What is an R&R (revise and resubmit)?
- An agent’s invitation to revise and resubmit a declined manuscript.
- A strong signal — the agent sees potential.
- No guarantee of representation after revision.
- Most R&Rs are months of work; consider carefully.
- Multiple R&Rs from different agents are common — you choose which to pursue.
An R&R (revise and resubmit) is when an agent declines your manuscript but invites you to revise based on their feedback and resubmit for reconsideration. R&Rs are a strong signal — the agent sees potential — but they require careful evaluation: take the time to consider whether the revisions align with your vision before committing.
Chapter i·Why it matters
R&Rs are mixed news. The good news: the agent thinks the work is close to representable. The hard news: months of revision based on feedback that may not align with your vision, with no guarantee at the end. Knowing how to evaluate an R&R — and when to decline politely — is a craft skill.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A careful read of the agent’s feedback: do the revisions improve the book?
- A check against your vision: do you agree with the direction?
- A timeline estimate: how long will the revision take?
- A "no exclusivity" check: most R&Rs aren’t exclusive; you can keep querying.
- A polite decline option if the feedback doesn’t align.
- A clean resubmission with a brief note tracking the revisions.
Chapter iii·Example
A debut writer receives an R&R from an agent suggesting she cut a 25,000-word subplot and rewrite the antagonist’s POV. She agrees with the subplot cut but not the POV change. She politely declines the R&R, citing the second issue as a vision mismatch, and continues querying. Six months later she signs with a different agent.
WriteLoom’s Pitch studio tracks R&Rs alongside your queries, so you can see the patterns across agent feedback.
See the Pitch studio