Is it Friday yet? The Question Emporium Has a Buyer

Hi Janet,

Did you once do a long post about a typical day in the life of an agent? Someone did and I remember it sort of blew me away by how much y'all packed into one day. I really need that link for a writer who is wondering what is taking so long (ONE week after an agent requested three chapters) and is driving me nuts with whinging.

Not me. What you're looking for is here I think:

Any queryier who is impatient at the one-week to read three chapters needs to calm the fuck down. You can quote me. Or cut and paste me.

I have full novels here that I'm DYING to read and I simply haven't had the time. We're kind of busy here in case no one noticed. I'm not saying my time is more important than anyone else's, but if we tell you it takes thirty days to read a partial, don't start bellyaching at seven days.

Also wondering...when a mid-list writer leaves her agent because the agent doesn't find the latest manuscript saleable, does this writer find a new agent the same way the newbie writer does or do they get to skip a few steps and make calls or ???

Back to square one! I always laugh when someone calls me to see if they can skip a few steps. The answer is always no, and even by asking it shows me a lot about why they aren't with their old agent. Every single person I have who was previously represented (at least three I know of off hand) contacted me the old fashioned way: in writing. They didn't presume to be in a special category. That means in fact they ARE in a special category: people I want to work with.