Agent Etiquette

There are a lot of things in the current business community that really upsets me. One of those is the lack of communication between different parties. We are operating with ideas such as "no answer means no" from the editors and agents, to simply a lack of timely responses. I think there is this belief that since we live in a digital age, it is OK to take this approach. 

Personally, I do not agree. 

When I get submissions in, I make sure that I respond to everyone. OK. there are some that get no response, but these are the people who tell me in a query letter that The Great Gazoo told them to

submit their project to me. I also try to let people know in a timely fashion. My policy is that I say I will get back to you in under 3 months. In reality, I feel guilty when I don't get back to someone within a month. 

Today, however, I want to talk about the proper etiquette I believe writers should have when contacting editors and agents. I am bringing this up because I had an author just in the last two days do the RIGHT thing. 

First of all, we know that you are probably submitting your project to several agents or editors at the same time. This is understandable. But here is where the good behavior comes into play. Let's say you submit to Agent X but Agent Y gets back to you quicker and offers you representation. Good etiquette is to let us know that someone else offered. 

Now, there is a caveat to this. If someone did offer you representation, do not expect us to drop everything to make a decision on our end. Hearing someone else offers is not going to rush things, UNLESS we had already been madly in love with your initial query. Proper etiquette though is to let us know, which this author did. Doing so does not burn any bridges you might need later, AND saves that editor or agent the time of reading the project of he or she has not gotten to it yet.

A second standard of good etiquette is not to harass the editors or agents. In my case, I say I will get back to you in a maximum of three months. If you have not heard by then, sure, contact us and just make sure the project got there. You will notice the approach I took. As an author, I am sort of taking the blame here. I am not saying that the agent is at fault, but simply approaching this from the standpoint that I might not have submitted it correctly. 

The key is BE POLITE!

Along the same lines, emailing the next day to "make sure the project got there" sort of falls under the category of being pushy. If you sent it and did not get an error message, then the project made it. 

Finally, if the agent does pass on the project, simply say thank you. Do not respond back in a way to somehow argue for your case. You got a no so live with it. If the person did send some feedback to you, it is OK to respond back with a thank you and tell them you appreciated the feedback and will use it with your work. So, maybe you don't but saying that is fine. I will say, if you do take that feedback and use it properly with your next submission and mention it, you will likely get some bonus points. 

Just some business things to consider.