Mortimer Literary Agency / Underdog Press (Kelly Mortimer)

I hear mainly good things about Kelly's agency. I know she's made some sales. She offers a free online newsletter, you can probably sign up on her website.

Yeah, I've heard she's good, too. I think you may want to check out her website - i sorta think she's closed to new submissions (she may have one of those 'by referral only' things going on). Until very recently, she has only been accepting unsolicited queries by posting two initials each month in her 'news' section of the website. If your first and last initials match the two she listed, then you may query her. When I checked this month, I couldn't find any initials and saw something that sounded like she was taking a break from that.

I'm pretty sure this policy only dealt with unpublished authors...if you're already published, you should be able to submit.

Here's a link:
www.mortimerliterary.com

Thanks, Brookie.

I noticed you write Children's books. Here's a link to a site used by Children's/YA authors that track agent response times. Maybe you have it already, but maybe you don't:

http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?board=43.0

It's usually best to keep all this in one thread.

The initial thing is still going on, except now it's the very common "U.I" initials.

I heard that Kelly has taken over Tiger Publishing (which was going under) and is going to publish some books. Can anyone confirm this?

On Saturday night Kelly Mortimer won as 2008 ACFW Agent of the Year. So yeah, she's legit!

shameless said:

I heard that Kelly has taken over Tiger Publishing (which was going under) and is going to publish some books. Can anyone confirm this?

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Sounds like it is. (See June 2008 entry)

Oh! And congrats to Kelly for the honor!!

Kelly was indeed at the ACFW national conference and took the coveted "Agent of the Year" award. Her acquisition of Tiger is now called Underdog Press.

As of today, she mentions she has "one spot" for a new client. If you're planning to query her, I'd get it in rather rapidly.

I'm agented by someone else, but early this year when I did query her, I had a response within the month.

Deb Kinnard said:

Kelly was indeed at the ACFW national conference and took the coveted "Agent of the Year" award. Her acquisition of Tiger is now called Underdog Press.

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This is a major potential conflict of interest.

The murky issues that arise when a literary agent owns or is financially involved with a publisher have been discussed in the Ravenous Romance thread.

- Victoria

victoriastrauss said:

This is a major potential conflict of interest.

The murky issues that arise when a literary agent owns or is financially involved with a publisher have been discussed in the Ravenous Romance thread.

- Victoria

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I had the same thought. I know both agents are really good at their jobs, but I wouldn't be thrilled as a client if that agent "sold" me to her own epub.

I have no axe to grind one way or another with Kelly M. She acquired this press as a fluke, not intentionally, if one can credit her own posts on her own blog.

Since there are agents who also write, would this not be a potential COI as well?

Hey BrookieCookie777. Seems we meet again. Kelly Mortimer just asked for a friend invite from me on Shoutlife.com and so I googled her, (and found this thread) and Deb (waves at Deb) has commented on her as well.

If she won agent of the year at ACFW then that's a big thumbs up that she'll only represent your work to CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers. Yes, those are Christian publishers but they serve a very specific branch of Christians. From what I've read and seen, ECPA houses don't even take unsolicited MS's. They use the MS provider service that ECPA provides.

Just wanted to make sure you understood that if you're looking to market to the broader market of Christians and not the specific group CBA and ECPA serve, you probably need to make sure your agent doesn't only put your work out to CBA and ECPA affiliated houses. CBA and ECPA guidelines and rules are specific to that market. I'm not sure how tough they are with Children's book authors. Their primary market is conservative evangelicals.

And I'd be careful because many CBA and ECPA houses are now imprints of larger publishers. These imprints are now telling prospective authors that they serve the broader Christian market because of this. It isn't true. They're still CBA and ECPA affiliated. The work they produce while affiliated will only appeal to that specific market they serve.

Sue comments, correctly IMO, on the fact that the traditional list of CBA/ECPA related publishing houses is getting narrower, and their stated needs a tad bit more restrictive. That said, CBA/ECPA is NOT the only option out there, but a niche market within a niche market. There are smaller houses aplenty who publish Christian fiction along the continuum from very-conservative to inclusive-and-edgy. Many of these are not interested in being a formal part of the CBA.

More power to 'em, I say.

That said, most of the larger houses offer advances, which many of the smaller do not. An agent wants to make money for both you and herself, and therefore they do tend to concentrate on the known, and advance-paying, entity that the CBA houses are.

Kelly Mortimer, now that I've met her, is a fun person and not at all stodgy. If you think she might be a fit for you, I'd say go ahead & query. If in fact she's closed, she won't hesitate to tell you.

Per Kelly M's blog, she will not be attending the ACFW 2009 conference in Denver. There's been a fairly major kerfuffle which I won't relate here, and as a result she's cancelled her attendance.

Deb Kinnard said:

Per Kelly M's blog, she will not be attending the ACFW 2009 conference in Denver. There's been a fairly major kerfuffle which I won't relate here, and as a result she's cancelled her attendance.

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Deb is right, and Kelly wants to get the word out so writers who hoped to meet her won't think she abandoned them.

Here's a "rejection" letter I received from Ms.Mortimer, "extreme agent" who thinks terms like lgbt, SM, thriller, adult theme are generic...
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Mortimer Literary Agency [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, 11 July, 2009 10:58 PM
To: nicole singslave
Subject: Re: Query from Singapore: "Living Between Lies", an lgbt & SM themed thriller

I'm sorry, I don't accept general queries.

Warmest regards,

Kelly L. Mortimer ... the Extreme Agent
Mortimer Literary Agency - Diabolically Diligent. Maniacally Moral. Defiantly Different.
The American Christian Fiction Writers "Agent of the Year"
Top 5: Romance Category - Publisher's Marketplace Top 100 Dealmakers, 2008
www.mortimerliterary.com www.perilsofpublishing.com
Blog: www.welcometomyworlds.com www.joincma.org
951-763-2600


----- Original Message -----
From: nicole singslave
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 10:08 PM
Subject: Query from Singapore: "Living Between Lies", an lgbt & SM themed thriller

Ms. Kelly Mortimer
Mortimer Literary Agency
52645 Paui Rd.
Aguanga, CA 92536
Dear Ms. Mortimer:
I have written a 145000+ word transgender thriller titled “Living Between Lies” (LBL). The book contains SM, lgbt and sexual themes. ...