[Agency] Harvey Klinger, Inc

Jean Marie said:

I went direct, too.

Sorry you got an R. Keep going-I am. The way I look at is, you/we only need one.

Have a great day And, stay positive

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No fear. This is only my third rejection on this particular book. That's barely getting a toe in the water. I had 120 rejections on my first book before I landed an agent (didn't work out, but that's another story).

So, I'm kinda kicking myself right now...

Seeing as I wasn't able to access the "Submissions" page, I didn't see this little diddy: "Always let us know if you are making multiple queries to other agents."

I queried Sara and got a rejection -- very blunt...5 words.

Not to be deterred, I sent off a query to Andrea Somberg, with roughly the same content sent to Sara (of course, it was individualized. ). I followed the instructions on the "Agents" page, but as I said before, I didn't see the little instruction on the "Submissions" page. And I have queried other agents and had some requests for material (not the full manuscript -- just the first ten pages, which were requested by another agent who does not reply to queries if not interested).

Oops.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the rear.

Harvey Klinger, Inc. Real quick question

Two days ago I sent my reworked QL to Harvey Klinger Lit. Agency, atten. Harvey Klinger. I just rcvd. an email from him, he wants me to send a few cpts. in an email, which is very cool. But, how should I send 'em? Body of email or attached as a WORD doc? I looked on the web site, it doesn't say. . .

First of all, huge congratulations! I would say send it attached as .doc format with title and date for document title. Best of luck!

Thanks, folkchick. I shall do that and try to chill out.

Thanks, folkchick. I shall do that and try to chill out.

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Want some red bull? Haha.

Just kidding. Don't drink that stuff. What you need is a glass of Merlot and a sappy movie to keep your mind off things. I really hope this goes well for you. Dammit, but you're talented.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Congrats! And best of luck!

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Agree with using an attachment, and stating requested material in the subject line. I would also include the original query in the body of the email.

I think the general rule of thumb is that if the agent doesn't know you from a spambot, then paste into email. If the agent has requested something from you, then attach the requested materials. They then have some assurance you aren't malicious nor attaching a virus to your email, which is the reason most won't open unsolicited attachments in the first place.

Let us know how it goes. We're rooting for you!

Thank you, Courtney, Julianne, Maryn, Siri, folkchick. I changed that QL and things are happening, seems like. so weird. I shall post developments--if any are forthcoming --on the QLH CHERRY thread, or . . .

yikes.

Billtrumpet25, I wouldn't sweat it too much. If you look at the sub information on Andrea's own website, she doesn't mention anything about letting her know that you're querying multiple agents. She's my former agent and when she offered rep, I had at least ten other queries out that I hadn't mentioned to her until that point (because I had no clue I was supposed to, having never looked at the actual Harvey Klinger submission page). She had no problem with that.

Good luck!

just received a request for my first 5 pages from andrea somberg. was actually shocked that i even heard from her. she said she wanted to see if it was a good fit for her. fingers crossed that she wants to read more than the first 5.

Query + first 5 pages is the standard submission package for Ms Somberg so I would attach no significance to her asking to see the first five pages. All it demonstrates is that you haven't followed her submission guidelines.

waylander said:

Query + first 5 pages is the standard submission package for Ms Somberg so I would attach no significance to her asking to see the first five pages. All it demonstrates is that you haven't followed her submission guidelines.

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To be fair, I made that same mistake. Because the submission guidelines only mention a query letter and Ms. Somberg's bio doesn't say anything about including pages.

It was nice to see that she didn't reject just because I didn't know to send the writing sample. (Which I later saw was the norm, but I had to dig through QueryTracker to see it mentioned.)

It has previously been mentioned on this very thread.

waylander said:

It has previously been mentioned on this very thread.

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Yes. But not everyone is reading all the way through this thread before submitting. (I only read entire threads when it's clear there are negative issues about an agency.) And I'm just saying that if an agent doesn't have their preferred submission materials written on their website, it's a little unfair to criticize someone for not knowing to look elsewhere for that additional information. Especially when the usual advice is to follow the guidelines on the agency website, not what you read elsewhere.

Aggy B. said:

Yes. But not everyone is reading all the way through this thread before submitting. (I only read entire threads when it's clear there are negative issues about an agency.) And I'm just saying that if an agent doesn't have their preferred submission materials written on their website, it's a little unfair to criticize someone for not knowing to look elsewhere for that additional information. Especially when the usual advice is to follow the guidelines on the agency website, not what you read elsewhere.

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http://www.andreasomberg.com/cms/submissions

waylander said:

http://www.andreasomberg.com/cms/submissions

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Yeah. I didn't know she had a separate website. Nor did I read through this whole thread before I subbed. And clearly, neither does everyone else who subs.

It's one thing to ignore an individual agent's guidelines and another thing to not see them (because they're posted somewhere besides the agency website). Your response Perezerin implied the former which doesn't seem to be the case. Querying is stressful enough without it being implied one is stupid for not getting it right the first time.

The first 3 google hits on Andrea Somberg, after her website (including an interview) all throw up the reference to her preference for including the first 5 pages.

You seem to be advocating that authors skimp on their agent research

I actually didn't include the first five pages of my book when I queried Andrea because with nonfiction they usually ask for the proposal, and sometimes the book isn't even written at the time it's sold. I did paste the relevant information from my proposal into my query letter, which was around five pages. She later asked to see a sample from the book I was drafting and I sent her my proposed introduction.

She is representing my nonfiction project now so it worked out pretty well.

waylander said:

The first 3 google hits on Andrea Somberg, after her website (including an interview) all throw up the reference to her preference for including the first 5 pages.

You seem to be advocating that authors skimp on their agent research

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Most people who did not include the 5 pages seem to have used the form on the Harvey Klinger website. The instructions on the form don't mention anything about including sample pages, so it's not really fair to imply someone didn't do their research.
What Aggy B is saying is that if an agent has submission guidelines that are different from those of the agency then it should be made clear. Just a small disclaimer such as "for Andrea Somberg's submission guidelines please see her agent bio" and then list it there instead of on a completely different site. Other agencies do this.

RudyValentina said:

Most people who did not include the 5 pages seem to have used the form on the Harvey Klinger website. The instructions on the form don't mention anything about including sample pages, so it's not really fair to imply someone didn't do their research.

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If you think just looking at the agency website is sufficient research on an individual agent then you are entitled to that view. I do not share it.

waylander said:

If you think just looking at the agency website is sufficient research on an individual agent then you are entitled to that view. I do not share it.

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Well, what amounts to sufficient research to one person may not for another person.

A clean slate on Preditors & Editors and no Big Red Flags in the agency thread here on AW is usually enough for me, but I know folks who will follow agents on Twitter for weeks and read every blog post, etc before they feel comfortable querying. Different folks, different strokes.

I do think that if that "query with 5 pages" were really a big deal, Andrea would ask the agency to alter her bio to reflect that. (Since there are plenty of other agency sites that do have specific guidelines for each agent listed there, not just on the agent's personal site.)

Andrea's my former agent as well, and while she will always (as far as I know) ask to send 5 pages if you haven't, she's really not the type to penalize for neglecting anything like that. She's a very chill person, I assure you! She just likes to judge by material and not query alone.