Cynthia Manson Literary Agency

An article by one of her authors that gives a little bit of insight, maybe. He got picked up by her via personal introduction, so it may be that she takes people on by recommendation only.

I found a mention of this deal from 2007:
Robert Masello sold Blood and Ice to Anne Groell at Bantam via agent Cynthia Manson. The book is "part historical vampire novel—set during the Crimean War—and half contemporary thriller—set in Antarctica."

and 2008:
Doetsch previously wrote bestseller "The Thieves of Heaven," which is being developed at Fox 2000. His new novel "The Thirteenth Hour" will be auctioned shortly to publishers by literary agent Cynthia Manson.
Described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and The Time Traveler's Wife, the book follows a man accused of brutally murdering his wife who is given a chance to save her by going back in time, in one-hour increments.

-Barbara

Darn. I was hoping to query her, as I have a YA fantasy with dragons. I'm getting the feeling that dragons are out (there's no way I can make them zombie dragons, or vampire dragons), so after reading "His Majesty's Dragon" I had hope...

Ah well.

Hey! I queried this agent last year, because she'd represented a couple of thrillers which had a specific angle tangential to my book. But I had trouble finding her, until I found via google an article about her contribution to her local volunteer fire department. I looked in the phonebook in that town and found a snail address for her. I mailed a query, and she emailed a request for 100 pages!

Then she passed.

But hey-- I tried!

--spin

Cynthia Manson status

I snail-queried Cynthia on 5/11 and got an email today (5/15/) saying she was a small agency and not taking new projects.

Hey Dragonmedley -

I've seen more than one agent respond to a writer that they're not taking on new clients while requesting a sample from another. Maybe she's not taking and maybe she's just not taking on projects like the one I submitted. I'd watch this forum for a while longer and see if anyone has a different experience than mine before writing her off completely.

Or maybe it's just their way of trying to give a nice rejection, and to make sure you're not querying them again anytime soon. Not you personally, but whomever they send that kind of rejection to, know what I mean?

Who can tell. Trying to figure this stuff out gives me a real headache

I sent a snail query and two pages to:

Ms. Cynthia Manson
Cynthia Manson Literary Agency
2 Park Avenue Terrace
Bronxville, NY 10708

I included and SASE and an email address. She responded by email.

Could I bug you for her email address?

I ran across this as an email address: [email protected]

Just a note, I talked to her and she DOES NOT take YA.

So I found out. I queried her and got this reply:

Hi. I do not rep YA or children's. Please, if it is not too much trouble let me know where you got my name. It would ne. Helpful to know the source or listing .
Thanks.
Cynthia Manson

I queried on 5/29/14. No response yet. Anyone have recent experience with Cynthia Manson?

I emailed her and asked if she was still accepting querys and receivet the following with in five minutes:


Apologies. I have a strong filter.
Please feel free to query me.
Cynthia

I found Cynthia Manson listed on spywriter.com, specializing in Thrillers. I can find no other easy and relevant listings (not on Query Tracker nor Agent Query). But I assume my Women's Fiction is out (unless Ms. Manson's looking for "Thrilling").

There's a 2016 audio interview with Cynthia Manson here. It mostly focuses on Am@zon publishing, but also confirms her lack of website (a deliberate lack, because she's doesn't want to get overwhelmed). She says that she gets most of her queries via referral, but she also suggests looking at the acknowledgement pages of books to find agents, so if you found her name that way and can manage to track her down, it sounds like she wouldn't be entirely averse to getting a query that way.