Nudging Agents
It’s no secret that publishing is one big waiting game. If you’ve queried and gotten a full/partial request from a literary agent, odds are, you’ve stared at an empty inbox, awaiting a response to a full manuscript you sent out half a year ago. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way, for a lot of agents, you can follow up on requests with a nudge to remind them of the awesome book waiting in their inbox.
In case you don’t know, a nudge is a polite email authors can send to agents to check in and ask about queries, requested materials, or alert agents of an offer of rep. It’s basically just a brief message that says, “Hey, it’s been a while. You have my book. Yay? Nay?” (but put a bit more eloquently.)
A lot of authors get nervous about nudging. Which is totally understandable and completely normal. Querying is stressful and we hate the thought of bothering agents. A good rule of thumb if you’re someone who’s nervous about that: CHECK THE AGENCY WEBSITE. Consider the agency website the [insert religious or non religious text you consider sacred here]. A lot of agencies have a ton of useful information for authors on their websites for when and how to follow up with agents who have their queries or requested materials.
I’m going to go through the appropriate times to nudge for different scenarios and then how to nudge, using example templates. If you’re just here for the nudge templates, feel free to skip ahead! I promise I won’t be offended. As a caveat, I’m not an expert or an agent, but these are the standard practices I used when querying, so hopefully, it’ll help you as well.
When do you nudge?
Like literally everything in publishing— it depends. It depends on if the agent in question has your query, a full/partial, if you have an offer of representation from another agent, and, of course, the agency guidelines. I’ll break down general etiquette for when to send a nudge for each of them.
If the agent has your Query:
If an agent has your query and hasn’t requested any additional materials from you, ONLY nudge if they guarantee a response to all queries and/or explicitly encourage authors to reach out for an update. Unfortunately, not all agents have the bandwidth to respond to all queries. And for a lot of agents/agencies, no response means it’s a pass on your project. Unless an agency website or a specific agent says they respond to all queries, it’s best to assume they don’t. Usually, if an agency has a reply policy, they’ll give some kind of timeline for when to expect a response.
A few places to check if an agent always responds to queries:
Their agency website or personal website
Query Tracker (the comment section is free and full of other authors who are asking the same questions)
Twitter
Again, when in doubt, assume the agent in question is not going to respond and there’s no need to nudge.
If the agent has your Partial/Full:
Again, check the agency/agent’s website. Often times, they have their general policies for following up on requests.
If the policy isn’t on the website (and this might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised) check the request email! Sometimes agents will give you a nudging timeline in the email/message.
When in doubt, assume a minimum of three months is standard. The average wait time between a full request and offer is on the rise, but still, unless an agent says otherwise, three months is a safe time to nudge on a full.
If you have AN OFFER:
If you get an offer of representation, first of all— CONGRATS. Second of all, nudge ASAP. Once you get off the call with the offering agent with an official offer on the table, start sending out nudges, letting all agents with your fulls, partials, AND queries know that you have an offer on the table.
Note: Yes! You can (and should!) nudge agents with your query as well as your full.
Additional note: You do NOT have to give all agents a chance to respond if you don’t want to. You can tell them you’ve received an offer and would like to withdraw a submission.
How do you write a nudge?
The exact words of a nudge don’t matter so long as you’re respectful. Personally, any time I nudged agents, I replied to the original email thread and changed the subject line. Since I was querying and nudging during the pandemic (and yes, the pandemic is still happening) I also added a note acknowledging that.
Nudging on a Query:
Dear AGENT NAME,
I hope all is well. I sent my query for BOOK TITLE on DATE and wanted to make sure you received it and ask if it’s still under consideration. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Nudging on a Full/Partial:
Dear AGENT NAME,
Thank you so much for your interest in BOOK TITLE. I sent my FULL/PARTIAL on DATE and haven’t heard back from you. I just wanted to check in to see if you’ve had time to consider it yet. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Nudging with an Offer (to agents with your full/partial)
Dear AGENT NAME,
Thank you so much for your interest in BOOK TITLE. I am writing to let you know I received an offer of representation from another agent! Please get back to me by DATE OF DEADLINE so I can respond to the offering agent. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Nudging with an Offer (to agents with your query)
Dear AGENT NAME,
I hope all is well. I sent you my query for BOOK TITLE on DATE. I am writing to let you know I’ve received an offer of representation from another agent! I aim to make a decision by DATE OF DEADLINE, so please get back to me before then so I can respond to the offering agent. Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.
Note: You might have heard that the standard time to give agents to consider your book after you’ve nudged with an offer of rep is two weeks. And while two weeks is common, that in no way means you HAVE to make your deadline two weeks from the call with the first offering agent. You certainly can, but that choice is up to you! You should take as much time as you need to make the right decision for you and your book. A good agent won’t pressure you to decide in a limited timeframe. If you need longer than two weeks to decide, take it!
Hopefully this is helpful! Please keep in mind, there’s no “correct” format to write a nudge. The above are templates. Feel free to alter them however you like, or ignore them all together. As long as you’re respectful and to the point, the exact words you use don’t matter. Good luck in the trenches!