Submission ettiquette

[JDP]

If you are lucky enough to have two agents ask for your full manuscript after submitting sample chapters, what is the proper ettiquette? Do you send one the full MS and politely tell the other that someone else is reading it, or send two out? I think I read somewhere that it is considered bad form to send out the full MS to multiple agents at the same time.

NB. This question is purely academic (I should be so lucky to be in this situation!).

[wildwolfpublishing]

It is considered bad form to send the full MSS out to more than one agent at a time, but we all live in the real world, so it does happen.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Check their contact information. If they say they don't want to look at multiple subs then respect their wishes. If they don't say, I suppose you could ask.

I always recommend professional courtesy. Others think that's naive. All I can say is that it's worked for me so far.

[JDP]

Thanks for the replies! I think that a little courtesy goes a long way in every walk of life.

I will shortly (in the next month or so) be sending out the first submissions of my manuscript to agents. I've found it quite hard to know when to say when on the editing, but there comes the point where you have to just get on with it, eh? Add to that a subtly different submissions process for each agent and it's easy for an aspiring writer to start getting obsessed with every little detail...

Thanks again.

[Tirellan]

US or UK agents? The etiquette is different. With US agents, provided no-one has the manuscript exclusively, there is no problem with several agents having the full manuscript. Happens fairly frequently.

[ctg]

JDP, there's only around seven agent or agencies in the UK. So while you go through them on at the time, you can post to several US agents at the same time. Don't limit your options, but remember that you can only submit once per book. Therefore, if you're not sure about it, only submit to few of them and see what happens.

[Teresa Edgerton]

There are, however, US agents who specifically state that they don't want to look at manuscripts that are under consideration elsewhere. My own agent, for one.