Sour Lemon Pie
Registered
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2007
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 0
UPDATE: Just for kicks, a few weeks ago I used a different e-mail account and sent in the following query:
Name: Josh Sanchez
How Did You Hear of Us: Mwerk hell.
Title of Work: Hoppa Smirky Flirking Poop
Synopsis: Mwerk.
Has your Work Been Edited: Smoolapa oijjs certainty flocksure pinanten coolaiding slader.
Short Bio: Whentoes Sanchez flipristki centerop.
The response ten days later from Sherry Fine?
“Thank you for your query to the Screenplay Literary Agency. Based on your query form information we would like to see your work and learn a little bit more about your goals and your work. Would you please send us an electronic copy of your screenplay… etc., etc., etc.”
Someone really needs to shut these guys down.
Just a note to say thank you for your amazingly detailed, efficient and rapid service. When I resolved to get an agent this year or bust, I was prepared for the long haul. What I have encountered has been a whirlwind. I am sure that other agents worldwide will soon have to copy your submissions system as the model for a new industry standard, or become extinct.
I too wish to send in a personal comment on your delightfully refreshing acquisitions process. How different it is to be greeted with wit, intelligence and such a well thought out plan of action! Even if we go no further, I will send others to your company because I have such respect for businesses on the Internet that strive to give their customers the most efficient use of their time. I truly cannot see how one would not appreciate immensely, what you have put together and your commitment to those you do business with.
Please allow me to say thank you for accepting my work for review. I also want to thank you for your timely e-mails and information regarding publishing protocols. It is because of conscientious professionals in the industry like yourself, that allows perspective writers to have their voices and ideas heard. Once again, thanks in advance for your timely information and professionalism.
Jeeminy, I passed cloud nine so fast I hardly noticed it.I am so pleased and grateful to you folks and Louise of the critique administration. I thank the good Lord for the talent he has given me, but this is far more than I expected. I do plan to make the changes. Why not? I have already started and the difference is remarkable. Rewriting many scenes, booting out the cliches and tidying up the punctuation as well as adding many more words.
The advice and recommendations are well received. I will go at it like I'm killing snakes so should be finished in no more than a week.
p.s. You might as well get used to these long emails. Part of our filtering
process is to see if you actually read them <grin>. Why the long emails? If you will read them you will actually get a decent view of the agency
business and what we see from our side. We try to explain as much as we can along the way and I am always pleased when authors tell me that they enjoyed learning from these emails.
Please don't be upset because we use forms and long emails. I spend my time doing two basic tasks, 1) managing submissions and evaluations (currently about 3000 applicants a month), and 2) answering questions. If I can answer your question BEFORE you ask it, then the entire process will proceed much more efficiently.
As a corollary to that, if you want long-winded, personalized emails you
will probably not enjoy our process. If you are as busy as we are, and you pride yourself on operating efficiently (it is a business after all), then
you will enjoy how efficiently we focus on the point, and that is, whether
we can work together based on your writing and attitude.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WILL HAVE A MUCH MORE PERSONALIZED INTERACTION WITH OUR AGENTS IF YOU PASS THE EVALUATION PROCESS. This is the biggest complaint that we get and I wish I could spend oodles of time with each of you. I just can't. Sometimes it's like drinking from a firehose over here. So, please rest assured that there will be plenty of personal interaction with your agent but not with me. I am a real person, and I do look at every email. After that we have some pretty sophisticated tools for managing emails.
We have no way of even guessing how many later go on to get the editing service they offer. That would have to be pure cream for them even though I feel certain that even fewer of their marks opt for that. Because the price tag is significantly higher, it could equal what the critiques bring in. Wouldn't surprize me if they're drawing in ten grand a month.
I am soooo in the wrong profession.
Most of this is canned; they paste it together differently depending on the question, but these are all prepared responses.After confronting "Sherry" about being legitimate, this is the reply that I received. I will give them an "A" for effort.
After confronting "Sherry" about being legitimate, this is the reply that I received. I will give them an "A" for effort.
...
1) Please spend a minute or two asking them for concrete proof of their allegations or what they say. See if they will give you anything substantial. We have asked and never received an answer. I don't think they will either answer you or give you anything concrete either. I've seen their answers, there is nothing concrete, just allegations of more complaints from internidiots.
...
I'm so sorry that you find yourself in a conundrum.
As a writer, you really don't know who to turn to, and there is conflicting information everywhere.
Before you lose a real chance to move your career forward, please consider the additional information below.
Interestingly, we had a publisher make this comment the other day (remember, it's the publisher we care most about).
The publisher said, "the more they scream, the more we know you are doing the right things and forcing discipline and business reality on these writers".
What the publisher was telling us, was basically, "thanks, you're doing your job", which is weeding out the writers that won't get their work edited or brought to professional standards.
We get a lot of comments about how good a job we do, but of course, real writers and real publishers don't hang out on message boards.
Please, you owe it to yourself to take this one step further!
That data is so old, and so distorted by writers with an axe to grind, that I cringe when I hear a writer making a career decision from it.
You've been with us this far, and I think you will agree that we have treated you professionally and in a timely fashion.
Read what I say below and tell me if it doesn't make sense, and that it is worth your time to gather a little bit more info.
Let me tell you where that stuff comes from.
First, we insist on working only with edited work.
No, fools. There's an entire camp of people who believe that the "professional editor" scam is a scam. That a book that can be made publishable with editing will be edited by a publisher (at the publisher's expense!) while a book that isn't publishable can't be made publishable by any amount of "editing," professional or otherwise.There is an entire camp of people that believe that we should pay for the writers' editing.
If the writer's name is Hillary Clinton, we'll pay for the editing, but for a new author, we just can't afford it.
Also, because the value of editing and critiquing stays with the owner/writer of the script, even if we were fired, then it would make logical sense that the author would pay for editing.
The next group is basically just upset that they can't make it as a writer and they are spiteful and generally upset with the way the world treats them.
And to add to their angst, telling a writer their story isn't good enough to sell is like telling a parent that their kid is ugly.
And, when a writer is upset, they write hateful things.
We just toughen up and ignore them.
I suggest you seek real representation by a real agent.I suggest you do the same.
We used to try to set them straight, but it was a useless task.
We've tried to get these people into a dialogue.
Like the fact that Robert Fletcher is an adjudged scammer? That information?They just keep dragging old information around.
They talk about people and processes that are at least 5 years removed from what we do now.
Please read this and you will see what I mean. http://www.writersliterary.com/acquiretlag.html
Here is what I would do if I were you.
1) Please spend a minute or two asking them for concrete proof of their allegations or what they say.
See if they will give you anything substantial.
We have asked and never received an answer.
I don't think they will either answer you or give you anything concrete either.
I've seen their answers, there is nothing concrete, just allegations of more complaints from internidiots.
Then, once you've weighed all the facts and done your diligence, please feel free to return to us.
We are willing to work with new authors and that's what everyone holds against us (and unfortunately, new authors know less about the business than anyone.)
The same, and mutually!Good luck to you, really!
I hope you will give us a chance to prove ourselves.
(We won't waive our quality standards though).
And, one final thought. The people on the boards, even the moderators ARE NOT AGENTS. THEY CANNOT KNOW WHAT OUR BUSINESS IS REALLY LIKE.
They are writers who think they know, but they don't know, they can't, because they have never agented someone elses work.
Do you understand that if someone hasn't gone through the tribulations of being an agent, they really can't comment accurately on what being an agent is like?
So, tell me, "Sherry," what victories have you won? What have you actually sold, to anyone, ever? Is there any reason for anyone to think that you're "in the arena" at all?John Kennedy said it best....
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, if he wins,
knows the thrills of high achievement, and, if he fails,
at least fails daring greatly, so that his place shall never be
with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory nor defeat."
John Fitzgerald Kennedy