Well, first of all, if you pitched, you should have been ready to submit. Unless you were pitching a non-fiction project, or the request came from a contest, you should be 100@ ready to move on. There are no exceptions to this rule. But, with that said, let's still talk about that response, and more importantly about that response time. I want to talk about several different scenarios here (and in no random order).
You get a request and the editor/agent has some suggestions. They have some ideas about either what they would like to see, or some things they might be concerned with. After reading the response or listening to the concerns, you have some thoughts running through your head. Maybe you like your story as it is and you don't want to change it. OK, that's fine. Maybe you see those ideas but are unclear how to approach the changes. OK, that's understandable. Maybe you see those ideas and know you can do it but it will take a while to make the changes. That too is fine. So, what do you do?
Let the agent know. Respond back. Send them the material but let them know your opinion and your thoughts but keep it professional (especially with the first one). Remember, we only saw a glimpse of your story. We only heard a pitch from you. We never saw the writing. If you send a query, we will NEVER request more material if we don't see something we might like. If we listen to a pitch, we will tell you no if it is not right.
For myself, when it comes to pitches, I will say no if it is a definite no. I won't leave you hanging. If I do request, I always tell people what I am thinking. And get this. I tell almost everyone the thing that might be concerning to me in the pitch. This includes the stories that sound amazing in the pitch session. It might sound amazing but I will still note, "Hey this sounds great, but if I have to reject this project, it will come down to [insert what I am thinking]". Look, that is just my approach.
Here is another approach. You submit a project, get a request AND THEN find someone else you want to send your project to instead. That's fine by us. Just let us know. It doesn't take much but send us a quick note to tell us. Remember, if we requested, we were looking for something and MAYBE, JUST MAYBE your story was exactly what we were looking for. MAYBE we had a slot available for you and we were waiting for it. Tell us so we can move on. It is a simple common courtesy.
You might ask, why I am bringing this up? Between 2 recent conferences, I have had roughly 43 pitch appointments (a couple were no-shows). Out of those appointments, I have received around 10 submissions. As I went back to write this blog, I looked back at my notes for those stories, I saw that some of those stories I had liked the ideas and the solutions were easy fixes.
Let me tell you another story. I remember sitting at a National convention. Deb Werksman from Source Books and I were chatting before the pitch session and she had literally told me about some projects to keep an eye out for. Just casual chit chat. In that next session, this author came over to me with just that story. It was a longer pitch session so I was able to dig deeper and ask her a lot of questions. The author knew her stuff. This story was awesome. This author was not a one-hit-wonder. This was perfect. I asked her if she had that story with her. She did. It was on her computer in her hotel room. I told her to send it to me so I could read it on the way home to Seattle!
To this day I have NEVER seen the story. Deb Werksman had NEVER seen the story. This author has NEVER published the story.
Again, when we request, it DOES mean we want to see something. So send us something and if there is going to be a delay, then let us know. Please!
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