Chasya's Questions Corner: On Simultaneous Submissions

by Chasya

Question:

I just found out that two of the agents who are reading the full ms not only share office space, but they also share interns (based on articles and blog postings from various sources).

I know that agents usually don't talk about their potential projects with each other, but how awkward could this get?


Answer:

Great question. This entirely depends on the agents’ policy. If two agents merely share office space and do not work within the same company, it is usually ok to submit to both so long as neither specifies that you shouldn’t do so. Even if these agents talk to each other about potential projects, unless they specify that they won’t accept submissions if you’ve queried Agent B in the same office suite, then you haven’t done anything wrong.

It’s a bit different if these agents share office space and they work within the same company, however. Agencies have different policies about submissions of this kind, so we can’t speak for everyone. Within the publishing world, this can be considered a submission faux pas. We here at DGLM do not accept submissions to multiple agents at this agency precisely because we will not compete with each other in-house for projects and we do regularly share things that we feel are more appropriate for a colleague than for us. There may be some agencies that don’t mind.

The bottom line is to do your research and make sure that you follow the submission guidelines for the agency you query. If you do that, you should be ok!



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