Seymour Agency

That reminds me to check in again with Julie, as it's been over a year re: my requested full, but she's remained in contact in hoping to get to my story and I'd love to work with this agent and agency.

Oh well it's forty days since my sub to Lane, his reply email says three weeks turn around if interested. I have to assume this is dead in the water. Moving on.

Does anyone happen to know if Nicole Resciniti answers all full requests? She requested mine in August, and I sent a polite nudge about a month ago at the 3-month mark with no response. I'm a little worried if she received it. When she emailed me to request my MS, she said she was checking back with me since I hadn't answered her first email a few days before, but I never received the first one. I know 4 months isn't that long when it comes to requests, but I worry about the lack of response to the nudge with our initial email trouble.

QueryTracker was useful for me in checking response times, and whether or not a particular agent responded to every request. To get the entire glut of data, you need to subscribe to QT, but you can get the general gist of response times/non-responsiveness by looking at the comment area for the particular agent.

Outside of that, I'd probably ping her again since you know there's already been trouble with the communication.

I stumbled onto this thread while searching for info- I had the same experience, Nicole requested a full from me and never responded (didn't respond to my nudge email either).

Lane Heymont- The Seymour Agency

Hey everyone!

Just as a heads up, this latest issue of Writer's Digest has misinformation about Lane Heymont and The Seymour Agency. I just sent Mr. Heymont a query and here's the response. I thought everyone would like to know he's branched away from The Seymour Agency since.....

Thank you for reaching out. I have resigned from The Seymour Agency and have decided to branch out — with Nicole Resciniti's blessing and support — to form The Tobias Literary Agency.

If this is in response to a query, please feel free to query me at [email protected].

If this is in response to a client submission, contract, or other business interaction, please email me at [email protected] as some emails may not have been forwarded properly.


Cheers,

Lane Heymont
Senior Agent
The Tobias Literary Agency
AAR, RWA, ITW

Lane is my agent. He's done a good job for me in the year and a half that I have been with him.

Saskatoonistan said:

Lane is my agent. He's done a good job for me in the year and a half that I have been with him.

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Good to know! I was just surprised to see the email that he had moved on since I got the contract information from this month's issue.

Huh. I sent him a partial at the end of May and wrote it off because it passed his Seymour response time. I'm in Pitch Wars now, so I'm stopping the agent hunt. For now. I wish Lane well...he seems a great agent.

Took a chance after a year of revisions and other projects, and queried Lane at The Tobias Agency. They're currently closed to unsolicited queries except for contacts made through convention meets or pitch contests, or queries from previously published authors. Since I (barely) make the latter criteria, I'm giving it a try. At least the responses are within 3 weeks, or no interest.

I've just signed with Lane, and I am excited.

I'm almost wondering if this agency has some email issues.

I had a close call over a year ago now with a MG fantasy I submitted to Jennifer Wills, a new agent I'd talked to in person several times before submitting. She's super sweet and had some really good experience. She basically said she wanted to offer but Nicole advised her not to because the book was too dystopian. Fast forward to this year, she'd heard me read the first chapter of a fantasy book I was working on and asked for me to send it to her when it was ready. We'd also been chatting via twitter DM a time or two so I mentioned when I was about to start querying and she said to send her the full. I sent it in September, no confirmation email but many agents don't do that so no big deal. I wait a few months then send a nudge. No response. Another couple months I send a nudge to another email she has listed on her website (in case she changed which email she used regularly. She had two different ones listed) Still no response. I just sent one more nudge saying I wasn't sure if she was getting my emails but this would be my last attempt. (Either she wasn't getting any emails, or she's not interested in which case I'm just bothering her)

I'm not anticipating a response, but it seems strange given how much we've interacted before for her to just ghost me. I've been tempted to send her another DM asking if she got my submission but even though we've chatted there before it seems too forward. There's a newer agent that I have a connection with (she's a former PW mentor) I'd like to submit to if Jen isn't reading my submission. Not sure if I should try that or not.

I queried Julie Gwin with my histfic romance/timeslip, and she came back with an odd question. "Thanks for reaching out. I'm not sure I understand why this is a timeslip? Why not just have the historical novel in Iceland?"

I answered that it was really two stories entwined into one, where the modern character realizes at the end she'd actually lived in both times. However, the question still strikes me as a bit... abrupt? I'm not sure.

That can sometimes be a sign...of an unimaginative agent.

Not saying this directly about Gwin, but that question would make me less likely to query her. Certainly not with a complex story.

That was sort of my take. I mean, I could - but that would be a different novel entirely. Granted, it's not always easy to distill such things from a query.

There are a few agents at Seymour that I think could be a good fit for my MS. However, I was unable to find any client lists for them, or the agency's "no from one is no from all" policy. Has anyone here had any recent experiences with this agency?

Fiender said:

There are a few agents at Seymour that I think could be a good fit for my MS. However, I was unable to find any client lists for them, or the agency's "no from one is no from all" policy. Has anyone here had any recent experiences with this agency?

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Not sure about your "Is a no from one a no from all" question, but here is their client list from their website: https://www.theseymouragency.com/Published-Authors.html

D.L. Shepherd said:

Not sure about your "Is a no from one a no from all" question, but here is their client list from their website: https://www.theseymouragency.com/Published-Authors.html

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I saw that while browsing their website, but most clients don't have mention of which agent represents them. And of the ones that do, none of them are repped by the agents I was considering.

Fiender said:

I saw that while browsing their website, but most clients don't have mention of which agent represents them. And of the ones that do, none of them are repped by the agents I was considering.

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Did you try checking each agent on Publisher's Marketplace? They might list their clients there. Good luck!

Fiender said:

There are a few agents at Seymour that I think could be a good fit for my MS. However, I was unable to find any client lists for them, or the agency's "no from one is no from all" policy. Has anyone here had any recent experiences with this agency?

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I am wondering the same thing. There are several agents whose listed areas of representation would cover my current novel. But if one of them rejects my ms, I'd like to try one of the others, if that's possinle.

I'm a client of Kat Enright's and have had an enormously positive experience. Not sure about the other agents, but Kat is very well-connected in the industry and often has meetings & correspondence with other agents and editors. We've been on sub and haven't been ghosted by editors (except for one), which is an excellent sign about Kat's relationship with them. They/she also participates in events with established agents and editors.

And while i do think they would benefit from updating their website with more information, they do NOT have a "no from one is a no from all" policy so you can submit to another agent if the one you originally queried passes on your MS.