Maybe you'll hear from another agent or another couple of agents that say, "Yes, I am interested. I would like to talk to you before your deadline." Maybe not, maybe the original offering agent is the only one still in the ring. You don't have to let the original offering agent know that. But you'll know either way, whether you have one agent interested still at the end of the process, whether you have multiple agents interested at the end of that process. At least that question will be answered.
And then what do you do? If you have one person interested, make sure to talk to them. Make sure that you are asking them some questions about your work. I will link to an article here that gives you some suggestions of questions to ask an interested agent. And some questions that they may ask you which makes for good reading if you're at this point of the process. If you have multiple agents interested, make sure that you have the same conversations. Give the same time and consideration to every agent. Now, you are in an interviewer's role. You are trying to determine whether they're a good fit for you and your work.
And some of the best things that I would recommend you do in this enviable position would be to get a sense of how they may want to steer your work in an editorial direction. So you should work with an agent ideally whose vision, creative vision, is aligned with yours. And so if there are any agents' offering that just wanna take your project in a really weird direction that would be noteworthy at this point. Usually, a writer's gut is a great ally in this conversation just because if somebody wants to take your book in a direction that you don't like, maybe you're not gonna be aligned for the long term, and the short term to be honest. And that's something to listen to. So think about the direction that the agent is proposing that you go in with this project. If you get any red flags there, any alarm bells, those are worth listening to.
Another thing to try and do, if you can, is speak to a few of the clients of the agent. If the agent has very noteworthy clients, I would actually say, maybe, ask to speak to some of their mid-list clients or some of their clients for whom things haven't exactly gone well. That might seem like a very weird thing to request, but if an agent is saying, "Hey, I can send you some clients as a references. What do you wanna do?" I think it's totally fair to say, "Well, obviously, your celebrity clients are going to love you because you've done a lot for them. And everything has gone considerably better than expected for you. But what about some of your quieter clients who maybe haven't had things go according to plan?" Because I think the true test of an agent is really what they do when things aren't puppies and unicorns, how they handle those situations if conflicts arise, how that agent has really treated a client in good times and in maybe not-so-great times. So I think you're totally within your rights to ask to speak to clients. But don't just speak to the top tier clients that the agent might have. It's good to consider all angles and all points of view.
Then hopefully you will find an agent who stands out from the ones that have offered as having a vision that matches yours, having clients that sing their praises when it's sunny out and when it's raining a little bit. And ideally, you will make the right decision for you if you have interests from more than one agent or your full requests have gone swimmingly. And then, again, communication is key. And I would highly recommend for you to be a class act all the way to the end. Let everybody know that you have come to a decision. Again, you don't have to name names, but you may want to. Thank them for their consideration, the agents that have offered and are not going to get your project and the one that will, of course, and just let everybody know. Ideally, you will be with the agent that you've chosen for a very long time. But if things don't go according to plan, and sometimes they don't, you may wanna leave other doors open for yourself for the future and cultivate some of these relationships. You know, if something doesn't work out, maybe you'll look them up later.
All that's to say I think staying humble and staying approachable and staying grateful for how far you've come with a full request and, sort of, multi-agent situation is going to go in your favor if you ever need to be on the agent hunt again. You're in a great spot. Nobody likes to think about things going sideways when they are, sort of, celebrating this next big step in their writing journey. But I think that treating the situation very professionally, communicating, being honest, all of these are going to be assets for you, no matter what, in your writing life. So it's never too soon to start practicing. So those are some of the potential scenarios with a manuscript request and offer situation.
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