Alicka Pistek Literary Agency

Her website has Nazi Hunter, which I have heard of. She's listed in Publisher's Marketplace and Agent Query. She's NOT listed at Writers.net which is good.

Try contacting some of her authors which are listed at her website.

Regards,
Scott

P&E says:

Alicka Pistek Literary Agency: $ A literary agency.

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The $ is a good mark.

E-Queries?

Her website says she only accepts e-queries, but I've searched her site and can't find an e-mail address. On her submission page, she only has her mailing address. Anybody worked with her lately?

Her info at agentquery.com says her email is [email protected]. I sent an e-query there, however, and never heard back. Of course, no answer may have been her answer.

I also e-queried and never received a response. I don't have a "no response = rejection" on my spreadsheet so she doesn't state that on her website, but I figured that was the deal and marked it as an R.

J.

From the submission page of her website:

Submission Guidelines

Due to the volume of submissions, the agency is changing its submission guidelines. We now accept submissions via e-mail only. We will read and carefully consider all submission but will only respond to those that seem appropriate. Romance submissions will be deemed a special category; please indicate in the subject heading whether your submission is a romance.

LOL! Well, she didn't state that last year.

J.

She used to be (not too long ago) with another highly reputable agency, before setting off on her own. There, she rejected my query, which puts her in good company. I'd tell you which agency that was, but I can't remember, they all blend together in a fog in my mind anymore.

caw

She's asking for the first three chapters or 50 pages, whichever comes first.

Has anyone heard back from her?

Carmy said:

She's asking for the first three chapters or 50 pages, whichever comes first.

Has anyone heard back from her?

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With this agent - romance or commercial fiction or anything else - appears to receive the same treatment - silence. Considering that 50-pages will run you into some postage - and postage these days is nothing to sneeze at, I'd spend my money better way. There may be writers out there who actually received a reply from this agent, asking to see more or rejection, but general trend is silence. A while back I sent an e-mail query and like someone else said, it wasn't rejected but neither was it acknowledged.

In my experience, any agent asking to see first 3 chapters along with a query should be sent only a query. 1-page, first class postage and invitation to respond, reject or ask for more, via e-mail - which mens include your e-mail address. Don't bother including SASE because in 95% it will not be used to send you rejection or acceptance and it's a waste of a stamp. Mailing is expensive these days and rates keep rising. 50-pages, even if you persuade the Post Office that it's <printed material> and they let you use <business class> will still run you into fair expense.

I find that if you send a query letter and include your e-mail, in more than 50% cases the agent will use the e-mail to reply - reject or invite to see more. And then they'll tell you how they want to see it - as hardcopy or e-mail attachment.

Very recently I received e-mail from Clarissa Rappoport-Hankins, of Anderson Literary Management, LLC - queried her months ago via e-mail. She states: "I suspect that this letter comes to you atrociously late, and for that I am very sorry. We have been in the process of reorganizing here at Anderson Literary, and I found the first 50 pages of your manuscript XYZ. If it isn't too late, I'd like to take a look at the full manuscript (you can just email it to me at this address).Again, we are terribly sorry for the delay!

Now, I am very weary of e-mailing a 354-page manuscript in Rtf by e-mail. I sent her 50 hardcopy pages - and I doubt I will be sending the whole m-script by e-mail. I'll do that only to an agent who has signed-me-on. I am perfectly willing to send her the m-script as a hardcopy, but e-mailing the whole novel...nah. I'm not paranoid but I am somewhat leery about this practice of e-mailing whole manuscript as an Rtf file on spec.

You see, I have this annoying experience with Manus Literary in Palo Alto. Three years ago, they had an agent with them who requested first 3 chapters of another manuscript. She liked those and asked for 6 more...and so on, piecemeal until she read the whole thing and liked it well enough...if I did some re-writes. She never said the agency would offer me representation - she just liked the novel. We corresponded back and forth about re-writes and I was just wrapping my mind around how to do it when her e-mails stopped. I emailed Jandy Nelson - who's been with the agency for a long time. She replied that the said intern/agent was no longer with the agency and she took all her work files with her. So she didn't have any knowledge of my work that the agent discussed with me. And no, she wasn't interested in representing me...my work unseen.

So that sort of made me shy away from any agency that requests the whole m-script as Rtf file. Hardcopy is cumbersome and generally I'm an environmentalist, but hardcopy can also be recycled. Files that leave with the intern-agent-assistant...are not that assuredly recycled. It was one of the reasons why I opted to publish that particular novel as e-book. Just sharing experience. Regards.

Thanks, Edita.

At the moment, I'm pursuing agents who accept email queries because, as you say, postage costs money, especially when I live in Canada and my markets are in the UK and US.

A few months ago, I sent an e-query to Alicka Pistek and haven't had a response. IMO, a "not right for me" is better than nothing. But, then again, on the website, it is plain that she only responds when she is interested. For now, I'm thinking she isn't interested.

Edita A Petrick said:

In my experience, any agent asking to see first 3 chapters along with a query should be sent only a query.

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Utter self-defeating nonsense. Any agent asking for actual portions of a manuscript is doing that because he/she/it wants to look at a sample of your writing. Nobody would ask for such if they didn't. The vast majority of agents ask for a query only, making it perfectly clear they don't want to see anything of your actual manuscript until you can convince them via the query that it's worth their time. Anyone specifying that they want to see some writing up front is nothing but a plus, and should get some.

If you've had problems with agents asking for portions of a manuscript up front, and then being rejected, you need to take a good look at your manuscript.

caw

blacbird said:

Utter self-defeating nonsense. Any agent asking for actual portions of a manuscript is doing that because he/she/it wants to look at a sample of your writing. Nobody would ask for such if they didn't. The vast majority of agents ask for a query only, making it perfectly clear they don't want to see anything of your actual manuscript until you can convince them via the query that it's worth their time. Anyone specifying that they want to see some writing up front is nothing but a plus, and should get some.

If you've had problems with agents asking for portions of a manuscript up front, and then being rejected, you need to take a good look at your manuscript.

caw

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I beg to differ here - but if you're interested you can indeed take a look at what is no longer manuscript but actually a published book. No, sorry - but there was nothing wrong with the manuscript. The agent saw all of it - by asking for it piecemeal - and then simply vanished <off> the air in terms of e-mail. Jandy Nelson did respond that the said agent left the agency - taking all her files and emails with her.

Would you, were you the writer here, wonder what was wrong with your m-script...? I don't follow your reasoning at all.

Point is very clear - when an agency asks for your e-mail submission of an entire novel, sure it gives you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling but the fact remains that while the agency itself may be very respectable and reputable, you have NO IDEA who is going to be receiving that e-mail of yours...chances are it's going to be an intern, and someone who might stay couple of months or couple of weeks. You won't know - particularly with agencies that have tons of staff -- isn't that what's been sounding on this board...agents coming, going, coming, disappearing, re-appearing or not appearing at all...?

There are tons of one-person and two-person agencies - and I'd have no problem sending those the entire m-script file as rtf - but anyone else who has a new assistant dealing with her/his emails every other month...no.

Edita A Petrick said:

Point is very clear - when an agency asks for your e-mail submission of an entire novel, sure it gives you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling but the fact remains that while the agency itself may be very respectable and reputable, you have NO IDEA who is going to be receiving that e-mail of yours...chances are it's going to be an intern, and someone who might stay couple of months or couple of weeks. You won't know - particularly with agencies that have tons of staff -- isn't that what's been sounding on this board...agents coming, going, coming, disappearing, re-appearing or not appearing at all...?

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How on earth is an agent going to judge your manuscript, unless he/she reads the full? And what is the difference between sending the full ms as a file or as hard copy, since it is going to be read by the same person, agent or assistant, anyway?

I have had at least two assistants for big agents read my ms and respond in detail. I think you are overly paranoid and shooting yourself in the foot.

What Aruna said!

Edita, in this business you do what is asked of you -- to the T. If not, you're showing the agent that you're going to be very difficult to work with and that gives them reason enough to reject or not respond.

If you want to be accepted by a major publisher (not an e-publisher), then you will have to conform. Best of luck to you.

J.

Edita A Petrick said:

Point is very clear - when an agency asks for your e-mail submission of an entire novel, sure it gives you a warm-and-fuzzy feeling but the fact remains that while the agency itself may be very respectable and reputable, you have NO IDEA who is going to be receiving that e-mail of yours...chances are it's going to be an intern, and someone who might stay couple of months or couple of weeks. You won't know - particularly with agencies that have tons of staff -- isn't that what's been sounding on this board...agents coming, going, coming, disappearing, re-appearing or not appearing at all...?

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One of the things you might consider is that some really good agents are starting to recognize the benefits of electronic communication. It saves postage for the writer and time for both parties. Kristin Nelson does absolutely everything electronically, for example.

I just had a very pleasant exchange with Janet Reid. She requested a partial (via e-mail) -- she had to say no because it wasn't her genre *sniffle*, but she did refer me to another agent.

I think it's more important to worry about the agents' reputation than the method of submission. As long as you've already done your research and you know the agent is legit, it's just easier all around to do what they ask. Miss Snark has a lot to say on this topic.

Best of luck to you, Edita!

Um, what's your book title and publisher?

DaveKuzminski said:

Um, what's your book title and publisher?

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(Now Dave, don't be mean...)

Oooh! Open mouth, insert foot?

DaveKuzminski said:

Um, what's your book title and publisher?

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Cambridge Books - ebooksonthe.net
"Cold Scheme" - can find it on
ISBN: 1-59431-414-4
http://www.mobipocket.com/
http://www.fictionwise.com/

And, much to my surprise, to this date I actually made some money on it. Not enough to pay the whole monthly mortgage but it was decent. So I gave them another book...and it's doing even better...much to my surprise because I thought it was the weaker of the two.

"The Cracked Shadow"
ISNB: 1-59431-477-2
http://www.mobipocket.com/
http://www.fictionwise.com/

So after this, I went shopping through my "mining-ancient-gold" file and refurbished one of my old romance novels...and it's going to come out in the summer from New Concepts Publishing - "Sweet Poisoned Wine" - love (shudder!) the title...I wrote it when I was much younger and nearly choked on the title when I saw it now, when I'm that venerable age, over forty-heading-into-twilight-zone and a mother of young adults. Hope this satisfies your curiosity. Edita.

New Concepts Publishing is good. They're in this to make money for themselves and their authors.

I'm glad to hear that Cambridge is doing well by you. I don't get information like that about a lot of publishers, so P&E's ratings tend to be neutral in many instances.

DaveKuzminski said:

New Concepts Publishing is good. They're in this to make money for themselves and their authors.

I'm glad to hear that Cambridge is doing well by you. I don't get information like that about a lot of publishers, so P&E's ratings tend to be neutral in many instances.

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There are young mothers/authors with New Concepts who can afford to be stay-at-home mothers from their writing alone - I was shocked to hear that. Writing is all about establishing your audience base; once you have that, your e-book success may well pass any you may have achieved with large print publishers. And once you have your audience base, approaching a large print publisher or agent with solid statistics like that is...well, only good business and writing/publishing is after all business.

I noticed on these threads that a lot of writers here are scornful of e-books - I can't imagine why. If a writer believes in his product - craft-wise and plot-wise - then the next step is to get that product to the consumer fastest way he can. And move on to the next writing project. I also noticed that majority here are in awe of agents...but agents are just middlemen, what they do is business and if any other small business treated its potential customers the way literary agents treat theirs, they'd be in bankruptcy in a matter of weeks. Conform to what agents want, bend backwards to accommodate them lest they label you difficult...as if the agents were the ultimate gatekeepers to the great publishing dream.

They're not. There are a myriad other ways for the author to get his product to market - to audience because that's what writing is all about - capturing a slice of readership/audience. I belong to IWW critiquing workshop and there are tons of talented writers there who used many different ways to get their product to the reading audience.

Natalie Collins self-published her first novel and made such a success of it that agents and publishers came after her. She has a two-book deal now with St. Martin's Press I think. If a writer believes in his product, knows it's solid in terms of craft and plot, then all that's left to get that product to market is hard work - writer's.

More and more I keep coming across the agents' blurb that asks the writer to submit a "marketing plan" - what is the publisher and agent then supposed to do...collect royalties? If a writer has marketing plan, he owes it to himself to go with his product to market and promote it any way he can. Especially in writing, nothing succeeds like the success you cull for yourself.

There are also many successful and established writers who do not have agents. So...what's this awe and worship of agents who won't adhere to even rudimentary elements of business courtesy...? A writer can score the most celebrated agent but if the writer's product isn't sound, the agent won't be able to sell it - or if he will the reading audience out there will tell him and the writer what they think of the product.

As a writer, I'm a business-person and I have my business rules. If the agent doesn't want to respect those, why should I respect his personal preferences? Client-customer relationship and therefore respect has to flow both ways. The worst possible thing a writer can do is to lock himself into a mindset that an agent is an answer to all his dreams and prayers.

In fact, if I were asked to give advice to all those "desperately seeking an agent" writers, I'd say go find a few e-publishers and submit your work. If it gets rejected, that'll tell you a lot about the product. But if it's accepted, (and you can always refuse) then it means there is an audience base out there for your product so you're in the ballpark and ready to play. And once you have a few games to your credit, that's the time to venture out again and seek agents, if that's still what you want...or need. Regards.