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[Agency] Scovil Galen Ghosh (formerly Scovil Chichak Galen)

Roxxsmom

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I'm going through Query Tracker, lining up possible query victims, er, targets, er, prospective agents. I've found that Rachel Kory is listed as an agent with Scovil Galen, and she's mentioned in this thread in several places, but she isn't mentioned as one of the agents on the website and she has her own website (where she indicates she's with SG.) I'm not being paranoid, just curious. Is there some form of legitimate relationship, like "Associate" or "Freelancer" where this happens?

I had the same question.

When I google her name, I get this site that says she's with SGG. But she's not mentioned on their site at all from what I can see (there doesn't seem to be a way to get a list of agents working for them, aside from the ones pictured on the front page), and she isn't listed in preditors and editors. And more confusingly, I got her name on Query Tracker when I was researching agents by helpful feedback percentages (her name came up and they list her as being with this agency), yet when I enter the name of this agency on their agent search feature, her name doesn't come up.

Nor does it if I do a general search by her name (query tracker's general search feature does this to me a lot, however. Gives zero results, yet I find the agent in another spot on their site). She reps an author (Fran Wilde) who has a novel coming out with Tor in 2015, according to Publisher's Marketplace, so she seems to be a real agent who can sell books.

It's rather confusing. I guess if I decide to query her, I'll assume the information on her personal site is accurate.
 
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hikarinotsubasa

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FWIW, I'm pretty sure Rachel's legit. She's newish, and I'd say it's someone else's fault that the website hasn't been updated... but I had a referral to her from another (legit) agent, and she responded from an SGG email address. She seems very nice, and has actual clients who have actually sold, so I don't think there's anything iffy there except maybe a forgetful webmaster.
 

Treehouseman

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There shouldn't be a problem, Query Tracker is pretty up to date. I've found that Agency websites by their very nature are only updated once every six months to a year.
 

Aggy B.

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Rachel Kory is/was Russell Galen's assistant. I believe she started building her own list fairly recently through queries/MS that were rolled over to her by Galen.
 

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Any updates on queries sent to Rachel Kory? Sent mine 1/14
 

Treehouseman

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Any updates on queries sent to Rachel Kory? Sent mine 1/14

You'll probably need to wait another month. According to Query Tracker she's only up to reading early December's queries.
 

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I sent a query back in late Jan, and she's up to about the first week of March with rejects, but she's skipped a bunch from Jan and Feb, including mine. Not sure if this means no, or she's still thinking about some of them, or if it means it got lost/spammed, and I should re-query.
 

CaoPaux

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A note that Anna Ghosh founded her own agency in '13. (BR&BC thread) SGG site yet to reflect this (hasn't been updated since '10, actually).
 

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I queried Russell this weekend because my fantasy retelling reminds me of the Juliet Marillier books I loved reading growing up and also because GOD'S DEMON is one of my absolute favorite novels of all time. To my surprise, he emailed me in a few days with a full request, and now I am super stoked! Even if it is a rejection I know he gives good feedback. He's one of the top agents and it's just an honor to have him read my work.
 

Director C

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I queried Russell this weekend because my fantasy retelling reminds me of the Juliet Marillier books I loved reading growing up and also because GOD'S DEMON is one of my absolute favorite novels of all time. To my surprise, he emailed me in a few days with a full request, and now I am super stoked! Even if it is a rejection I know he gives good feedback. He's one of the top agents and it's just an honor to have him read my work.

Yeah, isn't it interesting how it can feel great just to have someone you respect look at your work even if they reject it? :)
 

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So Russell got back to me in exactly SIX DAYS with a kind but polite rejection saying I had a great concept but that he thought it was a bit rough in execution. Fastest full rejection ever, I'm still thrilled he took a look - the manuscript is still with six agents so I'm not too worried and other agents have felt quite differently about the execution and some have actually despised the concept. On the off chance I don't get an agent soon, Russell will be the first I query again with my novel in the works. Awesome guy, I'm young and still have a lot of work to do on my writing. Give it a couple of years and who knows.
 

TMeuretBooks

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Anybody have any more recent dealings with Mr. Galen? Curious about response times outside the QueryTracker stats.

I queried him recently and it took him about 2 days to respond with a very personalized rejection. Very prompt and very courteous. Anyone would be lucky to snag him as an agent.
 

PMcKnight

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So Russel has had my query since the beginning of November 2017. I sent an update email two weeks ago because the word count had gone up, still no response. I'm really hoping the length of time is a good thing. a little scary though because most of his QT timeline is comprised of automatic closeouts at 121 days and I'm at 110 as of today
 

rusoluchka

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So Russel has had my query since the beginning of November 2017. I sent an update email two weeks ago because the word count had gone up, still no response. I'm really hoping the length of time is a good thing. a little scary though because most of his QT timeline is comprised of automatic closeouts at 121 days and I'm at 110 as of today

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Hang in there! But query elsewhere. Don't wait for slowpokes.
 

zmethos

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So Russel has had my query since the beginning of November 2017. I sent an update email two weeks ago because the word count had gone up, still no response. I'm really hoping the length of time is a good thing. a little scary though because most of his QT timeline is comprised of automatic closeouts at 121 days and I'm at 110 as of today

You can turn off the automatic closeout on QT if you prefer to leave things open. It's in Settings > System Preferences
 

PMcKnight

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Oh I submitted to tons of agents since then. on the timeline (and I know that it's not 100% accurate, but it gives me something to obsessively check) there's a few more recent submissions that are already marked as rejected so who knows what order he's going in.

thanks for the closeout tip, just went and changed it
 

rocoroca

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As far as I can tell, Russell Galen doesn't send rejections to everybody, and those he does respond to are done so quickly. So if you don't hear back from him within, say, a week, I'd just cross him off the list and move on.
 

PMcKnight

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As far as I can tell, Russell Galen doesn't send rejections to everybody, and those he does respond to are done so quickly. So if you don't hear back from him within, say, a week, I'd just cross him off the list and move on.

that... I'm going to embrace my millennial-ness and say that I just can't even with that.
 

rocoroca

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that... I'm going to embrace my millennial-ness and say that I just can't even with that.

In his defense, he does have a very full client list, so I imagine lack of time + no pressing need to find new clients = not much motivation to respond to every single query that floods his inbox if he's not interested.