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Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency (formerly Lyons & Pande Int'l)

Thedrellum

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Whether or not it's true, it's been my (unverified) theory that snail mail responses are more likely to get a quick response because so many people prefer to e-mail queries (and many agents prefer to receive them). Jennifer Lyons only accepts snail mails, so maybe that means they have far fewer queries to go through.

Regardless of the reason, I'm excited.
 

BenPanced

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Email rejection today. She said it "sounds interesting and lively", but she can't offer representation now. Well, poopies.
 

a. climacus

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Queried through snail and got a full request (via e-mail) in just over two weeks.
 

Krista G.

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Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm hosting an interactive interview with Mr. Ourvan, a new agent at Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency, on my blog this Thursday, June 9. If you have a question for Mr. Ourvan, feel free to hop on over!

I'll be back that morning to post a direct link.
 

flygal716

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lisa17

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Has anyone heard from Jeff Ourvan in the past few months?
 

S. L. Saboviec

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I'm trying to determine if Jennifer reps fantasy. Her querytracker.net profile says that she does, but from the website:

Seeking: Literary fiction and upmarket, commercial women's fiction. Narrative nonfiction. Children's books, especially middle grade and young adult.

I've stumbled over a few agents whose QT profiles don't quite match their website, but none so far off as this. (For instance, another agent's website said she reps paranormal romance but said nothing about general fantasy.) Thoughts?
 

atwhatcost

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Whether or not it's true, it's been my (unverified) theory that snail mail responses are more likely to get a quick response because so many people prefer to e-mail queries (and many agents prefer to receive them). Jennifer Lyons only accepts snail mails, so maybe that means they have far fewer queries to go through.

Regardless of the reason, I'm excited.
Just to update this, since it's six years later, she does accept equeries now, but still prefers snail-mail. (I'm old-fashioned, so kind of like that about her. Still, she's the first -- and I'm up to L in my ever growing Agent List -- to not like equeries.)
 

DanielaTorre

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Thought I'd share my experience with this agent:

SMQ just query.
Full request within a week.
Offer of representation same month.
And it immediately begins to fall apart....

Scheduled the call for a week's time. She skipped it. Followed up a week later, rescheduled (without apology or reason). Skipped the second call. Another week passes, contact her that I was moving on. She reschedules a third time, finally calls. Had a nice conversation. Really impressed. Answered all my questions. Told me she'd be sending a contract and notes in a couple days time....

A week passes. And then another. And another. Another month goes by, and in this time I'd email periodically to bluntly ask if we were still moving forward because I haven't even received a contract. She keeps saying yes. I'm okay with it because I know how somebody of her experience and rep gets busy. It was summer time too.

In conclusion, 4 months since offer and not a contract or notes. Mind you, because I took her offer I refrained from querying or 4 months. I missed other opportunities with other agents and gave up tons of contests because of her. In the end, I emailed her about a week ago letting her know that I would begin querying again and would refrain from doing so if she was still interested, and that I was still interested in working with her (which I was. She's really is impressive). A week has gone by and I haven't received a response to that email. Never contacted me again.

This is the second time I have this same sort of experience with an agent. It's absolutely the biggest disappointment in the world. Agents, don't do this. Don't lead us on. If you want to work with us, then work with us. Don't say you do and make us miss opportunity after opportunity. And writers, if you do have this happen, keep querying. You are not their client until you have a contract. Don't make the same mistake I did. My two negative experiences with agents has completely disenchanted me to the point that I'm disgusted with writing. I haven't written in almost a year.

Good luck to you all.
 
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PandaNinja

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Thought I'd share my experience with this agent:

SMQ just query.
Full request within a week.
Offer of representation same month.
And it immediately begins to fall apart....

Scheduled the call for a week's time. She skipped it. Followed up a week later, rescheduled (without apology or reason). Skipped the second call. Another week passes, contact her that I was moving on. She reschedules a third time, finally calls. Had a nice conversation. Really impressed. Answered all my questions. Told me she'd be sending a contract and notes in a couple days time....

A week passes. And then another. And another. Another month goes by, and in this time I email periodically to bluntly ask if we are still moving forward because I haven't even received a contract. She keeps saying yes. I'm okay with it because I know how somebody of her experience and rep gets busy.

In conclusion, 4 months since offer and not a contact or notes. Mind you, because I took her offer I refrained from querying or 4 months. I missed other opportunities with other agents and gave up tons of contests because of her. In the end, I emailed her about a week ago letting her know that I would begin querying again and would refrain from doing so if she was still interested, and that I was still interested in working with her (which I was. She's really is impressive). A week has gone by and never received a response to that email. Never contacted me again.

This is the second time I have this same sort of experience with an agent. It's absolutely the biggest disappointment in the world. Agents, don't do this. Don't lead us on. If you want to work with us, then work with us. Don't say you do and make us miss opportunity after opportunity. And writers, if you do have this happen, keep querying. You are not their client until you have a contract. Don't make the same mistake I did. My two negative experiences with agents has completely disenchanted me to the point that I'm disgusted with writing. I haven't written in almost a year.

Good luck to you all.

Oh wow :/ I'm sorry to here this. I would feel so let down and disappointed. I understand agents get busy, but that's just ridiculous! Hopefully she will reach out to you, and nothing happened personally for her not to respond back. ��
 

DanielaTorre

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Oh wow :/ I'm sorry to here this. I would feel so let down and disappointed. I understand agents get busy, but that's just ridiculous! Hopefully she will reach out to you, and nothing happened personally for her not to respond back. ��

I have no hard feelings over this. Maybe she was going through a bad time personally. Maybe she found something better. But it would have been so simple to say "I'm sorry. My schedule is too crowded and I won't be able to rep you after all." I would have understood. Even her assistant could have responded to my email (I got the feeling a lot of the correspondence was with an assistant). But to lead someone on and put their entire writing life on hold, to make them pass up other agents and other opportunities, is so wrong. The worst part is that it's not just her. I've seen this happen to other writers with other agents. Offer rep and then disappear. I wish an agent could chime in an explain why this sort of thing happens.

But I digress. Again, there's always a reason they do this. I don't think it was intentional or anything. I'm moving on. But god damn have I had a whirlwind run in with this business.
 
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tsrosenberg

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My experience with this agent was that I submitted, got a request for a full on the same day, sent it, then followed up a few months later to ensure that it had arrived. Her response? "Congratulations! You should accept the offer."
 

Dmbeucler

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Lucinda Karter is joining as an Agent.

Lucinda Karter has joined the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency as an agent and foreign rights director. She has been the director of the French Publishers' Agency for the past 15 years, where she will remain part-time.
Per Publisher's Lunch.
 

atwhatcost

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Queried Jeff Ourvan 9/8 (Friday).
Rejected 9/13 (Wednesday.)

Obviously not happy about reject, but I'm thrilled he let me know. A special day -- my first reject.

Doesn't hurt, except I can tell you exactly how long my list is, and it just got one agency shorter.
 

AHunter3

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Lucinda Karter is joining as an Agent.

Per Publisher's Lunch.


I have a request for a full from a query to Lucinda Karter in November. In early December I used the excuse of wanting to be sure the email with the file attachment had gone through intact to follow up, and got the confirmation from her assistant that she was behind due to the Thanksgiving holidays and a busy schedule but hoped to get to it soon and get back to me.

It's now two months since the request for full. Is this unusual, either for Jennifer Lyons Lit Agency, or Lucinda Karter (if anyone has specific experience) or, for that matter, in general / overall?
 

lis_kb

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It's now two months since the request for full. Is this unusual, either for Jennifer Lyons Lit Agency, or Lucinda Karter (if anyone has specific experience) or, for that matter, in general / overall?

Two months is not at all out of the ordinary. For fulls, it's okay to nudge after three months (in my experience) unless their agency guidelines suggest a longer wait.