How Long?
One of the most frequent questions I get is, How long will it take?
How long should I wait before following up with an agent on a submission?
If I get an offer from a publisher, how long before they send a contract?
How long until I see my first check?
When will my manuscript be due?
When will I see my book on the shelves?
How long does this process take, anyway?
Unfortunately the answer is usually something along the lines of, “An excruciatingly long time.” It varies according to who you’re dealing with and many other factors. I’ll try to offer a few hints.
8 When dealing with agents and wondering when to follow up, check their submission guidelines. They sometimes give you a clue about when to check back after submitting. It could be anywhere from several weeks to several months. If they don’t offer any advice, I think it’s reasonable to check back every couple of months until you hear something definitive. Also, note that some agencies have a policy of only responding if it’s positive, i.e. “If you don’t hear from us after three months, consider it a no.”
8 Offer-to-contract timeframe also varies from about a month to a couple months or more. I’ve heard authors and agents complaining lately about how long it takes to get a contract.
8 If your contract specifies an advance, you’ll usually get your first check about 30 to 45 days after the contract is fully executed (meaning, signed by all required parties). You may receive your advance in thirds: 1/3 on contract signing, 1/3 when you deliver the final edited manuscript, and the remainder when your book is published. Or you may receive it in halves: 1/2 on signing, and 1/2 on delivery of final edited manuscript. (And there are many variations to this. I’ll go over it another day.)
8 Manuscript due dates can vary from “upon contract” if your book is complete, to six months or more after contract.
8 And the big question, When will my book be on shelves? Again, this varies, but figure it will be a year to 18 months from contract.
So as you can tell, the answer to “How long will it take?” varies. The only definitive answer I can offer is “It depends.”
Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent
26 Comments
President & Literary Agent,
Gardner Literary Agency
>Good for you, Katherine–bragging, much?
>I heard it would take years to get an agent, but I got one in a week..a very good one. It was the first agent I queried. My book proposal was submitted last Thursday to 13 large publishing houses. We'll see what happens, but he process has been quicker for me than I expected.
>I'm going thru this waiting game myself right now, and think it's mildly hilarious that the thing that took the LEAST amount of time in this whole process, was writing the book. WOW.
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>And I'd add, keep writing something else while you wait.
>i very adore all your posting kind, very helpful,
don't quit and keep creating for the simple reason that it simply worth to follow it.
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>I love waiting. 😉
>I've been really surprised…shocked, actually… by how long the publishing process takes, so I try to warn writers to brace for a lengthy journey. I also tell them it's worth it! 😉
Thanks for being such a great traveling companion, Rachelle!
>Thanks for laying this all out – helpful.
Appreciate it –
>Thanks for the straight talk in both this post and the previous. Sometimes it's hard to understand how much of this business is 'hurry up and wait'. The post about perseverance really encouraged me to just keep writing.
>This sounds like FUN compared to the long agonizing wait for agents to respond to queries and mss. I'd rather get a fast yes or no rather than a slow, drawn-out wait for a rejection. We have busy lives too, you know!
>Very informative thank you. I've only had experience with the query end of things. After several months I usually figure it's a no, but on a few occasions I've received feedback after a full year. It just depends agent to agent.
>Thanks for giving us information on this topic- once we all make it to this point (hopefully- cross my fingers) it's good to find out what will happen next. Thanks again!
>Knowing that writing a good novel takes “an excruciatingly long time to write," I wouldn't expect less from the process of publishing.
If you want something done right…
Thanks for the generous information.
>sharonbially: Yes, I'm referring to the publisher's offer to buy the book. The time that elapses between the offer and the actual receipt of a publishing contract can vary from a few weeks to a few months, depending on numerous factors.
It wouldn't make any sense to try and quantify anything based on an agent's offer to represent you. Representation is just the start; once you have an agent it could be weeks before you have a publisher offer, or months, or years, or it might not ever happen with that agent.
>Thanks for sharing–this was a lot more information than I've heard on the subject of 'time' before.
>From the time my agent started shopping my manuscript to hitting the shelves as an actual book, 15 months went by. And that was a "rush" job, where the publisher did things faster than they would typically do them.
It was physically painful sometimes (mostly in the 'will someone buy this' section of the process). There's so much going on with editorial and marketing and whatnot after the manuscript is accepted… that part is not quite as excruciating, at least for me.
Thanks for the great post, Rachelle!
>Katie Ganshert wrote a little about this on her blog the other day and one thing she said was that if you don't like waiting you need to find another business. And like I told her, I'm grateful there are people like the two of you who can give us insight, because a year ago I would've had no idea what the process was like, and I think it's a good thing to be aware of when you're looking to get published. Thanks! 🙂
>Rachelle, when you say "from offer to contract," do you mean an offer by an editor to acquire an agented mansuscript? Or do you mean an agent's offer of representation — or something else?
All very informative, thank you.
>Thanks. Appreciated.
>We're a microwave society–we want it now. Thanks for putting this into perspective. 🙂
Great post!
>Great information! Thanks!
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>Great post, Rachelle! And since you mentioned above that you'd talk about how advances are divided, I have a question about that for whenever you decide to tackle the topic 🙂 How does it work for multiple book deals? Is the advance divided between all the books you're contracted for, and then divided into the thirds or halves?
I don't have multiple books available, I'm just curious!
>Enjoy the Journey
How long will it take
How much will I make
Are we there yet?
When will I know
How far we must go
Are we there yet?
When will I truly arrive
How will I ever survive
Are we there yet?
I’ll put words on the page
No matter my age
Are we there yet?
When does the journey really end
Of a writer, a parent, or a friend
We are there – now
>Thanks for this! Even though the answer does vary, having the process explained a little bit is relieving. Thank you for helping all of us aspiring writers!
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)