TriadaUS Literary Agency

[flygal716]

I, too, had a great experience with him. He was prompt in responding to my query with a request for a full, acknowledged its receipt, and then responded in a few days with a pass, but he was always attentive and encouraging. I'd try him again with something else.

[pavtbr]

I sent a query to Dr. Stender this evening. Has anyone queried him lately? I will post back once I receive a response, which will probably be quick if my experience is the same as everyone else had.
Bryan

[J.B.Kantt]

Originally Posted by pavtbr

I sent a query to Dr. Stender this evening. Has anyone queried him lately? I will post back once I receive a response, which will probably be quick if my experience is the same as everyone else had.
Bryan

Hey pavtbr!

Dr. Stender is known as being a VERY quick responder; he usually responds within a day or two, sometimes even within hours (and the website says he tries to respond within a week).

I queried him on March 16th (at 12:30am), and got a full request that same morning (at 8:42am). Haven't heard back on the full yet, but I'm in no rush.

[triceretops]

Uwe is very swift and attentive. I don't think he's ever had a bogged down e-mail box.

tri

[pavtbr]

He was quick. There was a form rejection waiting for me in my inbox when I got up this morning. Oh well. I continue onward!
Bryan

[J.B.Kantt]

Originally Posted by J.B.Kantt

I queried him on March 16th (at 12:30am), and got a full request that same morning (at 8:42am). Haven't heard back on the full yet, but I'm in no rush.

Haha, I think he read this thread yesterday or this morning, because I had a rejection on my full waiting for me when I woke up this morning.
This is my second FULL rejection this week (and another form one at that), so I'm trying not to get too down about it ...

[victoryn123]

Well, I am quite stumped then because I queried him on april 2, and still no response, and the first time I queried him was 6 months ago and never got a response either.
Does he have some kind of filter that wouldn't accept emails from yahoo accounts?

[Debeucci]

"We do not respond to postal submissions that aren't accompanied by a SASE and will not return any material unless a SASE accompanies the submission. Do not send personal checks, money orders or cash. Additionally, because of new postal regulations, we cannot use metered mail for returns. All self-addressed stamped envelopes must include stamps."

Admit it, you tried to send cash, didn't you?

[pavtbr]

Originally Posted by victoryn123

Well, I am quite stumped then because I queried him on april 2, and still no response, and the first time I queried him was 6 months ago and never got a response either.
Does he have some kind of filter that wouldn't accept emails from yahoo accounts?

Well my query was sent from my yahoo address. Maybe he is taking time because your book is that good...???

[ACROALL]

Send a query to Mr. Stender a few days ago, got a request for a full today (my first full, yay!) on a crappy query at that.

But, he didn't stipulate how to send the full, so I asked him if he'd like it by post or e-mail. Was that a rookie mistake? Uh-oh?

Hopefully he'll respond back soon!

[pavtbr]

Originally Posted by ACROALL

Send a query to Mr. Stender a few days ago, got a request for a full today (my first full, yay!) on a crappy query at that.

But, he didn't stipulate how to send the full, so I asked him if he'd like it by post or e-mail. Was that a rookie mistake? Uh-oh?

Hopefully he'll respond back soon!

Congrats!!! I think that's a legitimate question to ask if he didn't tell you. Especially if he prefers a certain file format for it electronically. Good luck and keep us posted!
Bryan

[ACROALL]

I'm so impatient. :-)

[Chumplet]

I had trouble with my email, too. He happened to see my dilemma on this board and invited me to try again. I used an alternate account & put my user name in it so he'd see it. All worked out. Sometimes those spam filters can be really aggressive.

[ACROALL]

Haven't heard back yet. On QueryTracker, a lot of people say they'll get R's next day (be waiting for them in their inbox upon rousing from sleep). Good sign or bad?

[underthecity]

You may have seen my posting on querytracker. He requested a full the same day, four hours after I queried him. He said "Please send me the full." So, I emailed it to him, and later I got a "Thank you." So, just email him the manuscript and hope for the best.

On a side note, he is notorious for fast rejections. My last novel I was subbing, I queried him and got a rejection in four minutes.

[ACROALL]

Four minutes! Wow!

Yes, he did respond with a thanks when I e-mailed him the full, so now it's just the waiting game!

[ACROALL]

Got a semi-form rejection from Dr. Stender this afternoon saying it was well-written, but he didn't "fall in love with it".

Sigh...

[underthecity]

I think we submitted right around the same time. I'm still waiting for a response. But thank you for the update.

[ACROALL]

Funny thing is...it was a form rejection. I wonder if mine just isn't good enough to offer feedback!

[J.S.F.]

Sent a query to Mr. Stender a couple of weeks ago and then he asked for the full. While I did get rejected--it sucks--he gave me some very helpful feedback which I've used. Not many agents will bother doing that so even though it was a turndown, at least it was a nice one and a helpful one at that.

[Stacia Kane]

What exactly is "misleading" here? He doesn't owe you a request just because your novel has an element that he's interested in. When you go to the bookstore do you feel obligated to buy every book with romantic subplots because you're interested in romantic subplots? Or do you look at the other elements of the novel as well?

A writer is not warranted anything more than a form rejection. Doesn't matter how strong the premise or writing is. For whatever reason your query didn't excite him. That's all. It may excite another agent.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but what evidence do you have that your work is strong? I ask because once you have 50 posts (and so have contributed to the forum and gotten to know us, and vice versa) you can post your query and a sample of your work in our password-protected Share Your Work forum (password is vista), and get some feedback on it. It's often immensely helpful to go ahead and offer feedback to others; read the critiques already there and see how they apply to your own work, and critique the work of others. It's a great way to get to know our members, and to learn about writing in general and your work in particular. (And the bonus is that after you offer feedback to people they're sometimes more inclined to offer it to you! )


I know how disheartening it is to get a rejection, especially when you really believed the book was a strong fit for the agent and you really believe in the book (which of course you do, or you wouldn't be querying it). Believe me. This is a tough and painful part of a tough and painful job; of course some of it is wonderful, but other parts are soul-crushing. Unfortunately, as Hyman Roth said, "This is the business we've chosen." And you will, as you go on, begin to look at it with more distance. It never gets easy but it will get easier, and as you learn more about the industry you'll feel a lot better about the whole thing.


Some agents get hundreds of queries per week. Most of them do, in fact. They don't have time to offer detailed feedback on all of those (since they're busy actually representing their clients), and even if they did what would be the point? What one agent hates another may love. What bores one excites another. Telling you what they think would improve your query only helps make it more tailored to them, and they already aren't interested for whatever reason. It may be the writing or story. It may be they already represent a similar book. It may be they have a pet peeve about characters who do X or Y. It may be any number of reasons.

Pretty much every published novel you see on the shelves has gotten a form rejection from at least one agent. Because just like you don't love every single book you read or want to buy every single book you pick up--even if it's in the genre you love--so agents don't love every single query they get or want to represent every single book they get queried for.

Here's what it boils down to: They're not interested. It's not right for them. It doesn't matter why. Another agent might be interested and might think the work is just right for them. Forget this agent and work on finding the one who is. (FWIW I don't believe Dr. Stender is particularly effective as an agent for fiction, anyway.)

And welcome to AW!

[Stacia Kane]

Goodness. In retrospect it seems that the fact that I had a beeping oven timer and a child asking for the sixth time in two days why we can't have a dog colored my tone a bit. My post seems to read rather harsher than I intended it, at least the beginning of that third paragraph.

I stand by what I said, but am sorry if my tone hurt or upset you, Rebecca. It honestly wasn't intended, and had I not been distracted and in a hurry I would have caught that and fixed it before posting.

[RM_Suma]

No harm done.

All the best,

Rebecca.

[James D. Macdonald]

Always assume good intentions.

And the only thing an agent or editor owes any of us is "yes" or "no" (and anything other than "yes" is "no"). We accept gifts with good grace, but we move along regardless.

[HoldinHolden]

First post here- I was searching around for info on Mr. Stender and landed here, so hello!
From personal experience, I queried him (nonfiction narrative) and got a response in 5 days asking if he could call me. We spoke on the phone about my project, and he requested a proposal packet. Sent it out and got a response in about 5 minutes thanking me for it. That was Friday, nothing yet. We'll see!