What Is an R&R and Why Do Agents Send Them?

Why wouldn’t an agent just offer instead??

Welcome back to the blog! I’m resuming biweekly blog posts for this fall and winter and I’ve got a lot in store for you. But as always, feel free to use the contact button below and let me know if there’s a topic you’d really like me to discuss. I try my best to take into consideration your thoughts and ideas too. 

Today, we’re starting with a publishing term all authors should know: R&R. What’s an R&R and why do agents send them?

R&R is short for “revise and resubmit.” It’s essentially when an agent (or editor— yes, editors send them too) is interested in your book but thinks it needs further revisions before they can consider it further. An R&R is not a rejection, but it’s also not a promise of an offer of representation either. If the agent is promising anything, they’re promising to reconsider your book. 

An R&R typically includes feedback and suggested revisions that are needed for your book to be editorially ready or sellable to the current market, as well as an invitation to resubmit your work should you revise it accordingly. That’s what differentiates an R&R from a rejection: the invitation to resubmit. 

That said, just because an agent or industry professional is offering feedback doesn’t mean you have to agree with it. And if you don’t agree with the agent’s feedback, you definitely shouldn’t make these revisions with the hope that they’d offer on your work— because they might not!  

An R&R does not guarantee any representation or offer. The agent who sent you the R&R might still pass on your work after you’ve revised it. And that’s why I’m emphasizing that you should only implement revisions that you agree would make your book better. You don’t have to take feedback you disagree with, and you certainly are not obligated to resubmit to that particular agent if you don’t want to. You have the choice to take the agent up on their invitation. 

So wait, you can revise and resubmit and still get rejected?

Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes, agents receive a revised manuscript that they still don’t think is quite there yet. It doesn’t mean that the author did a bad job on the revisions, but it does mean that the agent thought that even after those changes, the manuscript didn’t quite sparkle. 

What are the reasons agents send R&Rs?

An R&R is sometimes the way to go if the agent is asking for major changes, changes that might entirely alter the manuscript, and they’re not quite sure how it will read once those revisions are implemented. An agent could ask you to change your book to have multiple POVs, or your timeline into a dual timeline, and these can be substantive revisions that are hard to pull off while maintaining the sparkle of a book. Maybe the new version will be stiff, won’t be great on a line level, will lose the tension, or simply lose its luster. Or maybe the new changes will give breathing room to minor issues that have now become major. Agents have no idea if you’d be up to the editorial task. And they also don’t know if you would interpret their feedback correctly. There are times when agents get a manuscript back and it’s definitely been revised, but it’s not addressing the BIG problem that the agent was addressing in the R&R. 

Agents might also send R&Rs if they think that they don’t have the capacity or bandwidth with their current list and/or workload to put in the time for multiple rounds of editorial revisions. Keep in mind that not all agents are editorially heavy agents. All agents work on edits with their clients, but some are willing to do more edits than others. How editorial an agent is is dependent on the way they work and their business model. That’s also why you should ask agents about how they approach editorial revisions when you’re on an offer call. Finding the right partner for your needs as a writer is important!

Since agents work on edits with their clients, why wouldn’t they offer on a manuscript instead of sending an R&R? Doesn’t this mean they already put thought and work into what the manuscript needs?

Publishing is professional gambling. It truly is. Agents sign clients because they believe in them and their work. As an agent, I can tell you firsthand that I wouldn’t sign a client based on a manuscript or proposal that I don’t believe would sell or is editorially strong. Agents really have to believe in the work, because we don’t get paid until our client gets paid. Meaning, our financial stability hinges on our clients getting book deals. So there’s an element of risk there. Whether I like it or not, I still have to consider the hours of labor I expect to put in and whether that makes sense for me and my list at a particular time. 

But agents also love literature! And we love to nurture potential! And because of that, R&Rs exist. Putting an R&R together does take time and work, but it’s not nearly as much as working with a client. 

the Takeaways:

Ultimately, For an agent to offer you representation, they need to be confident they can sell your work. And that comes down to whether they think that book has a market, and whether it’s editorially strong. Yes, agents edit, but we are not editors. We are salespeople.  

Keep in mind, too, that a lot of decisions and opinions in publishing can be subjective. We work in the arts, after all. What I dislike in a manuscript might be another agent’s cup of tea. This is why I’m emphasizing that you should only implement revisions that you, the writer and creator of this work of art, also believe would improve your work. And if and when you choose to resubmit to an agent after an R&R, submit with confidence! We look forward to seeing writers come back into our inbox!