What Would You Do?
First of all, let me just say that I hope all my LJ friends in the path of Superstorm Sandy-a.k.a. Frankenstorm-are safe!! Scary times! May those without power have it restored soon and may none of you suffer damage to your homes or other property-or yourselves/loved ones. I’m praying for all of you and hope to “see” you back online safe and sound soon.
As many of you know, I signed with an agent last November. Unfortunately, things with that agent didn’t work out and we parted ways. I’m on the hunt for new representation and am querying with a middle grade novel.
At the beginning of this month, I attended my local SCBWI conference and had the privilege of meeting with an editor to discuss the MG. The editor requested the full manuscript and also gave me the names of a few agents to query on her personal recommendation.
Of the agents she suggested, I queried two. One rejected the query, and the other requested the full. I’ve also queried other agents and have gotten another full request and a partial request.
Yay!
But here’s my problem:
I’d like to query one of the other agents the editor recommended, but I queried someone else at the agency with a picture book manuscript (before the conference) and haven’t heard back on it yet. The agency has a no reply means no policy with a 6 week time frame. That means I’d need to wait until mid/late November for a reply before I know if the picture book is “rejected.”
That’s all well and good, but things seem to be moving with this MG manuscript and I’d hate to miss out on the opportunity to query the recommended agent. I’ve been thinking about querying the agent and letting her know I already queried another agent at her agency with a different project, but I’m not sure if it would be frowned upon. I didn’t query the recommended agent with the picture book because she doesn’t represent picture books. However, the agent I queried with the picture book DOES represent middle grade.
So, should I wait for the “no reply means no” time to run out on the picture book submission (it’s already been almost a month. If she wanted the PB I would have heard by now-that’s my rationalization) or go ahead and query the recommended agent with the middle grade?
What would you do?
Write Worry on.