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Red Sofa Literary Agency (Dawn Frederick)

luxisufeili

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Saw Jennie on the Guide to Literary Agents. I wonder if agents ever get a little scared when they're posted on there, because I bet they get a tsunami of queries afterwards.
I queried her today, keeping my fingers crossed because their agency looks quite nice and is really close to where I live.
 

Jessica_312

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Just sent a requested manuscript to Jennie Goloboy. Fingers are crossed!!!
 

Lady MacBeth

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Does anyone have any personal experience with Jennie? There's not much information out there.
 

Jessica_312

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Received a very nice, personalized rejection on a partial today (first three chapters), from Jennie.

Thank you very much for sending these to me. I'm sorry to say that this isn't for me. Though I liked the worldbuilding and was engaged by your heroine, I didn't feel it was quite innovative enough for me. I also felt like the writing style was a little mannered in the first chapter or so-- though things settled down as I progressed in the novel.

I'm sure others will feel differently-- best wishes in finding a home for this project.

Couldn't ask for a nicer rejection. In fact, I'm encouraged by it.
 

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Jennie Goloboy asked for me to query her during the most recent #pitmad contest.

I queried on 3/30/13, and she asked for 3 chapters that same day. Today she asked for the full.
 

Cel_Fleur

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Any idea if a no from one is a no from all here? Considering that Laura and Jennie both rep SFF.
 

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Any idea if a no from one is a no from all here? Considering that Laura and Jennie both rep SFF.

Well, I got rejected by Laura at the query stage but Jennie recently asked for a partial, so I guess not.
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Any idea if a no from one is a no from all here? Considering that Laura and Jennie both rep SFF.

I just finished going through my Query Tracker list yesterday, lining up all my ducks. Agency websites fell into three groups:

- Those who said it was ok to query multiple agents
- Those who said it was NOT ok
- Those who didn't say.

My take is that there's no hard and fast rule, so if they don't say, they don't consider it an issue. What's the worst they'll do? Reject you?
 

Cel_Fleur

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Fair enough. That's for the input, guys :)
 

ronempress

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Jennie's interests

Anyone know if Jennie will take other than romantic fantasy? The list of her clients on Query Tracker is limited and not much help. Red Sofa's site mentions she likes American History, but mine isn't American History. It's Chinese and is a wartime bromance, so I'm not sure if she'd care. LOL Are there any clients with intel or anyone with experience that suggests she might be interested?
 

Silverrosess

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Their website says to have a full proposal ready when you query... aren't proposals only for non-fiction? I didn't think fiction books needed proposals.
 

Maddie

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No worries, here's a quote from Red Sofa Literary's submissions page:
We highly encourage everyone to send an email and/or query letter initially, before attempting to send a full book proposal or sample chapters.
Further, they recommend to have your materials (e.g., full, partial, samples, etc.) ready and complete in the event they respond to the initial query with interest.
 

Saskatoonistan

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Does anyone have any experience querying Amanda Rutter?


She's was editor at the now defunct Angry Robot Books YA imprint Strange Chemistry Books that went under on 20 June 2015. She acquired my books Poltergeeks & Student Bodies. I can't speak to her agenting as my experience with her was through my two books and that's about it. If you want to know what her tastes are, check out any of the books that were published by Strange Chemistry.
 

AJ Flowers

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SFFPit Poor Experience

Just a warning for the poor professional behavior of this agent. She favorited my tweet during #SFFPit, and I checked her feed. There were no instructions for submission but other agents in Red Sofa were participating. According to the pitch rules, favorites mean a request for materials. So, I tweeted her just to make sure there weren't special requirements. With no reply, I spent 2 hours researching the agency submission guidelines and emailed.

Less than 5 minutes later I get an email reply that she only favorited my tweet because I had used one of her author's books for comparison. Clearly against the rules, misleading, and also selfish on her part. I was disappointed, and even though she apologized she should have known the pitch rules, especially since others in her agency were participating.

She didn't read my query, only said she wouldn't consider me because my book's fantasy theme was Angels. I emailed a request for her opinion on why she doesn't like books with angels, and got some increasingly rude back and forth about how I didn't understand the Twitter pitch rules and she'll use Twitter however she wants to. I only asked a question about her opinion on books since she had misled me and wasted two hours of my time. The professional thing for her to do would have been not to reply. I didn't expect a reply because agents are busy. But she did reply, multiple times, all about Twitter instead of books. Then she blocked me on Twitter. I never once was rude or out of line. Unprofessional and unfortunate.

I've followed this agency for a while, and I've never seen anything bad about them other than maybe expecting more than usual for marketing plans. I like to think I just caught her on a bad day. I hope others have better experiences.
 
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Chumplet

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Just a warning for the poor professional behavior of this agent. She favorited my tweet during #SFFPit, and I checked her feed. There were no instructions for submission but other agents in Red Sofa were participating. According to the pitch rules, favorites mean a request for materials. So, I tweeted her just to make sure there weren't special requirements. With no reply, I spent 2 hours researching the agency submission guidelines and emailed.

Less than 5 minutes later I get an email reply that she only favorited my tweet because I had used one of her author's books for comparison. Clearly against the rules, misleading, and also selfish on her part. I was disappointed, and even though she apologized she should have known the pitch rules, especially since others in her agency were participating.

She didn't read my query, only said she wouldn't consider me because my book's fantasy theme was Angels. I emailed a request for her opinion on why she doesn't like books with angels, and got some increasingly rude back and forth about how I didn't understand the Twitter pitch rules and she'll use Twitter however she wants to. I only asked a question about her opinion on books since she had misled me and wasted two hours of my time. The professional thing for her to do would have been not to reply. I didn't expect a reply because agents are busy. But she did reply, multiple times, all about Twitter instead of books. Then she blocked me on Twitter. I never once was rude or out of line. Unprofessional and unfortunate.

AJ, interacting with agents on Twitter is a very delicate balance. True, she may have favorited your pitch in error. Twitter pitch sessions are old hat to some, but new to others.

I didn't read the exchange in question, if indeed it still exists on Twitter. In general, pressing an agent for specific answers about one's work on Twitter is not a wise move. Twitter is not primarily a business site; it is a social site. Talking about books in general terms is fine, but asking an agent to discuss your own work on Twitter might compel them to back off. If you're persistent, they have every right to block anyone who might make them feel uncomfortable. You also have every right to feel slighted, offended or otherwise teed off, but she also has her rights.

Also, two hours of research is commendable, but I have researched one agent for two solid days before daring to hit that Send button. Still made mistakes, but research is a major part of querying. You'll be doing a LOT of it. Good luck with your book!
 
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Sage

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I'm sorry this was added stress for you, AJ, and (not knowing exactly what was said by whom at what point) it does sound like she possibly responded a little more rudely than was necessary, but we have to remember that agents are human too and we don't know what else is going on. Perhaps your request for a "why?" came right after another author took a rejection very rudely, and she interpreted yours in the worst way, and especially if there was "back and forth" about it, she could have felt exactly the same about your responses as you did about hers.

It is a shame that she "liked" your pitch without intending to request. From what I see, it looks like she came about it in a roundabout way. Someone else mentioned the comp, and she found it and liked it. I do agree that once she found out about the #pitmad rules, it would've been better to respect the rules, rather than insisting that she can like what she wants to like. However, I think that at the point where she explained that she didn't mean to request it, the conversation probably should have ended. Telling you that she wouldn't have been interested because it was an angel story was more than she was entitled to do, and she probably thought she was being nice explaining why she wouldn't have looked at the book, even though you sent the query. You could probably have queried someone else at that agency at that point since this query was due to a mistake.

In general querying advice, it's not worth asking for a "why?" A rejection is a rejection, and if an agent doesn't like what your book's about, it does no good to ask them to justify not being into yours. Sometimes feedback can be helpful, but a matter of taste won't tell you anything.

In general twitching advice, it's probably better to tweet at an agent to ask what they want you to send if they didn't specify anywhere. If they meant to request, they will respond, enthusiastically. If they don't respond or post submission guidelines after the request, they probably weren't that interested.
 

AJ Flowers

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Great points. And this interaction was through email, not Twitter.
I'd never normally ask for feedback, but given that it was her error and she instantly replied, I took the opportunity to ask her opinion on why she didn't like books with angels. It wasn't a debate why she wouldn't take my book, but a generic question. Sure, maybe that's pushy to ask a question at all, but her professional response should have been just to not reply. Instead, she replied multiple times, which told me she had enough time to argue but not enough time to help.
 

Chumplet

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Great points. And this interaction was through email, not Twitter.
I'd never normally ask for feedback, but given that it was her error and she instantly replied, I took the opportunity to ask her opinion on why she didn't like books with angels. It wasn't a debate why she wouldn't take my book, but a generic question. Sure, maybe that's pushy to ask a question at all, but her professional response should have been just to not reply. Instead, she replied multiple times, which told me she had enough time to argue but not enough time to help.

Ah, I'm sorry I missed the part where you emailed for an explanation. However, I'm afraid the same unwritten rules would apply here. Some surmise that many agents now adopt the "no response means no" rule, because they often receive too many requests for a reason for their rejection. This adds to the hundreds of emails they receive each week. They simply don't have the time for these exchanges. I'm sorry she blocked you, and I hope your future queries will give you more hopeful results.