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[Agency] Writers House

houndrat

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I'm new here! I'm excited because I just got a request for a full from Maya Rock on Friday. I'm going to finish polishing it up and send it in on Monday, then fret for the next however many weeks it takes her to get back to me.

Does anyone know if she typically gives feedback on fulls? Thanks!
 

houndrat

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I know I'm new at this, but personally, if I don't recieve a response to a query within four weeks, I'm going to feel completely comfortable querying another agent at the same agency. I think the chances are slim that the initial agent is interested after such a long wait. And, on the very off chance the first agent comes back and requests a ms after the second one already has, I would politely inform them that I had taken their silence as a lack of interest and moved on, but would be happy to submit the full if the second agent passed.

I will probably only vary from this if their website said it generally took them longer to respond, and then I would give them that time frame.
 

JJPie

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Has anyone on here waited for longer than 3 weeks for a full with Daniel Lazar? The posts seem to indicate much shorter lengths than that. Thanks in advance!
 

Cyia

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I know I'm new at this, but personally, if I don't recieve a response to a query within four weeks, I'm going to feel completely comfortable querying another agent at the same agency. I think the chances are slim that the initial agent is interested after such a long wait. And, on the very off chance the first agent comes back and requests a ms after the second one already has, I would politely inform them that I had taken their silence as a lack of interest and moved on, but would be happy to submit the full if the second agent passed.

I will probably only vary from this if their website said it generally took them longer to respond, and then I would give them that time frame.


Part of this is probably okay, the other will get you stomped. If there's no communication after 4weeks (unless they specify a longer response time) you're probably all right assuming that no reply = no, and if the agency allows you to submit to others in the same agency after a reject then go for it.

However...

If agent 1 just happened to be a slow reader and contacted you while your query is in the inbox of agent 2 and asked for a partial or full, you're shooting yourself in the foot if you tell them to wait. You have no idea if agent 2 will respond or not and most likely what will happen is that agent 1 will either call (or walk to) agent 2's location and tell them you're a jerk and not the kind of client they want to get saddled with.

Send the requested materials to agent 1 and be grateful for the response even if it's slower than you would have liked - then, IF agent 2 responds, politely inform them of what happened:

"Angent 2:

I erroneously sent a duplicate query to two agents at your agency. (agent 1) has already requested materials and I don't want to break your agency policy by having identical materials with 2 agents simultaneously. I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

you"

It's better than ticking off an entire (BIG) agency, and if agent 1 does pass at this point, you've already made an impression on agent 2 that says you're professional and stick to their rules.
 

Tuuli

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I'm new here! I'm excited because I just got a request for a full from Maya Rock on Friday. I'm going to finish polishing it up and send it in on Monday, then fret for the next however many weeks it takes her to get back to me.

Does anyone know if she typically gives feedback on fulls? Thanks!

Usually Maya give form rejections. She's rejected mine with a more general comment--too romantic for her tastes. But she asked me to query her next time if I didn't find representation for my current project. That's an exception not the norm.

A lot of agents give form rejections on fulls these days because they've already spent long enough reading the ms, and they don't want to spending anymore time on it. Sometimes you get lucky and the agent will give you more feedback :). These tend to be newer agents. Maya is no longer considered a new agent, unfortunately.

See:

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/04/getting-call.html
 

Tuuli

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I know I'm new at this, but personally, if I don't recieve a response to a query within four weeks, I'm going to feel completely comfortable querying another agent at the same agency. I think the chances are slim that the initial agent is interested after such a long wait. And, on the very off chance the first agent comes back and requests a ms after the second one already has, I would politely inform them that I had taken their silence as a lack of interest and moved on, but would be happy to submit the full if the second agent passed.

I will probably only vary from this if their website said it generally took them longer to respond, and then I would give them that time frame.

Jodi had no assistant for quite some time, hence why her response times were much longer than normal. Also, this is conference season so response times will be longer as well. And of course, don't forget summer vacation season is quickly approaching. ;)
 

houndrat

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Cyia-
Oh, definitely if agent one somehow dug my letter out of the sludge pile and requested the ms before agent two, I would go ahead and send it to them, along with an email to agent two like you suggested. My scenario was meant to explain what I would say if agent two had already requested my ms by that point. But seriously--what are the odds of that happening? :)

And I think I've just confused myself with all this agent one and two talk. Argh....
 

houndrat

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Tuuli--You mean, the waiting time from hell is likely to be extended soon? Oh, goodie. :)

And this is probably OT here, but does anyone highly recommend the conference route? I'm a newbie in that this is the first time I've ever submitted to agents. I keep seeing that networking might help, though....
 

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Cheering you all on!
I wouldn't recommend querying agent #2 so soon after agent #1. I've had an agent request a full three months after I sent her my query. If the agent makes it known that a certain length of time is a rejection, that's another thing altogether though.

Writer's House is pretty good about actually sending rejections, in my experience. And they are an agency that you can query a different agent at almost immediately afterwards.

I've heard many good success stories by going the conference route. I'm pretty sure AW's Danthia got her agent through a pitch session. I know Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files, had several offers at a conference, including one by an agent who had rejected him a week before, after hanging out with a bunch of agents just friendly-like.
 

EgyptianGoddess

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Personally, I would wait to query anyone at the same agency until I got a rejection or at least 3 months had passed (no matter how you query, either by email or snail mail).

You can certainly go ahead and query as many agents as you want at other agencies. I'm seeing that a lot of people do that (as I do)......the only time you can't do that is if you've given anyone an exclusive. Then you gotta wait until that exclusive expires. And if you do give an exclusive, you need to let the agent asking for it know if anyone else has your full or partial ms (whether they asked for an exclusive or not).

I've been doing this since January now, and am still learning stuff. If I'm wrong about any of this, I'm sure someone will let me know:)
 

houndrat

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Thanks for all the info. Three months---sheesh! I wish my parents had given me an extra does of patience when they made me. :)

Also, I have a huge dilemma right now. Since I queried Maya with chapter one, I've made some fairly signficant revisions. When I send her the full on Monday, should I a) just send in the latest version and say nothing, b) send in the latest version and mention the edits, or c) send in the original verison and just make appropriate revisions to chapter two as needed for consistency?

I wouldn't be sweating it so much except the original version of chapter one was heavier on humor upfront while the newer version tries to jump straight into the action more (still with humor, just not as much).

Argh...is there somewhere here I could post both versions of chapter one and let other people decide? My parents apparently skipped handing down the decision-making genes, too.
 

wandergirl

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I've got to say, it took four months before my request from JR, and 2 to go from partial to full. Fast-forward 2 more months (I status queried early because of my weird situation, see upthread), and her assistant is giving it to her next week (screams silently). Honestly, I think with Writers House, it's just best to pick your favorite agent, cross your fingers, and in the meantime, spend your energy querying other houses. I know it's hard, because every WH agent is a rockstar.
 
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Tuuli

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Tuuli--You mean, the waiting time from hell is likely to be extended soon? Oh, goodie. :)

And this is probably OT here, but does anyone highly recommend the conference route? I'm a newbie in that this is the first time I've ever submitted to agents. I keep seeing that networking might help, though....

I'll be attending the SCBWI LA annual conference in August because it's a great learning and networking experience. For that one, there's a lot of sessions about querying and working with agents. Though I'm going there for the sessions on writing YA. My query is working really well. But I feel I can't learn enough about writing YA.

But each conference is different. It just depends on your needs. ;)
 

EgyptianGoddess

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Thanks for all the info. Three months---sheesh! I wish my parents had given me an extra does of patience when they made me. :)

Also, I have a huge dilemma right now. Since I queried Maya with chapter one, I've made some fairly signficant revisions. When I send her the full on Monday, should I a) just send in the latest version and say nothing, b) send in the latest version and mention the edits, or c) send in the original verison and just make appropriate revisions to chapter two as needed for consistency?

I wouldn't be sweating it so much except the original version of chapter one was heavier on humor upfront while the newer version tries to jump straight into the action more (still with humor, just not as much).

Argh...is there somewhere here I could post both versions of chapter one and let other people decide? My parents apparently skipped handing down the decision-making genes, too.


Well.....depends, had she seen a parital of that chapter before she asked for the full? I personally would send her the new one, with the NEW text highlighted as a change (you can track changes in Word)....that way, if she doesn't like the changes, you can simply delete them....and I would tell her that you've added/changed text, but it's highlighted so she can see what changed in the email/cover letter you send with the full. Know what I mean?
 

Saltier

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I've got to say, it took four months before my request from JR, and 2 to go from partial to full. Fast-forward 2 more months (I status queried early because of my weird situation, see upthread), and her assistant is giving it to her next week (screams silently).

Congrats on full from partial with JR!
 

Mel A.

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I've got to say, it took four months before my request from JR, and 2 to go from partial to full. Fast-forward 2 more months (I status queried early because of my weird situation, see upthread), and her assistant is giving it to her next week (screams silently). Honestly, I think with Writers House, it's just best to pick your favorite agent, cross your fingers, and in the meantime, spend your energy querying other houses. I know it's hard, because every WH agent is a rockstar.
Wow, wandergirl! Good luck with the full!
 

wandergirl

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Aw, thanks you guys!! <3
I honestly just wish she had my second book instead -- I'm so much more confident about it. Here's hoping the first is good enough for her to request the second.
 

Saltier

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Maybe if she doesn't end up wanting #1, she'll ask to see other works, and then you can send #2 - But I guess that would be hard because isn't there an agent waiting for #2?

How much more editing do you think you have on it?
 

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I got a rejection from Maya today. I was kind of sad, but I sent a query to Lindsay instead. I really, really would like an agent! I'm not going to give up on my book.
 

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Did you find out which agent to query via membership at Writer's Market? (My material isn't near completion stage so I'm holding off on becoming a member).

The reason I ask is that their listing in Writer's Digest Guide to Agents is vague. While it mentions that they're interested in the categories I'm writing in--romanace and erotica--they provide the names of agents representing other genres.

The website doesn't even list who you should query and I get the impression that you shouldn't bother unless you're already an established author. Still, their reputation is top notch. Though I probably don't have a good chance with them, I'm curious as to where I should look to find out more about this agency.

Like I said, I found the website not as revealing as other agencies. I can't get the links to publisher's marketplace with the agents names to work.
 

caromora

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Sundaysaid--try looking up the agents on Querytracker or Agentquery. There's lots of info on both of those sites, as well as links to their Publishers Marketplace listings. You can also google (also try Google's blog search function) the agents to find interviews with them. That will give you a good idea of the agents' personal tastes.

And you absolutely don't have to be an already established author to sign with them--you just have to have written a damn good book. But you need that to get any agent, not just one from WH. :)
 

Barbara R.

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Hey guys-
I was jsut wondering what y'all know about writers house, especially if y'all have any personal experience with them.
Thanks!:D

Highly respected in the industry. It would be tough for a newbie to snag Al Zuckerman---he's been doing this forever and his dance card is probably full. But I wouldn't hesitate to try any of the other agents in the house.
 

coryleslie

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Hi, everyone:

I sent my query to Jodi Reamer in early March. I did email her for query status and got a very nice response from her assistant.

"Thanks for checking in. In regards to your manuscript, Jodi has not yet had a chance to read your submission. She has been extremely busy as of late and actually has not had the opportunity to evaluate potential clients for some time. We ask that you continue to be patient, and know that Jodi will give you the time and respect you deserve as soon as she possibly can.

Thanks again for following up."

Thought this might help all those out there who are waiting on responses from her.
:)
 

MissKris

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Mr. Getzler requested a partial from me late last year. After 90 days, I sent a flwp asking for its status. Yet another month later, and still no reply. Seems like Mr. Getzler may be of the legions of agents who relies on silence as a "No." Too bad. I have another prominent NY agency reviewing my full manuscript. Should they bite, it'll be Writer's House loss and the other guys' gain.

Hi Angkor! I was wondering if you ever did hear back from Josh? I had a partial requested back in Feb. and he said he hoped to get back within six weeks. No word yet on the partial or on the status query I sent at the seven week mark. I also never heard if he even got my partial, since he didn't reply that he did (although since we were replying to each other on the same e-mail, I can't imagine it got lost). I'm surpirsed that he wouldn't respond, even with an R - he seemed really nice. :Shrug:
 

Blind Writer

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I never did hear back from WH--either Maya or Daniel. I had some email failure during that time, though, so I'm going to chalk it up to that.
In my case, it worked out for the best, but I wish all of you subbing to them great luck!
Amy reps Laurie Halse Anderson. Yeah. That' says it all. Obviously WH is awesome, so good luck!