Querying In-House
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Question of the day: Is it advisable to submit to more than one agent from the same literary agency? Eg. Can I submit to Bob from C&C ltd AND Sheila from C&C ltd in separate letters?
While you can and SHOULD submit to multiple agents at once, the general rule is that you should NOT submit to more than one agent within the same agency at the same time. There are exceptions to this rule, but to play it safe, I would research the agents thoroughly and then decide which one is the best fit. If he or she subsequently rejects you, in most cases, you can then query your next choice within the agency, and so on.
That said, there are a few exceptions to this rule, I believe. I want to say that Trident is one of the agencies who doesn't stick to this rule, but that's going from memory, and I may be wrong. I'm hopeful that blog readers who have been on the query wagon more recently than I have will chime in with the agencies who welcome multiple queries. Anyone want to help out this reader?
Agents
Reader Comments (3)
Speaking of Agents: when your next book comes out, will you run another chance to have your agent look at a chapter of one of our books, with a purchase of your new book? I missed out on the last opportunity and am still kicking myself!
I'm blanking on the exact houses, but as I've been going through and querying I have noticed there are a few (very small percentage) that welcome this and I've seen it not necessarily on the agency's site but rather within the agent's personal profile.
Otherwise I've steered clear, unless an agent has passed. My understanding is then it's fair game to query another agent at the agency. Sound right?
Oooops and by "house" above I mean agency!