[Agency] Trident Media Group

Alanna Ramirez at Trident

Anyone have any info on Alanna Ramirez? She's got my partial (since 3/19/2009) and am on pins and needles. I'm going to give her 3 months before I start nudging (I know from a friend who's an editor that agents and editors alike are completely swamped due to the increase in submissions and lack of proper staffing). Just curious if anyone's dealt with her in the past (or present) as I would love to be with an agency of Trident's caliber.

Jeff

Is this just a busy time for agents? Earlier in the year, their responses were much faster.

christinalbarr said:

Is this just a busy time for agents? Earlier in the year, their responses were much faster.

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I had one agent tell me that because of the recession, more people finally have the time to "try to write that book" they've been thinking about.......so often during recessions they get a lot more submissions. He said they find a few good writers this way, but their slush piles just grow and grow and.......

Jefflrich said:

Anyone have any info on Alanna Ramirez? She's got my partial (since 3/19/2009) and am on pins and needles. I'm going to give her 3 months before I start nudging (I know from a friend who's an editor that agents and editors alike are completely swamped due to the increase in submissions and lack of proper staffing). Just curious if anyone's dealt with her in the past (or present) as I would love to be with an agency of Trident's caliber.

Jeff

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Hello Jeff,

I, too, am waiting for AR from Trident to respond to me. Jeff, have you done any research on this agent? Do you know her sales record since she is relatively new? I am curious to have anyone else who knows this agent to share their experience. Thanks.

christinalbarr said:

Is this just a busy time for agents? Earlier in the year, their responses were much faster.

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I would agree with you Christina. I began querying my YA novel in early February, and it seemed people were lightning quick. The longest was two or three weeks. Now as I query my adult novel and wait on requests from others, it seems to much, much slower.

Just my .02 though!

Ms. Henkin rejected my partial on Monday. At least it only took her two weeks to get to my submission. She just wasn't "in love" with it.

Oh, well.

Alanna Ramirez rejected my partial today (insert sad-faced emoticon here). Liked the story just not enthusiastic enough about the project as a whole. Oh well, still have 3 partials and a full out there. Still hope!!!

HeidiHole said:

How many years do you want to waste on ONE agent??

If you are over 50 and query them, you may not live long enough to get a response.

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Rejection hurts, Heidi. You have been rejected. Time to move on, no?

Jefflrich said:

Alanna Ramirez rejected my partial today (insert sad-faced emoticon here). Liked the story just not enthusiastic enough about the project as a whole. Oh well, still have 3 partials and a full out there. Still hope!!!

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So sorry about AR, Jeff. Good luck with your other partials and fulls. I am still waiting for response from TMG.

Can anyone in this forum kindly tell me what kind of deals this agent A.Ramirez had made since she started working for TMG earlier this year? Or at least, how I'd go about finding this information.

Does the fact she works for a top notch agency help in terms of her contacts with publishing houses even though she is new. In other words, are we picking the agent or the agency?

[agency] Trident media Group

Rejection hurts, Heidi. You have been rejected. Time to move on, no?

Indeed I have. I explained in another thread on another forum why I have given up on getting the ms published. I posted what I have here as a warning to other writers, to not get too pumped up when this agency asks for your full. Yes, it's great to think that your ms is good enough for a NYC agent to ask for it, and it's easy to daydream about what you'll wear to your first book signing. Turns out that they ask for a LOT of fulls, then leave the writers to twist in the wind for months before rejecting, and then only after a prompt. Very unprofessional even for the publishing business. PublishAmerica at least responds. Oy vey!

Aw hell, I've had an agent look me straight in the eyes and say "Mags, you can't write a plot to save your life." I happen to disagree with her, so I took what I could from that conversation and moved on. I'm now working on requested revisions for a good friend of hers.

There are all kinds of ways to get rejected, HeidiHole. Your focus on this experience with Trident seems unhealthy. Go get rejected by some other agents, in other ways, and Trident will be but a tired memory. You say you've given up on trying to get your book published, and if you're this focused on one agency's lack of response, you're probably right. Seems a shame, though. Sorry to hear it.

Does anybody know what's up with Melissa Flashman? I know someone on this thread was very close to being represented by her, but last I heard, she was swamped with other work.

I believe I was the one you were speaking of...I had a lot of interaction with Melissa. But over the last few months it's really slowed down. Another agent suggested some revisions which I did and offered to Melissa as well. She asked me to send them over to her. So now I'm still waiting. She told me that as soon as her time freed up she was going to read my ms first. And I've heard nothing so I'm thinking she's overloaded! Don't dispair, she's a really nice lady. I sent her a nudge after a couple of months and she was very receptive to it. So I think if it's been awhile then you should just drop her a quick line and hopefully that will give you some peice of mind.

SKHMOM said:

I believe I was the one you were speaking of...I had a lot of interaction with Melissa. But over the last few months it's really slowed down. Another agent suggested some revisions which I did and offered to Melissa as well. She asked me to send them over to her. So now I'm still waiting. She told me that as soon as her time freed up she was going to read my ms first. And I've heard nothing so I'm thinking she's overloaded! Don't dispair, she's a really nice lady. I sent her a nudge after a couple of months and she was very receptive to it. So I think if it's been awhile then you should just drop her a quick line and hopefully that will give you some peice of mind.

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Thanks SKHMOM. I was referring to you. I did send her a nudge a month ago and I haven't heard any word from her yet. I don't want to seem like a pest or like a newby and message her again...but I very much am a newby. She told me that my query was intriguing and asked me to send my full manuscript and I haven't heard from her since. I realized today that's it's only been about three months. I realize that really isn't that long in this business and I do trust that she's very busy.

But I do want to know if she's started it, if she's still interested...I'm not even sure if the email went through and she recieved it! Should I just wait it out a little longer or should I send another nudge?

That's a hard one Christinalbarr, I'm a newby also so this may be a question for some of the more experienced writers on this thread. I think your initial request from her sounds encouraging though, since she found your query intriguing. I'll cross my fingers that we both get signed! Keep us updated!

Christinalbarr:
I can't see how another gentle nudge asking if she has received your ms (that you are also wondering when you might expect a response from her) could hurt at this time.

Nathan Bransford's advice in this situation is to send an achingly polite status query once a month until you get an answer

Christinalbarr - I was looking over my emails and realized it had been 2 months since Melissa and I had talked about the status of my ms. So I popped her an email a few hours ago. She just responded and said that she still hasn't had a chance to read it but that she's excited to get to it. She said she's been extremely busy. So it looks like submissions are still on hold at this time. - I'd still send a nudge to her...I'm hoping it keeps us on the top of the pile. As always good luck!!!

Thanks SKHMOM. I sent her a nudge tonight. I'm glad to know that she's just busy and I haven't been rejected yet. I think Melissa would be great for my book because I know she's into graphic novels and my novel is a super hero/high school/mystery. If she doesn't find the main character to be too vicious and makes it through the entire book, I don't know how she can say no to my surprise ending.

I've never received any negative comments from agents, only some that say that it's not for them. Jenny Bent said she liked it but my voice wasn't for her but said I would find great success, so hopefully Melissa likes my style.

Christinalbarr, your ms does sound really interesting. Mine is completely different. It's a YA paranormal romance. Well I hope you've heard back and good luck!

Update. After receiving a request for a full from Kim Whalen in early February, I sent the MS and just today received a polite rejection. She said I was a good writer but she wasn't enthusiastic enough about the story. Compared to some of the stories I've been reading, the four month overall turn-around seems to be pretty prompt. I'm happy with that.

Anyone else ever get that 'so near yet so far' feeling?

Does anyone know how fast Ms. Whalen's assistant would respond to e-mail queries usually?

SKHMOM, thanks. It's good to know that other people find it intriguing. I really do believe in it, I just don't want to have to wait forever and I want it to have as much mass success as possible. When you hear success stories like Stephanie Meyer who wrote and got Twilight published within six months, you want something like that so bad for yourself!

It's really a series with the different books exploring the perspective of the main characters you meet in the first novel. The first book is a mystery because an outsider is trying to figure out who the super hero is within the clique of kids the story is focused on, but you don't even find out the most important thing about the narrator until the last few pages of the book.

Then the series evolves once the reader finds out who is who. It's really character driven and I know the general idea of it has maybe been done before, but how it's written and the characters and the twists are what make it stand out to me. If Melissa manages to get through the whole book, I think she'll love it and see how commercial it is, but that's if she likes my voice enough to get there.

A paranormal romance sounds interesting. What kind of paranormal stuff? Is it general paranormal or is it specific?

Gidget Widget, four months is really good, I think. I hope it will only be that long for me (which would mean one more to go...).

The "so near yet so far" feeling is probably something everyone experiences. I feel like I'm doing something grand with someone asks for a few pages and then I feel so let down if someone rejects it. I've sent so many queries and received so many "not right for me" it's discouraged me some days, but I keep going.

If Melissa Flashman rejects my full ms, I don't know what I'll do. I mean I'll go on and try the next agent, but it would sadden me to know that someone read my work and then wasn't as proud of it as I was.

But even with feeling that, we have to go on. If we believe in what we've done, then we owe it to ourselves to keep trying.