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Ayesha Pande Literary (formerly Collins Literary Agency)

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Collins Literary Agency

Anyone have any experience with Matthew Elblonk of Collins Literary Agency? I’ve already researched him and the agency on the net. I’m asking if anyone has had any PERSONAL experience of working with him. Or if you know anyone who has. If so can you please tell me what he’s like to work with, etc. Thanks a lot.
 

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Nope, nothing personal. Just recently he did send me an email asking for the first 100 pages of the book to read over the holidays. Haven't heard back yet, but I guess it still is sort of the holidays.

thanks, Spiny. Will you tell me when he gets back to you? i'd like to know how long he takes.
 

Spiny Norman

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thanks, Spiny. Will you tell me when he gets back to you? i'd like to know how long he takes.

Sure thing. I also sent an email asking if my attachment opened for him. That was on, what, the fourth? It was still serious holiday season (as I suppose this is) so I'm not worried (yet) about the lack of response.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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Nope, nothing personal. Just recently he did send me an email asking for the first 100 pages of the book to read over the holidays. Haven't heard back yet, but I guess it still is sort of the holidays.

H'm. This might explain why you haven't heard back from him, Spiny Norman. Maybe resending your 100 pages to him at The Creative Culture in a few weeks might not be a bad idea.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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Ugh. That's not good news at all. Anyone see any way I can contact him at The Creative Culture?


Call them and ask:[SIZE=-1] (212) 680-3510. Someone there should be able to tell you when he's coming on board, etc.[/SIZE]
 

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Thanks a lot, Victoria, for the info that Matthew has changed agencies.

Spiny, I don’t think it’s a good idea to send him yet another query or pages. I’m not going to. He will naturally take his existing clients with him when he moves and I suppose he will still remain interested in whoever he was interested in reading before he moved. I don’t want to seem too pushy or over-eager, so I wont be contacting him again.

He must be very busy what with the move and the holiday season. Let’s be patient and wait to hear back from him. it’s not like he will lose either of our emails just because he’s moved.
 

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Interesting...

The day before this thread was started, Elblonk contacted me out of the blue to say that my submission wasn't right for Nina Collins, but that he was interested in taking a look to see how I pulled the idea off. He invited me to submit my entire manuscript to him via e-mail, saying that he would read it over the holidays. Never heard back from him of course. It wasn't until late March that I found out he left Collins Literary Agency at the end of December. Clearly he knew he was going to be leaving and was just trying to grab whatever possibilities there were on his way out. Shady, shady, shady character. Now I'm paranoid.
 
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IceCreamEmpress

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The day before this thread was started, Elblonk contacted me out of the blue to say that my submission wasn't right for Nina Collins, but that he was interested in taking a look to see how I pulled the idea off. He invited me to submit my entire manuscript to him via e-mail, saying that he would read it over the holidays. Never heard back from him of course. It wasn't until late March that I found out he left Collins Literary Agency at the end of December. Clearly he knew he was going to be leaving and was just trying to grab whatever possibilities there were on his way out. Shady, shady, shady character. Now I'm paranoid.

Paranoid about what? Do you think he nabbed your book out of Nina Collins's queue and that she never saw it? If so, I'd resubmit to her directly and see what she says. The worst that can happen is that she'll say "I already rejected this, dude."
 

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it's more like i'm uncomfortable that he wasn't up front about the fact that he was going to be leaving the agency. i felt it was dishonest. i mean, why bother hiding something like that, right? i found this out by chance right around the time a friend of mine told me that an agent (namely lori perkins), who was supposedly interested in representing her, tried to get her to sign a contract that said she wouldn't sue in the event that one of the writers they already represented just happened to publish a novel that was a near carbon copy of the one she'd submitted. i don't know, dude... this whole industry just makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. i'll probably end up saying "to hell with the middle man" and publish it myself. don't really care if it makes me look bad.
 

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it's more like i'm uncomfortable that he wasn't up front about the fact that he was going to be leaving the agency.

Well, I think that would be a good reason for you not to work with him, if that bothers you.

Seriously, these things often go back and forth, though--he may well have been considering an offer from Creative Culture and a counter-offer to stay at Collins. Publishing is a very volatile business and people change jobs quickly, often without the "two weeks' notice" that's standard in many other industries.

As for the "I hate the publishing industry, so I'm going to self-publish"--if you find the back-and-forth of the publishing industry off-putting, wait until you get into the wonderful world of self-publishing. Assuming you can navigate the scammer-filled shark tank and make your way to a legit publishing service or printer, and find a legit distributor or wholesaler, you're then going to spend an enormous amount of time chasing down overdue payments, even from the people with the best intentions in the world.

And as for the Lori Perkins thing--either your friend misunderstood the agency's perfectly standard contract, or there was some miscommunication between your friend and you. Full stop.
 
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Beam76

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Well, I think that would be a good reason for you not to work with him, if that bothers you.

Seriously, these things often go back and forth, though--he may well have been considering an offer from Creative Culture and a counter-offer to stay at Collins. Publishing is a very volatile business and people change jobs quickly, often without the "two weeks' notice" that's standard in many other industries.

As for the "I hate the publishing industry, so I'm going to self-publish"--if you find the back-and-forth of the publishing industry off-putting, wait until you get into the wonderful world of self-publishing. Assuming you can navigate the scammer-filled shark tank and make your way to a legit publishing service or printer, and find a legit distributor or wholesaler, you're then going to spend an enormous amount of time chasing down overdue payments, even from the people with the best intentions in the world.

And as for the Lori Perkins thing--either your friend misunderstood the agency's perfectly standard contract, or there was some miscommunication between your friend and you. Full stop.

Thanks for the encouragement. I actually do have answers for each point that you made, but they would only come out sounding needlessly obnoxious and I'm trying this new thing where I try not to aggravate people. Have a great day.
 
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IceCreamEmpress

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Thanks for the encouragement.

I'm sorry if that came off as not-encouraging, because what I was trying to do was encourage you to stick with the querying agents route to publication.

Having done both, my own experience is that self-publication is MUCH harder and more frustrating. Your experience may differ.

I don't think that the publishing industry is particularly "corrupt" at all by the standards of modern unregulated industries with large multinational corporate players involved, and I think that the medium-sized press and small press markets, on the whole, are very responsive industries with very few dodgy companies involved.

And one thing about the publishing industry that distinguishes itself from many other market sectors is that there is a lot of self-policing and public communication.
 
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Beam76

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I don't particularly see it as being "corrupt"; more like an exclusive club that caters to those who are already well-established, as well as to those who are well-established in other fields and don't know the first thing about writing (for example...little Miley Cyrus).

In spite of the fact that more and more people seem to be turning to self-publishing, I have no doubt that it's at least as harrowing as the more traditional route. I might not have even considered doing it were it not for the fact that I already know someone who has done it - a trusted legal expert whom I know I can count on to not bullshit me.

Look, I'm not hoping to one day make a huge name for myself as a published author, nor am I hoping to one day be able to financially support myself through writing. I already have a career that I love and it keeps me pretty happy. What's most important to me is that my work be put out there for people who have no connection to me to read and enjoy. Even if I only sell 20 copies of my novel, it's still being read by 20 people who chose to read it, as opposed to 20 people who were asked to read it.

Make sense?
 

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Anyone with experience with A. Pande at this agency?
 

CaoPaux

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Ayesha heads the agency. What sort of info are you looking for?
 

Zsuzsi

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Thanks, CaoPaux.
Response time?
Sales records?
Personal experience working with her as her client or prospective client?
 

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I queried her back in April and she emailed me a request for a partial on the same day which I sent off!! Have not heard from her since then. Hope this small insight helps.