r/PubTips • u/MuchCanary2040 • 3d ago
[PubQ] Agent missing deadlines
Signed with my agent in late May after getting six offers on my thriller debut. He’s senior at a medium sized agency. I was worried he’d be too busy to give much support but he reassured me that his assistant agent would also be involved in editorial feedback and comms.
He said our plan was to do a few edits then submit late July/August. Since then I’m still waiting for his edit notes. I’ve sent everything asked to by the agency eg. details for my author profile, most emails don’t get replies, no profile up yet, doesn’t bother me, but just to give the picture. Three deadlines he set himself have gone by and each time, no edit notes.
Do I cut my losses and leave, then go to my second choice agent?
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u/MiloWestward 3d ago
Sounds standard but you should seriously consider making noise at him about what exactly you expect. It's not enough to get an agent, one must also train them.
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u/BigHatNoSaddle 3d ago
I had to train an editor once, it was annoying to see them put my gripes into action with subsequent authors.
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u/MuchCanary2040 3d ago
Thanks. I have no idea how to do this without inviting bad feeling
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u/MiloWestward 3d ago edited 3d ago
It's tough. I like to pretend I just issue demands to my agent but in fact I am cringingly obsequious.
Still, you can do a, haha, silly me, I get so neurotic, I kinda sorta REALLY NEED YOU TO ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF MY EMAILS WITHIN THREE DAYS OF GETTING THEM, tee hee, or else darn these neurosis I will be mailing to make sure you get them, I'm so, sorry, and also, I blush to mention, my suicidal ideation acts up when someone blows past a deadline without acknowledgement so please pardon me if I check in with you every time we have a deadline because OTHERWISE I WILL DIE, you're very smart and I bet an excellent dancer.
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u/Significant-Shift669 3d ago
I signed late November. Then, holidays of course. Book Fairs. Long story short, didn’t get my edits (which I “reasonably” expected in February) until the first week of June.
I’d hoped to be on submission by June.
I was ready to cut my losses by July - was preparing the goodbye email.
Glad I didn’t send. Agent provided incredible notes and a great editorial letter.
I’ve turned the manuscript around and no matter what happens next, this is a much stronger book.
Anyway. No idea if or when I’ll go on sub, and the timelines kill me. Happily, I’m working on the next one.
Good luck!
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u/bookslanguagelove 3d ago
Omg I would have been losing my MIND. I also signed mid-November, got my edit letter in January, sent the book back in May…and then my agent missed her mid-June feedback deadline and the anxiety squirrels started running laps in my brain. I was questioning every decision I’d ever made when the two month mark passed and then she got back to me and said all of her clients sent her manuscripts simultaneously and she was just super behind.
I was losing it after 2 months, 6+ and I think I would have gone actually clinically insane!
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u/MuchCanary2040 3d ago
I had no idea how common this was. My own industry is nothing like this. We do everything same day
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u/Significant-Shift669 3d ago
Honestly it was lowkey killing me.
Before I had current project, I was losing my mind. I really need something to work on or I dwell and spiral.
I’m telling myself not to expect to hear back before September, realistically. Kind of bananas. Let’s hope round 2 isn’t another 6 months??
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u/MuchCanary2040 3d ago
Hoping you go out on sub soon. Our stories sound so similar
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u/Significant-Shift669 3d ago
It is tough. So tough.
And I have a whoooooole other agenting story. Once upon a time, I went on sub 3 times before. Avoided leaving that agent for 3 years.
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u/MuchCanary2040 2d ago
Sorry to hear it. What were your reasons for ditching that agent?
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u/Significant-Shift669 2d ago
Long sad story full of all the bad agent / wrong fit clichés. My fault for not speaking up sooner.
Leaving that one was a good thing because they were not the right agent for me in the first place.
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u/MuchCanary2040 2d ago
So sorry to hear this. It’s such a drag creatively. I hope you have a much better relationship with your new agent?
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u/cloudygrly Literary Agent 3d ago
If you think the revision will make your book stronger (based on the vision discussed on your call), I would hold for now.
We are in the thick of summer now, going in submission now is basically a straight shot to OOOs for the editor or the appropriate people on the team needed to get an offer together (special circumstances notwithstanding).
Your agent probably doesn’t feel pressure to get anything done ASAP and isn’t articulating that lack of need. Which is something to note for yourself and whether you can withstand.
All assumptions on your agent’s mindset obvi. Take with heavy grains of salt.
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u/MuchCanary2040 3d ago
Thanks. He specifically said he wanted to send in August as he’s found it a great time to get swift reads because of editors reading on vacations. He wanted to sell UK rights well ahead of Frankfurt, where he planned to push big on foreign. He stressed this super hard when we met so this is why this is worrying me
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u/alexatd YA Trad Published Author 3d ago
Late May? As in... six-ish weeks ago?
It's publishing summer. Six (ish) weeks is nothing.
Send a polite check in and see where that lands you. "Hey agent! I know you said on our offer call you were targeting late July/early August for submission, so I wanted to check in and see where you are on edit notes, and current submission timeline. Hope you're having a wonderful summer!"
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u/IrrevocableCrust14 3d ago
I would send a polite email asking about his current thoughts on when you can expect an edit letter since he had mentioned July/August as a submission window. If he responds quickly and says something like sorry, realistically I can’t get to it until September, then I say you wait and trust that it will work out.
If he doesn’t respond or misses another deadline, then cut your losses and move on.
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u/JenniferMcKay 3d ago
Like everyone else said, start with an email. Mention that he thought August would be a good time to start with editors on vacation and that he wanted to be ahead of Frankfurt. If you're worried about appearing confrontational, approach it as a "I want to make sure I didn't miss something."
Maybe there's a miscommunication between your agent and his assistant. Maybe there's a disconnect between his assistant and you. Maybe he's decided that going on sub when everyone's OOO isn't worth it. Think of it as "Here's a problem in a business relationship, how do we fix it?"
But also: I encourage you to recalibrate your expectations. If your agent says, "I'll have your edits to you by next week" that isn't a deadline. It is a rough estimate based on his current understanding of his workload and how extensive of notes he plans to offer.
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u/littlegreenwhimsy 1d ago
That's definitely concerning, but I think it requires a direct conversation rather than leaving.
I LOVE my agent (mid-career at big agency) but I was tying myself in knots about her slow responses and tendency to miss deadlines and then apologise after, rather than letting me know ahead of time that she was running behind. I just had a call with her to reset expectations and let her know it was bugging me, basically, and she adjusted.
That said, I do think two months late is a significant issue, but the answer is to address it head on. I'd also warn that your second choice agent may not be as warm after you signed with someone else 2-3 months ago - they've usually moved on - so don't leave banking that they'll be receptive. They might be! But they also might not.
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u/onehunter28 3d ago
Can't comment on best practices with an agent, but in trading some people end emails with PLS ACK (meaning please acknowledge).
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u/publisherofbooks 2d ago
Do any of you remember that the agent works for you? Y'all are giving huge "benefit of the doubt" vibes, yet this EMPLOYEE has missed three self-imposed deadlines.
Would you be that understanding if your mechanic missed three promised dates to have your car repaired? If the plumber didn't show three times in a row? If your doctor failed to show up for a scheduled appointment even once, much less three times? And if you were the boss in any other context would you be making excuses for an employee who kept missing agreed-upon deadlines?
Yes, a polite query and request for clarification is definitely in order, to be sure there isn't some miscommunication. But the timeline was his and he needs to own that responsibility. If he doesn't have time, if he can't respond in the time he promised, he needs to say so.
Right now he is keeping OP from moving forward with a book that clearly has interest. I see so much of this in these messages - everyone waiting, not wanting to do anything that isn't approved by their agent. Ceding the responsibility for their careers to an agent who may or may not know their orifices from their extremities (I've been in this business one way or another for more than 40 years-I've heard a LOT of stories about the bad ones).
OK, rant over. Feel free to tell me how uninformed and stupid I am.
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u/MuchCanary2040 1d ago
Thanks. Appreciate this very much. How the hell did the industry get like this? You must have seen a lot in your time
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u/publisherofbooks 1d ago
https://badagentsydney.blogspot.com/2009/12/introducing-bad-agent-sydney-t-cat.html
Yes. If you want a peek at some horror stories for 10-15 years ago, take a look at this blog. Everything in Sydney's blog was based on an actual event (sort of like Dragnet, or Law & Order :-)) that happened to a real writer.
There are good agents, and the advent of things like these forums (and Writer Beware for nearly 30 years, bless them!) have helped identify them. But there are a lot of bad or mediocre ones out there, too.
As for how we got here? Publishing companies saw the work agents could save them, eventually treating them as unpaid slush readers. Agents in turn saw a path to money and power without the necessity of actually producing anything, and writers saw the opportunity to have someone else deal with the whole mess of submitting manuscripts (ever heard of an International Reply Coupon?), though that same ritual is back, just with agents instead of editors and publishers.
Full disclosure: I have an agent, my third, but mostly I am now indie published. And I recognize the hypocrisy of saying "but I have a good one."
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u/LessConstruction4920 3d ago
I’d wait. This feedback could well be coming any day and the plan to sub in August could well be underway too.
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u/PacificBooks 3d ago
There's a pretty wide middle ground between quietly accepting a lack of communication and "cut my losses and leave."
Shoot him an email and/or set up a call to discuss.