What to do with R&Rs

Sometimes, you don’t get a rejection from an agent who has read your full or partial manuscript - you get something called an R&R. 

R&R stands for “revise and resubmit.” This means that the agent is going to offer you feedback on your manuscript, and if you revise it according to that feedback, you’re welcome to submit it to them again for another look. 

If you get an R&R, you don’t have to accept the opportunity. If you don’t think that the advice you’re given works for your book, or you’re not interested in taking it in that direction, you should feel free to respectfully decline the opportunity. Even if you don’t want to take advantage of the R&R, you can still consider the advice if you want to revise your manuscript later on down the road. 

If you get an R&R and you do decide to revise and resubmit, it doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed an acceptance. It only means you’re guaranteed that the agent will take another look at the manuscript. They might not like the way that revisions turned out, or they might not think it helps the story enough. So don’t be surprised if you revise and still end up with a rejection. But even in this case, it can still be a valuable opportunity to improve your manuscript. And who knows - you might actually improve your story, query another agent, and catch their eye enough to get an offer of rep! 

The best case scenario is that you revise and then the agent enjoys the new version enough to offer you rep. And in that case, good work! You’re off to the races!

In this scenario, you can feel free to withdraw the query from other agents, letting them know you have an R&R and that you’ll resubmit when you’ve completed it. Or, you could leave the query with the other agents who have it, and just revise it for the agent who requested the R&R. It’s up to you!