How many agents should I approach?

How many agents should I approach?

There is a strange etiquette about approaching literary agents. In the old days, if you approached several, some agents would be very offended and they probably wouldn't even look at your work. Now, I think there are mixed feelings: as long as the author is totally upfront and has said, "I've sent this book to three other agents, just so you know," then I don't have a problem with it, because you can't expect someone to be sitting around for six to eight weeks just to get a standard rejection. On the other hand, no one is paying us to read these books, and you've got to understand that it's not a right of an author to have a literary agent read their books, especially if they've got a list of successful writers anyway. There are lots of courses, creative writing courses, and there is a lot of competition to get their attention. I think I would take a common-sense approach, which is target the agent and then say, "Look, I've picked you so I'm only going to show it to you, but I actually would like a six to eight week window." I think six to eight weeks is probably a very, very reasonable amount of time for anyone to wait, and any more than that is unreasonable.