[Agency] Liza Dawson Associates

[Agency] Lisa Dawson Associates

Hey,
Anyone hear anything about Caitlin Blasdell? Saw the reference page on AgentQuery.com, not terribly informative. She's with Liza Dawson Agency, which is supposedly a solid place... any thoughts?

I queried her a few months back and after a couple of weeks got a request for a partial via snail mail. She wrote her request on my original query letter and sent it back in my SASE, which I found somewhat strange.

Anyway, she ultimately declined to offer representation because, in her words, women's fiction is too hard to sell right now.

Good luck!

She's an excellent agent, making numerous good sales for her clients in the SF/F field. When I queried her last fall, she was fast and courteous and professional. It took a couple weeks from query to the request the full, then another month before she passed with detailed notes on why, and the invitation to submit new projects to her.

Cailtin Blasdell is my agent--she primarily handles SF/F, but also some other things. She did manage to sell my book, which couldn't have been easy. She represents Charles Strauss, among others, and is a true professional in every way. I think she's exceptional. (Of course, everyone thinks that about their own agent.)

Liza Dawson & Associates

I see P&E shows they've made sales and also see on the "Locus Sales Spreadsheet" that one of their agents - Caitlin Blasdell - has been busy making a few sales lately. So, they certainly seem legit. However, I'm wondering if anyone's had any direct dealings with them.

I have. An excellent and professional agency.

Thanks again, Rugcat.

Mods: After creating this thread, I found another for Caitlin Blasdell. If it's not too hard, maybe we should merge the two threads somehow?

Does anyone know if Liza Dawson & Associates are a reputable agency? As a new writer trying to find representation for both mystery novels I have gotten gun shy with all the ones that are rip offs.

Thanks everyone in advance.

Scriptor

Absolutely. More than reputable. A small agency, but a good one.

thanks

Thanks, like I said I am very gunshy, and still needing an agent.

Thanks again

AgentQuery.com + search feature for this forum = good start.

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to contribute because it seems popular for folks to Google an agency's name with "absolute water cooler" in the search string, thus pulling up the past thread for information on said agent.

I've been querying for a few months now, and the process has been much less painful than I imagined. Most agencies are prompt, and the rejections (while never completely easy to take) are usually not so bad to read.

Liza Dawson, however, was a bit of a slap to the face. I don't know if I got lucky, but the first few agents I queried had responses times of under 1 month. One responded in 18 days. I don't expect a two week turnaround from every agency, but Dawson took 76 days to respond. I wouldn't mind so much, but the first sentence of the rejection form letter is: "We're sorry for this impersonal response but we wanted to get back to you quickly." Psshh.

Anyway. 76 days to respond for this agent. Keep that in mind during your querying planning.

Was it an email query or a snail mail query?

My experience is that email queries usually either have a pretty quick turn around or no response at all, with a few stragglers coming in now and again.

Anyways, I don't really think 76 days is that awful long as far as response times go. It certainly won't set any records. Agents, like anyone else, get busy sometimes and other times have more time to look through queries. The same agent that takes 10 days to respond to me might take 70 days to respond to you, or vice-versa.

Liza Dawson/Austern

David Austern is Liza Dawson's assistant. Before I signed with my current agent, he requested my NF proposal. He then expressed interest in representing me, but when I followed up, he said he was too busy working for Ms. Dawson. Rather unprofessional. Once he's made a sale, perhaps he'll have demonstrated he's serious about developing his own author list.

She responded within 48 hours to my email query and asked for the full ms. via email. I've been waiting 3 months now, and queried her because of a New York Times story that makes my book very hot.

I know it's a top notch agency, but has anyone had dealings with Havis Dawson? Thanks!

I sent David Austern a query a little more than 2 months ago...
do they reply only if they are interested?

Caitlin is swamped and is going to be on leave for a while shortly, so she might be a bit slow for a while.

She's absolutely great.

David Austern has had the full of one of my manuscripts since July, and hasn't answered status queries.

Oo...great *insert sarcastic face here*
I think he would be an ideal agent for me...maybe I'll query one of the other agents