GK, your ducks are kind of...slow.

Dear GK,

You checked in (thank you!) to say you liked my work, and now I have another offer. Just one question--why does it take a week for you to know whether you want my work? I understand that you have many other projects, but don't you just have to read it before you know whether you want to take it on or not? I don't mean to be a pest. Really, I don't. But I'd really like to get my work out there as soon as possible. 

Why does it take an agent a week (or, sometimes, more) to get her ducks in a row to make an offer? Well. 

It's much more than reading a work, calling up the author, and saying, "Yup. This is good. I'll take it." 

It's more like reading the work, getting second reads in the office, reading the work again to take notes, putting together a mini-proposal, presenting the book to the owner of the company, discussing what works and doesn't work with second-readers, setting up a phone meeting with you, telling you my vision for the work, telling you my notes, and generally making a case for why you should go with me. 

I'll also be doing last-minute checks: does this writer seems sane? Pleasant? Responsible? Could I trust them on the phone with editors? On book tour? Would they pull a Megan McCain*--drink a lot, get up on stage, and tell everyone who they are? 

It's hard to know these things before speaking with them on the phone, but you'd be surprised how obvious it is (most of the time) when hearing their voice. 

And yes, that can take a week. Or more. It's rare to have a day where I can pick up everything on my desk and shove it to the floor, like they do in the movies--and not just because those stacks of paper are organized just the way I like them, even if it occasionally looks a mess. (One writer told me last week that she pictures me surrounded by stacks of paper, with just the top of my head visible. It's not quite like that--almost all of the documents in the office are digital--but if they were printed out, yes, I could make a nice paper igloo/avalanche.) 

So. Yes. There have been times when I have a day or so left in my week deadline and I'm still waiting to hear back from second-readers. I'm blessed in that I can, if I want a work badly enough, take it on--I don't officially have to get approval--but it's very nice to know, when taking these leaps, that others think you're leaping into a well-drawn, worth-investing-in world (for fiction) or an organized, well-supported one (for non-).

It's a lot of work to send out projects--much more than just hitting "forward" and, I don't know, having Gmail insert your "YA fiction" list into the To field. Goodness gracious. No no no.

These things, if they're to be done right, have to be done with care. It can take a long time to get a manuscript ready, find the perfect editors for it, and find the perfect way to present the work to them.

So, yes. My ducks can be slow. But they're steady. And may just win those "dump a box of numbered ducks in a pond and whichever one floats across the finish line first wins a prize" races. We used to do that a lot in my hometown. They were cute. Highly recommended.

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* She was hilarious on this episode of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! Click the link to listen. "For the record," one of her press people told her afterward (this is from memory, so probably not perfect), "Do not go to a bar and get on stage, and if you do, don't tell everyone who you are."