I sent this e-mail to the agency and was answered by the owner:
Swetky Literary Agency
St. George , Utah
Dear Ms. Swetky,
I hope you might take a few moments to answer some general questions for me.
I note that P&E shows you with the $ sign in its listing. That's always nice to see. I was wondering what sales you might have made to Publishers who pay advances routinely, or require agents for submission. Titles and publisher would be most helpful to me.
Do you broadly submit by digital means to many pubishers at once, or do you tailor your submissions in small batches to publshers whom you know will be a good fit?
While no one needs a transmittal of standard rejections, do you provide the names of the publishers to whom you submit in a list to the author so he will know which publishers have seen the manuscript if later on the author decides to submit without representation? I'm sure you understand that most publishers have no desire to see a submission twice, unless it has been heavily revised, and I for one have no desire to irritate a publisher with anything to which my name might be attached. Usually they forget, but some of them have memories like mythical elephants.
I recently published a 'hard' science fiction novel with Capri Publishing a micro publisher here in Oklahoma . It comes out in mid-February and has a year contract to run. Mass Market and other subsidiary rights are still available for Sword of the Dajjal, and 85,000 word stand-alone that invites sequels. (
http://www.capripublishing.net/page17.html ) scroll down til you see the title, the ISBN has not yet been assigned.
I am looking for representation for a paranormal erotic thriller titled The Jars of Doom at this time, and would be happy to submit for your appraisal. Five chapters and the synopsis are at Strebor Books at the moment, but they have not yet decided to ask for more. Should they actually choose to take the book, I would still need an agent for negotiating the contract and advance.
It is wonderful that modern technology provides the opportunity for you to work in this industry and still reside in such a beautiful spot as St. George. My wife and I lived for almost six years in Bisbee , Arizona (about 90 miles SE of Tucson) while she attended nursing school. She was offered an internship at the Bannock Regional Medical Center in Pocatello , Idaho and our move took us through St. George where we stayed the night back in 1981. Travelling back and forth to Arizona and Oklahoma always took us through St. George in one direction or the other and we always made it a point to stop there.
Our original trip took us through the area during trout fishing season and it was stupefying to see the huge numbers of fishermen casting flies and spinners into all the rivers and streams.
Anyway, thank you for your time and attention to my questions.
Regards,
Scott Saylors
Her answers to questions are below:
"We can’t really take the time to enumerate our sales. Suffice to say that we sell regularly both to film producers and publishers. Our clients are published with Sterling , Simon and Schuster, Franklin Watts Grolier, Kensington, and others. We have had several scripts produced, and several more are currently in production or under option, although none with a major studio…yet."
As to whether they rifle or shotgun their submissions, I was told they do both. This was added to the answer:
"We cannot provide a list of names of publishers to whom we submit because we submit to more than 2,000 editors monthly, and our list constantly changes. As some editors leave the industry or request to be removed from our lists, we remove them. Besides, re-visiting a proposal to an editor who has already passed on it is no shame; editors’ needs, tastes, and budgets change continually. What might have been passed up today could well be picked up by the same editor next month." That answer strikes me as disingenuous at least.
As to the idea I mentioned in the letter:
"While we do not currently represent any paranormal erotic thrillers, I do know of some editors looking for paranormal romances. “Erotic” is pretty much a curse of doom in the industry these days, what with erotica publishers folding nearly faster than we can keep up with trade news announcements. You might benefit from looking over other possible genres with which to label your work and move “erotic” to the back of the pack."
That might be good advice, it does ignore some up-coming successful publishers in that particular genre thought: Strebor Books and Ellora's Cave for starters.
Judge for yourself, I will.
Regards,
Scott