[Agency] Writers House

It could be that Maya is extremely busy with her current clients (I believe she's still an assistant as well). Once she has a moment, she'll get back to her backlog of potential clients. Of course, if someone else offers to rep you in the meantime, that could speed up the process.

I have read this entire thread that I found while internet stalking my future agent Jodi Reamer. Not that I haven't already read everything out there on her...sometimes I am bored and like to read it all again as I imagine her frantically trying to reach me after she has read my ms. I mailed my query and first 10 pages to her on Jan. 5th and had a partial requested on Jan. 20th by her assistant. He did say at that time that it would take a month or more to receive a response.

I sent a reminder about a week ago (took advice listed on Nathan Bransford site. I am lurker there.) and the assistant replied that she is so busy at this time that she has not had a chance to read it but he very politely assured me that she would and then get back with me. This waiting is killing me!!!

Marsha29 said:

I sent a reminder about a week ago (took advice listed on Nathan Bransford site. I am lurker there.) and the assistant replied that she is so busy at this time that she has not had a chance to read it but he very politely assured me that she would and then get back with me. This waiting is killing me!!!

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Yup, someone else recently received the same message when she did a status query last month. There's a bunch of us still waiting from the same time frame that you sent yours in. We've all started querying other agents in the meantime. We suspect she isn't actually looking to add to her client list right now, but is stockpiling our partials. This isn't great news for those individuals who queried Jodi first and now want to try someone else in the agency. They don't want to take the risk no one else will be interested. Sorry the news isn't more positive, but at least you're not alone in the wait.

I finally dropped Maya a line, after 8 weeks,to see where she was in her process with my full and she sent me back a fairly prompt rejection. Rats. On to the next agent...

Tuuli said:

We've all started querying other agents in the meantime. We suspect she isn't actually looking to add to her client list right now, but is stockpiling our partials.

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So you think I should start querying other agents too then? Even though Jodi likes exclusives? She was my first choice and a perfect fit for me but after much research I think I have a few other options.

Marsha29 said:

So you think I should start querying other agents too then? Even though Jodi likes exclusives? She was my first choice and a perfect fit for me but after much research I think I have a few other options.

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No. If you sent it to an agent with the understanding that it was an exclusive, you wait. If you can't, then you withdraw it from consideration and then query elsewhere.

Every once in a while you hear about people who game the system and win. But what both agents and publishers want is an honest working relationship with their authors and if you submit other places when you'd agreed not to, they'll question how honest you'll be as a client.

I know it's hard to wait. I've done my share. But pushing too hard too quickly may precipitate a rejection that otherwise might be a "maybe". I said earlier I wait a minimum of 12 weeks, but that's an absolute minimum. Mostly I wait a good 6 months.

ETA: I just want to clarify. After 12 weeks, if I haven't heard anything, I'll send a note (email or snailmail, depending) to ask if they have received it. I'll wait 6 months before saying, "You've had my partial for a while now. What do you think?"

Marsha29 said:

So you think I should start querying other agents too then? Even though Jodi likes exclusives? She was my first choice and a perfect fit for me but after much research I think I have a few other options.

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But you don't have an exclusive on your partial with Jodi, do you?

Wait if you want but lets put it this way. Jodi expects that you are sending out queries to other agents (just not at WH). If you get an offer, great, she might be interested to read your partial or full. Obviously it must be good because someone else wants to rep you.

Believe me, we all think Jodi's a perfect fit for us. But just because you think you're a perfect fit for Jodi, the feeling might not be mutual. There's hundreds of stories on AW of writers who've had requests for fulls only for the agents to reject them. Several agents may request your full and only one or two (or none) might like it. Don't put all your hopes on Jodi. You might be disappointed if you do.

And if you do have a full or partial out when Jodi requests a full, that's okay, she'll still accept it. That happens quite frequently. You just let her assistant know that that's the case.

Let me clarify. Jodi (her assistant) requested a partial and I sent it letting them know that under the WH guidelines I understand they like exclusives so I would hold off on sending to other agents until they had a chance to review and make a decision. This did not seem like much of a sacrifice because her assistant said Jodi's average time to respond is a month. So I am voluntarily in this position and grateful to be in it by the way. At least they liked the ms enough to want to see more.
When I say that Jodi Reamer is a perfect fit for me I meant only that she specializes in the genres that I prefer to write in. I want someone that can handle it all for me. I am hoping I am perfect fit for Jodi. Thanks for the advice. I think I will hang on a little while longer and see what happens.

Who is good for young adult/commercial fiction? I want to really try Jodi, but if she's super busy, I don't want to have to wait around forever for her to get back with me.

christinalbarr said:

Who is good for young adult/commercial fiction? I want to really try Jodi, but if she's super busy, I don't want to have to wait around forever for her to get back with me.

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Daniel Lazar is super fast, so is Maya Rock

christinalbarr said:

Who is good for young adult/commercial fiction? I want to really try Jodi, but if she's super busy, I don't want to have to wait around forever for her to get back with me.

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You might also want to try Lindsay. She's made some impressive sales lately. I'm assuming you mean commerical fiction for YA. If you mean for adults, then skip on Lindsay since she reps only kids stuff.

Hi, All:

I'm a newbie to the AW, but I've been reading through this thread. I submitted a query for my YA novel to Jodi Reamer over 8 weeks ago. Her published response time is 6-8 weeks. Is it acceptable to move on to querying other agents at Writer's House at this point? Would I mention that I previously submitted to JR without a response?

Thanks!

coryleslie said:

Hi, All:

I'm a newbie to the AW, but I've been reading through this thread. I submitted a query for my YA novel to Jodi Reamer over 8 weeks ago. Her published response time is 6-8 weeks. Is it acceptable to move on to querying other agents at Writer's House at this point? Would I mention that I previously submitted to JR without a response?

Thanks!

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I wouldn't send it to anyone else at Writer's House until I got a response from Jodi. If it's just a query and not a submission with some exclusivity attached, there's no reason not to submit it to other agencies, though.

Roger Carlson's right. Twelve weeks is a better minimum than eight -- and do try to bear in mind that it's a minimum.

Thanks for the quick response, Roger and HapiSofi! I'll strive to be patient. This process is rough when you have no idea if the query was even received on their end. I have visions of it getting lost in the mail and wasting the last 8 weeks of worry waiting on a response (like many other writers on this thread, I'm sure). I will get to work on my next book as many of you have suggested and stop checking my email every ten minutes. Great thread, by the way - your comments have been very reassuring and illuminating!

So has anyone heard back from Lazar lately? Previous posts have shown he gets back quickly on fulls, but I haven't heard a peep yet - which may be good news.

Anyone queried Rebecca Sherman lately? Just looking for an approximate timeline for a response...

I'll echo the sound advice of waiting, coryleslie, before querying anyone else at WH. My query was sent to JR in mid-November, and I have not heard anything yet. Whenever I am tempted to query someone else at WH, I remember how awkward I would feel adding a sentence about how I submitted to someone else there but hadn't heard any response. Not sure, however, how long to wait before just assuming it's a "no, thanks." Especially since it was snail mail with SASE.

Mel A. said:

Not sure, however, how long to wait before just assuming it's a "no, thanks." Especially since it was snail mail with SASE.

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That's my thought, too. It's an awful long time to wait when you're not even sure it's been received. I realize I'm not there yet, but what is the cut off point? I might pose the question to Nathan Branford's blog and see what he comes back with.

Based on comments from Query Tracker, authors who sent out queries between some time in October and the end of 2008 have already received their requestd for partials. It could be that your queries were misplaced during the time Jodi was missing an assistant.

Mine was sent the first week of January, and I received the request 3 weeks later (took two weeks to get to me). Other authors who sent queries during that three month period received their requests around about the same time or a little bit later. Considering we've just entered the five month of 2009, you're probably safe to query someone else in the agency first. But you don't need to mention that you've already queried Jodi and haven't heard back from her yet. You might end up sounding bitter.

Good luck!

Thanks, Tuuli. I definitely wouldn't want to sound bitter, since I'm not at all. I just was concerned about not mentioning the prior query, on the very off chance that it's still sitting in a "maybe" pile somewhere (wishful thinking, I know)!

Mel A. said:

Thanks, Tuuli. I definitely wouldn't want to sound bitter, since I'm not at all. I just was concerned about not mentioning the prior query, on the very off chance that it's still sitting in a "maybe" pile somewhere (wishful thinking, I know)!

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By my calculations, you've been waiting about 23 weeks. I definitely think something's been lost somewhere along the way.

Yes, I think you are probably right. I've been querying a bunch elsewhere, but it probably is time to select another WH agent for my list. Thanks for your input!

Mel A. said:

I'll echo the sound advice of waiting, coryleslie, before querying anyone else at WH. My query was sent to JR in mid-November, and I have not heard anything yet. Whenever I am tempted to query someone else at WH, I remember how awkward I would feel adding a sentence about how I submitted to someone else there but hadn't heard any response. Not sure, however, how long to wait before just assuming it's a "no, thanks." Especially since it was snail mail with SASE.

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Hi Mel A, I also haven't heard back from Jodi, but I sent my snail query after yours--in early December. I don't know if mine could have gotten lost, too, as Tuuli mentioned, or if Jodi is just super busy and hasn't had time to answer ours yet. I'm tempted to email JR to ask, but I also don't want to bother her either. :-S I might wait until six months and then try to figure out what to do.

I haven't been posting on these boards in a long time, but I always appreciate everyone's feedback on agents! Thanks, everyone--and thanks especially to all the AW mods and CaoPaux and her awesome agent list!

budgie_brain said:

I'm tempted to email JR to ask, but I also don't want to bother her either. :-S I might wait until six months and then try to figure out what to do.

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Do not, for any reason, email her. She has an assistant who deals with the queries. If you are concerned your query has been lost then send her a status query by snail mail. Her assistant will look into it, not Jodi.

Good luck!