I received a few emails asking the same question recently: any news from the agent? For those just joining this humble circus, last August one of the agents–not merely an agent, as they founded an extremely successful literary agency as well–I solicited passed with a three page explanation detailing the strengths and areas needing attention. So I wrote back and asked if the issues were addressed, if they might reconsider the manuscript.

To my delight, they agreed.

It took a few months and two professional proofreaders to smooth all the wrinkles, but right before leaving for Russia I emailed the revised manuscript along with a table of the changes back to them. A rock solid draft.

And so the waiting for a response began. At this point, the shot clock is closing in on a month.

Such literal time accounting overlooks two facts: holidays and the note itself. Here’s where insider information about how many people who work in NYC approach major schedule breaks helps, because the end of the year is a great time to get out of the City. Way far away, in fact. So many people do a long vacation then, often extending their vacations well into the new year. Since the first fell on a Tuesday, taking the remainder of the week seemed not only sensible, it was an imperative. Given the agent is a principal in the company, it’s a good bet they have the pull to make such a respite a reality.

A secondary reason for the delay is probably my note. After wishing them a happy holiday and whatnot, I mentioned I would be in Moscow through early January, thereby establishing my non-expectation of reply in the immediate future.
Doing the math, assuming a long vacation through the first week of the new year and including the weekend, the earliest they would have returned to the office was the 7th of January. More than 50 emails were choking my inbox once I returned to a normal work schedule, and my job matters very little beyond the gates of a very small community. A few might argue it impacts the company very little itself, but that’s another discussion.

Imagine you are an agent with hundreds of backlogged emails and many of those messages actually matter. Somewhere in there, is a message from a possible client. Four days, tonight being the fourth, is hardly enough time to reconsider a manuscript, much less respond.

Thus my answer is: let’s see what happens between now and February 1, 2008.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that question.