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I’ve seen so much of this lately. I’ve also seen a lot of, I have an offer and so can you get back to me this in a few days... https://twitter.com/laurenspieller/status/1331255000249602050
Ultimately, it’s your book so you’ve got to trust your gut. If your gut is saying this is the agent for me, I’m not gonna stop you. But when I offer I always encourage writers to give the other agents time to read.
Why? Because if you’re going to sign with me, you’re signing with me because I’m the best for you...I don’t want you signing with me because I couldn’t sleep and stayed up until 4am reading your book and so therefore happened to be your first offer.
And when I say, give the other agents time to read, that means a couple weeks. Especially now. It’s an incredibly busy time of year for so many of us, if you’re querying widely you owe it to yourself to do your due diligence and give people ample time to respond.
It’s a sign of a not great agent if they’re pressuring you to accept before considering others offers. No agent should ask you to exclusively consider your work. I have zero problems with competition, most agents i know don’t.
Furthermore, since I’m already on this topic, lately I’ve gotten A LOT of people querying me and then a week or so later being like hey I have a revision can I send it to you...
I am never going to say no to your sending me an updated draft of your book. But I do wonder just how much might’ve changed in ONE WEEK. (Or even two weeks tbh.) But more importantly take your time with things...
don’t be in such a rush to get your work out the door that you’re sending something you’re not proud of. That’s only going to hurt you in the long run.
When you hit send on a query letter you should be able to step back. Sure, you’re probably anxious but you should know you did your best. If you don’t feel like that, if you’re feel there’s a lot more work to do please don’t query yet. Take your time. We’ll be here.
Also while we’re on this topic may I recommend @MissDahlELama’s perpetual WIPs series? It has advice on everything (from other writers!) on querying, on being mid career, on parting ways with an agent... all the things https://dailydahlia.wordpress.com/blog-series/perpetual-wips-2/
And secondly, check out @zlikeinzorro and @brownbookworm’s #DeadlineCity podcast which is full of SO MUCH publishing wisdom https://deadlinecity.com/
