Last week, I was feeling pretty antsy about the two partials I’d sent out (I got a partial request from the first agent at the end of July, and in mid-August I went ahead and queried the other agent who wanted to see more of my writing. Agent 2 wanted a partial included in the query). This was premature, of course, since agents will often take two months or even more to respond to a partial, but I couldn’t help getting my hopes up whenever I opened the mailbox.  You know how it is:

Then I talked to my friend Dana Kaye, a fellow novelist and professional publicist, and she pointed out something I hadn’t thought of: vacations. Lots of agents take them in August, and it isn’t until after Labor Day that things get kicked back into gear. I learned from Dana that a huge proportion of authors get represented and/or signed between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, perhaps because everyone in publishing has come back refreshed and ready to knuckle down on their work.

So, I’m taking advantage of this and querying full-steam. I’ve now got 10 queries out, including one requested partial, and I’m going to go through all the former agents I tried and see who’s still taking on clients. We’ll see if it works. Stay tuned!