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The Bent Agency (Jenny Bent)

jtrylch13

Has semi-colon; will use it!
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Queried Brooks Sherman with YA Post-Apocalyptic on 10/16/14. No response and website says to re-submit if you don't hear, so I did on 1/29/15. Received form R on 1/29/15.
 

stephen andrew

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Queried Beth Phelan in November. Had a full request one week later (12/3).

Personal rejection received on (3/20) with a couple comments as to why.

Nice personal interactions all the way.
 

Barnacle

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Full req

Queried Beth Phelan with YA contemporary on April 6.

Full req on April 7.

Fingers and toes crossed.
 

Wizera

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Queried Gemma Cooper on 7/28. Although I got back an autoreply that she wasn't accepting queries, she sent me a full request on 7/30. Very polite, very prompt. I am a little concerned though. I queried her on an MG, but she felt it was more YA. I'm not sure if that's a strike against me or not...

All I know is I would LOVE to work with her.
 

Thedrellum

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I've had a similar thing happen with an agent re: YA/MG, and I'd say you should let the agent define the category. They are the one who is going to be selling it, after all, and if they think they can sell what you wrote as MG as YA, then they probably can (and have a reason to). When you talk with them, you can ask them for specific thoughts on the manuscript.

Anyway, good luck!
 

onthefence

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Geez, I am confused.

I queried Gemma Cooper after reading this on her Bent Agency bio page: "For non-fiction, I'm interested in history and science, but want very accessible books with an obvious hook."

Then I get this auto-reply email from her saying she got the submission, but in it she warns, "I am a children's literary agent, so do not represent adult genres for adult fiction or adult non-fiction. Queries for all adult manuscripts will be deleted unanswered."

So which is it, Gemma? You can't have it both ways.

Sounds pretty definitive that she doesn't want history/science nonfiction when she says she does want history/science nonfiction.

Agents, I tell ya. (At this point the tiny little Self-Publishing Obi-Wan on my shoulder is saying, "See? This is not the droid you're looking for... trust in the Self Publishing force, Luke,....")


= = = = = = = = = = = =

UPDATE: Just got an email from Gemma. She apologized for the confusion on the website. Basically, I scan agent bios and try to carefully ascertain if they do serious nonfiction, as in history. Hers mentioned science, history, nonfiction. So I queried. But then I went back to her site and noticed that buried in the fine print in a left-hand column, it says no nonfiction and she's totally childrens-books-only. She definitely needs to clean that up for poor authors. Anyway, confusion clarified, and I've taken her off my list (and me hers :)
 
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Chumplet

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Geez, I am confused.

I queried Gemma Cooper after reading this on her Bent Agency bio page: "For non-fiction, I'm interested in history and science, but want very accessible books with an obvious hook."

Then I get this auto-reply email from her saying she got the submission, but in it she warns, "I am a children's literary agent, so do not represent adult genres for adult fiction or adult non-fiction. Queries for all adult manuscripts will be deleted unanswered."

So which is it, Gemma? You can't have it both ways.

Sounds pretty definitive that she doesn't want history/science nonfiction when she says she does want history/science nonfiction.

Agents, I tell ya. (At this point the tiny little Self-Publishing Obi-Wan on my shoulder is saying, "See? This is not the droid you're looking for... trust in the Self Publishing force, Luke,....")


= = = = = = = = = = = =

UPDATE: Just got an email from Gemma. She apologized for the confusion on the website. Basically, I scan agent bios and try to carefully ascertain if they do serious nonfiction, as in history. Hers mentioned science, history, nonfiction. So I queried. But then I went back to her site and noticed that buried in the fine print in a left-hand column, it says no nonfiction and she's totally childrens-books-only. She definitely needs to clean that up for poor authors. Anyway, confusion clarified, and I've taken her off my list (and me hers :)

It is my guess from her description that she will accept non-fiction geared toward children or young adults, but not toward adults. Oops, read your update. As you were!
 
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Wizera

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Sadly, things didn't work out with Gemma. But she gave me some really useful feedback, which I incorporated into a new draft.

Queried Molly Ker Hawn yesterday. Got a full request within a few hours. Once more into the breach! Or something less cliched!
 
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Wizera

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I received an offer of rep from another agency. I wrote to let Molly know and she emailed me back, asking to talk. Whatever I end up doing, whoever ends up repping me, I have nothing but great things to say about this agency.
 

Belle_91

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Anyone else having problems getting to their website? Neither my phone or computer will pull up the page today.
 

EMaree

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I take it John Bowers have left the agency now? Had him on my query list from the March 2017 new agent alert but his Twitter bio has changed and he's disappeared from the agency site. His Twitter page still has pinned tweets about clients though, and his last tweets before disappearing were about #PitMad.
 

zmethos

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I take it John Bowers have left the agency now? Had him on my query list from the March 2017 new agent alert but his Twitter bio has changed and he's disappeared from the agency site. His Twitter page still has pinned tweets about clients though, and his last tweets before disappearing were about #PitMad.

Per QT he's with Sanford J. Greenburger now.
 

gbhike

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I keep hearing Jenny Bent is going to be accepting unsolicited queries again soon but apparently not...
 

emlm21

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Has anyone worked with Heather Flaherty? Scanned several pages of this thread and didn't see her name come up.
 

Girlsgottawrite

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I've had a full with Jenny Bent for over two weeks and the waiting is going to kill me! :Hammer:
 

Feuilleton

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Hi there, has anyone had any experience querying Nicola Barr at this agency? PS good luck if your full's still out there @Girlsgottawrite!