Jane Chelius Literary Agency

This might be a stupid question, but have you checked out their web site? It includes a client list.

Jane Chelius

Does anyone have any experience with query responses? How long she takes to request/pass? I have read her Web site and profile on AQ but I would like to get a handle on some real-time situations. Thanks.

My information is from August '06, but I show a non-response from an email query.

The Agent Turnaround Times blog shows 7 comments, mostly non-responses.
http://community.livejournal.com/agentturnaround/27547.html

I've queried her on several books, and her response has been consistently no response.

Jane Chelius

I've pitched to her at two conferences. Each time she asked for a partial. Each time no response, not ever. The second time I pitched, I mentioned the first no response. Blank look, then "I remember now, so sorry, why don't you send again since you've reworked it," then nothing again. Her son's in her agency now. Maybe he's better about such things. g.

I queried them by e-mail 3 years ago and got a std rejection from Mark Chelius in about 2 weeks.

I also emailed a query about three years ago and got no response.

I snail-queried Chelius a couple of years ago when I was seeking representation. She responded in about a week, requesting a partial. A couple of weeks later, she requested the full via email. A rejection followed a couple of weeks after that.

Thanks, that's all really helpful. I guess it's like many others, if I never hear back I can assume the worst. LOL. At least, I can move on in peace in a couple of months.

Julie Worth said:

I've queried her on several books, and her response has been consistently no response.

Click to expand...

Same here. No-reply = No-wantie.

Delivery Failure

I keep trying to send an email that comes back as a delivery failure. Reading this thread, I'm not sure it would make much difference if it got through.

Anybody else having the same trouble or who can give me a better address. I am using: [email protected]. This is what the link on the website defaults to.

Habs, according to their website, Mark no longer works there...

Not sure when the website was updated, but there is now only one email address listed for queries: [email protected], and the guidelines make it very clear that they ONLY respond if they are interested in seeing more. Also, that response would be sent within 3-4 weeks of receiving the query. So if you don't hear from then inside of a month, you can assume they aren't interested.

(Maybe.)

The problem with this, as is the case with most agencies who employ a "no response = not interested" policy, is that if they don't send you a confirmation of receipt of your query then you can't be certain that the lack of response is because they aren't interested or if they never received the query in the first place.

I remember this agent as being a non-responder.

tri

From PM:

Jane Chelius is closing her eponymously named literary agency
and retiring at the end of the year. Chelius said in the announcement: "Thanks
to all of the wonderfully talented writers and fellow editors and agents I’ve
worked with over the years; you made my career interesting and worthwhile. Now
I'm looking forward to seeing more of the world and its birds, playing with my
grandkids and reading lots more books."