Soper Literary Agency / textnovel

Miss Plum said:

Beating a dead horse here, but . . .

I think Stan's doubters might be over-reading a tad. He doesn't have a lot of experience yet, but he needs to assure agent-seeking writers that he's got something to offer.

Click to expand...

Yeah, reading my post back, I realized I probably was being a bit dramatic. (Went back and deleted it - no point in starting a debate.) I still personally look for a bit more experience when I submit, but that doesn't mean this agency is off my list, just that I want to watch it a bit longer before I compose that query letter. Again, good luck to all those submitting now - may you have much success.

Anybody hear anything further on Soper?

Bumps.. Just sent in my query and am wonderin if any of you ladies who got full requests from him got a R or a offer yet.

I haven't heard a thing on my full.

He loved my full, and wants to talk.

Fantastic news! Good luck!

Congrats, ILS! That's FANTASTIC!!!! But what happened with A K A?

AKA is still my favorite agent. But, I'll talk to Stan. Why not? He said he has an idea to promote my novel.

textnovel.com problems...

I recently discovered textnovel.com, "a social network for authors and readers..." Basically you can post your story online and get feedback from other authors and readers, etc... Anyways I discovered and joined the site mainly to enter their 2010 writing contest which seemed pretty good to me. So I had to get an account, paste my story for all to see, and submit into the contest. Because it makes you submit one chapter at a time, and mine has 25, the whole process including creating an account took well over 2 hours. Boy was I excited. By the way, this all happened on August 5, 2010 - so two days ago.
Today, August 7, I log onto my account and find out that I am slowly disappearing (only I don't know it yet!). Part of the screen, like always, says: "Welcome! Kevin" because my user/pen name for the site is my name. I go to my story page where my stories are listed for all to see and it says I have none. None. None... Some mistake? I reload the page but nothing comes up. I go to my profile and find that I am now age 0 with no location on earth, no favorite books or authors, and nothing to identify me. Alright, so I decide to log out thinking something went wrong when I logged in and my information just didn't really load - I know nothing about computers besides that of minimal and basic things so this seemed like a good idea to me. I log out, type in my email and password and wait. A few seconds later the screen is redirected to a "new user sign up page" telling me that my email does not and has never existed. Now I can't login.
Basically I just want to make sure my story is alright since it's been in my possession for over a year now due to failure of finding an agent... I don't know what's going on. I emailed support at textnovel hoping they know something I don't. I just hope this all goes well.

Anyone else have this or a similar problem : ) ??? Thanks...

For those of you who shared my confusion about what textnovel.com had to do with the Soper Literary Agency, apparently the former site--which isn't currently loading at all for me, so perhaps they are having technical problems?--is a creation of Mr. Soper's.

Other info about the site suggests that it is a place where people can write and post "cellphone novels" and other shorter-form works, and where participants can vote on each other's work and where prizes are awarded.

iParkour, it's clear that there are some problems with the textnovel.com site at the moment (the pages I can pull up say "permanent fatal error" on them, never a good sign); perhaps you might follow up with Mr. Soper at his SoperAgency.com website?

Check the Textnovel blog for a recent post (today) for an update on the technical issues.

http://mycounsel.typepad.com/textnovelblog/

Just a bump...does anyone have any news about Mr. Soper?

--Dev

Dev- I don't have much news, but he was featured on a website where you could pitch to him. I did and was one of two chosen for full. (If I could do the banana dance people I would )

In my bio I forgot one tiny little letter that made all the difference in part of my credentials. He emailed me the other day and ask about it. I was given the chance to explain, thankfully. He also said he "liked my ideas."

Even though it was a short conversation he was very professional and allowed me to fix a mistake, which many agents would have said too bad.

His website says he has one sale, I believe a 3-book deal to St. Martins. Granted it's only one, but it is to such a major house.

I'm praying he asks for rep because he has taken me as a very professional and caring agent. Yes, he doesn't have a mile-long list of sales but he is new, so keep that in mind. It is always your choice if you want a new agent with little experience or not. For me, if he offers rep I have a list of questions to ask, of course.

I'll keep everyone posted!

Query stats: Pitch contest 12/13
Full sent 12/15

elindson:
His website says he has one sale, I believe a 3-book deal to St. Martins. Granted it's only one, but it is to such a major house.

Click to expand...

That sale was made last June and remains his only sale to date. Now, he only seems to be going for a year but one sale after 12 months of trading makes me wonder whether and how he's covering his costs at the moment and whether he's working at agenting full time or supplementing it with continuing to work as a lawyer. If he is (and I don't know - it's a question to ask), then why would you want a part-time agent?

Personally, given that he didn't work as an agent before and given that he doesn't seem to have made any further sales to date (despite saying here that he had been receiving requests from editors at other agencies) you have to ask whether it's better to try a more established agent or agency.

MM

I totally agree with you. And like I said, if he offers rep it is on the list. I keep a list of questions to ask so when I get the call I will be prepared. The number one question outside the standard "to ask the agent" question is his sales. DOes he have other clients? How many and what is he doing to place their books? I would contact those other clients and ask their personal take on him. If he doesn't have others I want to know why. One worry is if he is a part-time lawyer.

Thanks for your notes and concerns. If and when he gets in contact again, whether good or bad, I will post on here.

The reason I'm asking for news about Mr. Soper is that after looking over my full, he's emailed me. No offer of any sort (yet?), but he seems interested. Just curious about others' dealings with him.

Thanks,
Dev

Dev-what was the email about if I may ask?

Erika,

Basically, he just asked if the novel was still available, and asked about other pieces I'm working on.

--Dev

Hi guys,

I hope its not inappropriate to intrude on the conversation. I just thought rather than having you speculate about me, I would just disclose all the information you are asking about.

I am an agent on a part-time basis and do not attempt to hide that. I don't do it to support myself financially -- I do it because I love fiction and I really enjoy looking for the next great writer. I would love to do it full-time and if I could sell enough books, I would. But I try to sell books to national publishers and its a really tough thing to do with new writers -- which is why I'm still working on the next sale!

Although I do this part-time and don't live in New York, I haven't had any problem getting editors at the big houses to review the books I submit. That is because I am very picky about books I represent and I work with the author to develop an incredible query.

I would always advise writers to go with the best option they can find as far as an agent or publisher goes. If you can get a national publisher to take your book over a small regional publisher, you should do that! If you can get a prominent, well-respected full-time fiction agent in New York interested in representing your work, you should definitely seriously consider their offer. Neither of these statements imply that there is no room in the world for small regional publishers or for newer agents who love fiction.

Hope that helps!

Stan Soper

Took nearly 2 months for responding to query, but feedback on requested material came back within 2 weeks. The reply was detailed, polite, and helpful. Couldn't ask for more.

Does anyone know if Mr. Soper is still agenting? His website is out of date but still up.