I had a question about writer-agent etiquette. What’s the appropriate amount of time to wait before checking back in once an agent has requested your full manuscript? Two agents are reading my full right now. One has had it ten weeks, the other six. I haven’t heard back from either. Do I wait to hear back for them? Or, would it be appropriate to contact them, and if so, when, and what should be my approach?

Most agents will try to give you some idea of how long they might take to read a full. For my part, when I get a full or a partial, I respond to let the author know 1) that I received it and 2) that I’ll do my best to respond within two months.

So if the agent who has your full for ten weeks were like me, you could very easily dash off a quick email checking in, and seeing where they are in terms of their submission pile. For the six week-er, you might wait another three weeks or so (to give them the benefit of the doubt) before sending off a status request.

Now, some agents don’t give a timeframe, and there you have to use your own best judgment. How long did they take to get back to you on a query or a partial? If they took two months to respond to just a letter, changes are they’re going to need even longer to respond to a full. But if they got back to you on five chapters within a week, and seemed very excited, I think you could ask for an update in a month. You might also be able to check the agent out on Querytracker, or other online references for writers, and see how long other writers have had to wait for a response.

But basically, there’s no hard and fast rule. Every agent is different. The key is recognizing that we’re all overwhelmed with reading, and that reading work for prospective clients takes a backseat to work for already existing clients.

Make sense?

I have a dilemma that’s new to me, regarding when (or whether) to make a status query about a submission. Many moons ago, I sent a query to an editor at a major house, and 14 months later, I got a nice note saying I should send the manuscript, and apologizing for the delay in responding.
That was in March (2008), and I turned it around more or less immediately and sent the manuscript on April 1st. I have heard nothing since, and am starting to itch a little — I’m sure you know the feeling. Now if this were a novel, I don’t think I’d worry yet. But it was an easy reader of about 250 words. I know the decision making process can be complicated, regardless of how short a piece is, but still, I worry about things like: Might there have been a piece of chewed gum on the envelope next to mine, and did my submission get permanently stuck to a really crappy manuscript that she scrambled into a ball and lobbed into her garbage can, shouting “SCORE!” Well? It could happen…
OK, what do I do — make a status query now? wait a couple more months? Since it was requested, I don’t have any sense of an “appropriate” wait time.

So basically, it’s been five months since you sent a requested manuscript, and you already know that this editor may be slow, but she does eventually get to her pile of reading (as evidenced by the 14 months it took her to respond to your query).
I know the impetus to imagine the worst is a common one, but the truth is, we’re all just snowed under by the amount of reading to be done. I would send her a short little note (or email) with the gist of “I’m just checking to confirm you received my requested submission of April 1st of ______(title). I look forward to hearing your reaction.” And then get back to work writing your next book. Good luck!

At what point does no response to a query (an e-query) mean NO from an agent? Say you’ve sent out, I don’t know, 25 queries to agents who are NOT setting up a new shop. You’ve had some rejections, you’ve had some requests for partials, but there are still about ten out there that are floating with no response. Two weeks? Four? Six? When do you cut the cord and say, “Ain’t gonna happen. Stop praying.”?

Well, the first thing I’d do is check the agency’s website or the agent’s blog, if they have one. Do they accept e-queries in the first place? If they don’t, then do things the old fashioned way and send a letter. It’s likely your email was just deleted unread. If they do accept e-queries, have they posted anything about a backlog, or a delay in responding? Even if they haven’t, have they given a timeframe for responses? Agent A may promise to respond to email queries within two weeks, in which case, if you haven’t heard in a month, I think you could be justified in sending a reminder. Agent B may say she’ll respond within a month, so I’d give her twice that much time before resending. Whatever timeframe you think might be long enough, double that, then you can resend, or send a reminder.
In any case, when you resend, my personal request would be a brief cover email with your original e-query attached, saying simply something along the lines of “Dear Agent — I understand you may be overwhelmed with queries at this time, but I didn’t want to take the chance that my letter was somehow lost, and I am delighted to resubmit my query of Date.” You can flower that up, of course, make it pretty, and I always like to allow the possibility of blame to fall on the intrawebs. But keep it simple.
And of course, keep submitting! Find other agents to query who will respond. It sounds like you’ve got some good feedback already, so track down some more of the good ones, and keep trying until you get that offer of representation.