How to Handle an Exclusive

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Q. I need some advice. I recently went to a writers' conference and pitched an agent, who told me to send her my full manuscript. When I got home from the conference, I sent some more queries out (because I didn't want to limit my options to just the one). I haven't sent the first agent my manuscript yet, because I was taking a few days to make a final proof-reading sweep. But just now I just got a response from one of my other queries for a partial, and the new agent wants a four-week exclusive on the chapters. What do I do?

A. I would tell Agent 2 that Agent 1 already has it. This is not completely true, but it's basically true (truthiness?) because you were about to send it anyway to Agent 1.
You can offer Agent 2 an almost-exclusive look at the pages. I would say she will take the pages anyway and you have nothing to worry about. Agents want exlcusive looks at pages, but they understand if it's already out.

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