Is it OK if I begin my search for an agent, for better yet, actually get one, while a manuscript of mine, that I have submitted prior to getting an agent, is currently under consideration with a certain publisher, or does that violate some sort of rule or norm?
While it wouldn't be the best of form, from what I know this would hardly be the most offensive thing you can do either. Agents take a percentage of the manuscript they're selling, so if you sell a manuscript without their help that hardly counts against you. That being said, if you have the luxury of waiting for this publisher, wait. See what they come back with and see if it's something an agent can help with (contract negotiations come to mind.) You'll have a much easier time actually finding an agent if you're already in talks with a publisher. If waiting isn't an option, definitely let any agent you talk to know about the situation. Not an industry professional, but this is the impression I've gotten.
Here I am! I'm not sure I understand the situation - is it just one publisher you've submitted the MS to, and then you changed your mind and decided you wanted an agent? Conventional wisdom (which is accurate as far as I've seen) is that agents don't want books that've already been submitted but haven't found a home. If you've only submitted to one publisher, how long did they tell you it'd be before you heard back from them? If it's a matter of weeks, I'd wait it out. If it's a lot longer than that, it might make sense to start querying agents, but I wouldn't mention the submission you've already made, not until later in the process. If you've submitted the book widely, it's probably a good idea to keep trying to find a publisher for that one on your own, and try for an agent with your next book.
I only have one manuscript, and have submitted it a week and a half ago to one publisher who accepts unsolicited submissions. They said that after 3 months, I'm free to send it to others, but to also take into account that it's possible, with the large amount of unsolicited material that they get, that they haven't gotten around to reading it yet, even after 3 months. And it's not like I'll know which one it is. They don't bother contacting you if they've rejected it. In that case, is it better to not let the agent know that one publisher still hasn't returned to me? (If he doesn't ask, that is)
If this publisher got back to you and wanted the book, would you want to publish with them? If so, I'd hold off and not bother contacting agents yet. If not, I'd withdraw my submission to them and start on the agent route. I'm really not sure about this half-and-half approach...
Noted. I'll hold off on contacting agents, though everyday of not hearing anything is torture. BTW, let's say I do contact agents in the future, is it OK to send initial queries to multiple agencies at the same time? I'm guessing it isn't, since everybody would just send the same query to every agency known to man and see what sticks to the wall, but I'm asking anyway.
A lot of writers send out queries in batches of 5-10. That way you're not waiting around FOREVER, like you would if you were sending them one at a time, but you still have a chance to change your query letter if you find that you're not getting a good response.
Awesome. Now it's just a matter of waiting. Did you ever send a MS and then regretted some parts of how you've written it?
I've never been fully satisfied with a single thing I've ever written. But at some point I just get so sick of the same damn story and the same damn characters that I have to send them away. First submissions are hard, though. You really do want them to be as good as they can possibly be. Have you had beta readers?
It's trusted readers you send your book to after you've completed and polished it, so that they can offer additional critique before you submit to an agent or publisher.
You usually find betas yourself, and you usually don't pay them - often you'll read something of theirs in return. Do you have any friends who read in your genre? That's a fair place to start.
I think you can request betas in the Collaboration area of the forum. As someone who started submitting only recently, I can say having your work beta'd before submitting will save you a lot of angst.
Insufficient privilege. I PM'd one guy. We'll see if he's in. Other than that, I don't have any other options for betas.
You've done the time; now do the 20 posts and 2 critiques, and post an excerpt of your work. It won't do the job a beta would do (read the whole damned thing and comment on all sorts of stuff) but it will at least give a potential beta the knowledge that your work isn't so littered with rookie errors that he'd be wasting his time.
