Living Word Literary Agency (Kimberly Shumate)

They seem okay to me. The agent there seems to have some pretty solid experience, and Harvest House Publishers where she worked looks to be a legit Christian publishing house.

Well, congratulations Lady! An offer on a partial?! And will you accept?

This agency has a number of authors, but no links to their books.

That's odd to me.

Why not promote the authors' works?

Well, LNLady, after having already congratulated you, I'm going to second Callalilly's advice. It doesn't appear that Kimberly has sold any books for the authors listed on her website. (Granted, I only scanned very quickly, then Googled some of them.) Of course that doesn't mean she won't have future sales but . . . how long are you willing to wait to find out if that's going to be a "when" or an "if" ?

I have a partial and a full out with agents that I did not thoroughly research before querying. Me and my darn lack of patience. I think they both have good intentions, they're trying hard, but . . . no sales. I made the decision this morning that this weekend I am going to email them and tell them my manuscript is no longer available to them. (Yes, I am the queen of procrastination when it comes to tasks like that!) Fortunately I have material out to some well-established agents as well.

Just thought I'd throw in my $.02 worth.

I'd echo Lily's advice.

It seems very odd to back a horse if you've only seen it's teeth.

just my two cents worth.

I hope it works for you but, all those writers and no sales sets off little alarm bells for me.

Kimberly who? I couldn't find a last name.

Not that it is going to matter to me personally. I write the wrong genre for her. But still, it's bizarre not to include a last name in this kind of context. I hope it was just an oversight.

She certainly has a good background for a new agent.

Do most agents use WordPress?

Okay, just got an offer here, which depends upon my willingness to clean up the manuscript a bit for the Christian market (It's a female-centric thriller). Which is kind of refreshing actually. Taking out the "fu..king JC's" and God-dms is quite all right with me. I'll also be on the lookout for gratuitous or hardcore sex, which I'm sure is lacking in the pages anyway

Now, it bothers me slightly that Kim's new. I just let an agent go that had an abysmal track record after five years--about four fiction sales for 29 clients. Stunningly bad. And I do believe only two of those sales were to a major.

I'm really going to have a discussion with her about SF and Fantasy, since they are my strong suit. Not to say that I can't continue on with mainstream and thrillers, but I do have some talent in world-building.

She does have loads of experience for a starter. I like that. It really comes out in her correspondence. I'll ask some questions. But I'm assuming she will first target the large Christian publishers, including her own old outfit

We'll see. I still have a ton of fulls and partials out there. But this has been a very nice contact so far. Nice ego stroke, knowing that someone fell head over heels for my voice.

Tri

Congratulations on the offer. Well deserved I'm sure.

Dumb question, but I'm going to ask anyway. So she doesn't want sex in the book?

Nya RAyne said:

Dumb question, but I'm going to ask anyway. So she doesn't want sex in the book?

Click to expand...

I queried her, too, not realizing she's a Christian agent. She requested a partial. Mine's YA with the expected teenaged sexual activity. Not sure she's going to want to read much more!

As a footnote, she's been lovely to correspond with and her background in publishing does seem impressive.

Best to all who proceed with her!

I think I'll give her a try with the expectation that she may reject me on the sex alone. On another note, I totally understand what hardcore sex is but what the heck is gratutious sex?

Sex for no reason other than filling pages. It's not included as a means to progress the story or characterization, and it may not really fit the characters, but the sex is added because the writer assumes people read sex and only for that reason.

Triceretops, nice! I hope this one works out. Been there (at the former agent place), done that (and with a new agent etc.). Keep us posted on your status; good luck.

Thanks Waylander and honeysock.

No, no, no. I don't mean she doesn't want sex. In fact, she told me that it takes a lot to offend her. I do know she doesn't cotton to taking the Lord's name in vain, and that sets just fine with me. I'm guity of that in my manuscript.

Yes, gratuitous sex is page filler, having nothing to do with the plot. Now, I've never met a self-proclaimed Christian agent before, but I would think that XXX erotica might not go over so well, only because of the publications she has in mind to submit to.

She also says she works very hard and thoroughly on rewrites before she lets anything out.

I'm just cruisin' on this one. I'm in no hurry for anybody right now. Just got off a bad stint. I do admit to wanting a female agent this time around, since I'm writing more about women's issues, and changing my whole MC base/structure. I also think the gals are much more precise, picky and observant.

tri