Losing your mind is not a requirement for being an author, all evidence to the contrary

I have had an agent for the last five years or so. She’s submitted two novels for me over that time (we had a lot of nice personal responses but no sale). Since the second one going back in the drawer she has become less responsive, which makes sense - I’m going down the priority list. I sent her a new one last April, just as the COVID situation was kicking off. It’s now going on ten months and she’s sent me a couple of apologetic emails but hasn’t read past the prologue, citing being behind in her reading due to COVID. Now I haven’t heard from her in four months. 

My question is, is it reasonable / sane for me to pull the plug on our relationship after ten months? She’s in London and I’m in Australia and I’m aware that the COVID situation there is bad, but I’m just not hearing from her. I wrote this book because she liked the pitch and I’m terrified of never being able to get another agent, but I’m losing my mind!

Until you said she was in London, I was wondering if you were talking about me.

I have gotten behind on my client reading this past year.

I'm more caught up now but I'm still not as current as both my clients and I wish I was.

But, it's time for a heart to heart with your agent.

Don't try to make this decision in a vacuum.

Talk to her. Tell her you're feeling like a low priority. Tell her that if she doesn't like this new book, just say so. It's better to know than be left wondering.

Yes, we're all navigating strange new ways to do business, but this problem is one I've seen for decades. It's NOT a function of the pandemic.
 

 An agent who is not reading and subbing your work is just as career stalling as no agent.

Dodging a Bullet vs Missing Your Chance

 

I recently received an email from a writer who had queried me in 2015. The email was to inform me they were self-publishing, and I'd missed my chance.

To hang on to the sting of rejection for five years, let alone now take the time to email me about it  now, indicates a tenacity I wish was put to better use.

And what Righteous Writer doesn't know is that this kind of email means I dodged a bullet, not missed a chance.

Here's why: the writers I want to work with get better with each book. Ask most working writers about something they wrote five years ago, and before you even stop speaking, they've got a red pen in each hand, and a fourth behind the ear to mark up what they want to fix and improve.

My own limited experience here on the blog bears this out. When people link to an old post of mine on Twitter, I'm glad for the shout out, but I'm even happier to get a chance to go back and fix some things I didn't notice at the time.

Does your experience support this?

Are you a better writer now than you were five years ago?

Did I dodge a bullet or miss a chance with you?