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[Agency] Inkwell Management

ILove2Write

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Congrats pollymilton! That's such an awesome feeling when someone wants to read your work. And she's such a big agent.
 

bunderful

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Me too! Thanks for the tip on her personal e-mail - I had only queried the general one at Inkwell...
 

pollymilton

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I've gotten two partial requests in the last 2 weeks but just can't help giggling to think of these nice women opening the actual document and screaming "my eyes! my eyes! why!"


But good luck to all of us, indeed.
 

angelfrancis

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I queried Catherine 1/20 and got an email this morning saying that it wasn't for her but she was going to pass it along to Charlie Olsen. Anyone have experience with him?
 

Kmarshall

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I was going to query them, but it doesn't look like they take fantasy.
 

Doobie Cantrip

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I sent an e-query to Catherine Drayton about 2 weeks ago and got a one line rejection this morning, no comment about passing it on to anbody else, then i just recieved another rejection from Charlie Olsen??? I know I didnt query him, does this mean that she passed it on to him for a look?
 

angelfrancis

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I sent an e-query to Catherine Drayton about 2 weeks ago and got a one line rejection this morning, no comment about passing it on to anbody else, then i just recieved another rejection from Charlie Olsen??? I know I didnt query him, does this mean that she passed it on to him for a look?

That's quite possible
 

Miss_Marcelle

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I queried Catherine 1/20 and got an email this morning saying that it wasn't for her but she was going to pass it along to Charlie Olsen. Anyone have experience with him?

Same here. I queried Catherine 1/24 and got the same email on 2/12 that she would pass it along to Charlie Olsen. I'm wondering how Charlie Olsen is too? By the way, this is my first post! Hi everyone!
 

bunderful

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Queried Feb 2, rejected Feb 10 - but I had originally queried at the main address and it did get forwarded to her because she responded to the forwarded query...FYI
 

Rowan

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Same here. I queried Catherine 1/24 and got the same email on 2/12 that she would pass it along to Charlie Olsen. I'm wondering how Charlie Olsen is too? By the way, this is my first post! Hi everyone!

His bio is here, from the agency website:
http://www.inkwellmanagement.com/about_bios.php?id=37
Charlie Olsen attended Rider University, where he earned a B.A. in Print Journalism. Prior to joining Inkwell, he covered a beat at a newswire in the District of Columbia and wrote for two newspapers in New Jersey.
 

LadyLex

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Welcome Miss_Marcelle! I am new here also!
 

LMILLER111

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From query to rejection in less than 4 days. Speed counts for something I suppose. :( ....... how do I make a face that cries?
 

pollymilton

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No no, there's no crying in baseball! No shame in getting rejected. This is an adventure.
 

Miss_Marcelle

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Thank you Rowan! And thanks for making me feel very welcome angelfrancis and LadyLex! And don't cry. I'm sure there is an agent out there who will love your work. Just keep trying! Rejections are a part of the journey.
 

Balthane

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Some stats for this one for Catherine Drayton.

Query sent 2/14
Partial request 2/17
Rejection with a note that she'll pass it to Charlie Olsen 2/27
 

DocsLadie

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Catherine Drayton

Hello! I am new here but not to Catherine Drayton, and thought you might like to hear about my own experience with her, which began when Inkwell was still the Arthur Pine Agency. I was, at the time, partway though a huge historical fiction and was referred to the agency by one of their bestselling authors. With a copy of the letter of recommendation (the only way to approach the agency, at the time), I wrote a query about my project and received a very nice letter back from Catherine, inviting me to send a sample of my writing. I sent the eight-page Prologue to my book, then waited – things were slower in the world of snail mail and paper submissions.


On a visit to New York awhile later (she was still living there then), I called to see if she had received my sample, and was told she had it but hadn’t had time to read but would do so immediately. “Call me back in thirty minutes,” was her suggestion – so I sat in my hotel, watching the clock. The good news thirty minutes later was, “You’re a really good writer. Can you come by to meet me?” So off I went to the Fifth Avenue offices of Arthur Pine and met the very lovely Catherine Drayton. She asked me to send her a longer sample – say one-hundred pages, and asked me not to show it to anyone else for a month. I could have flown home without a plane! A real New York agent liked my writing, and for a month after sending the requested hundred pages, I could pretend I was a real author! But sadly, my one month of bliss ended one day after she received my sample, when she called asking for the rest of the book – which wasn’t yet in a presentable form. So I went quickly back to work to finish what was to be Part One of a very, very long novel, and sent that 450 pages along. Back came her answer, “It’s great!” with a request for me to send eleven copies of the manuscript for presentation to the top eleven publishers in New York. Wow!


Well, sort of wow. As the story was overly long and I only had Part One of four parts finished, Catherine had suggested publishing it as a series instead of one book – but none of the editors who read it wanted to tackle it as the proposed three or four books. So heeding my agent’s very good advice (“slash and burn!”), I went back to the keyboard and finished the whole saga, then cut it down to one novel of a more reasonable size. It’s taken years – long enough for the Arthur Pine Agency to become Inkwell Management and for my favorite agent to move to Australia. Would she even remember me if I sent her an email with the happy news that our ill-fated book was finally done?


On February 8th of this year I sent an equery to Inkwell’s main address, and received a very nice reply from Catherine the next day: “Victoria! How nice to hear from you!” She asked me to send the final manuscript along, which I did on February 18th, and now I join the rest of you in waiting to hear what she thinks about my work. Just because she loved it once doesn’t mean she will love it now – or that the publishers will be any more willing to take on a still very large book. Submitting, like writing, never gets easier! Best wishes to all of us!
 

setchmo

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I queried Catherine 1/20 and got an email this morning saying that it wasn't for her but she was going to pass it along to Charlie Olsen. Anyone have experience with him?


I queried Catherine on 2/9 and got the same email. Have not heard anything from Charlie yet. Going to mark as no reply.
 

ronempress

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From one Victoria to another, Docs, I'm surprised they didn't want your historical saga as it was! It sounds like it was well-written (thus far) and they always say they want sequels! Sigh.

Well, good luck. You have made it obvious you're willing to work, so I can't imagine you'll have to wait much longer.

And on a completely separate note, Rowan, your Arabian is drop-dead GORGEOUS!! That's the sort of horse I used to dream of riding everyday. LOL
 

shari

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I queried Catherine at the Catherine@ address 2/21/11 and haven't heard anything. People here seem to be getting faster response times. Should I resend?
 

Carrie-Anne

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I sent a query and synopsis to them at the beginning of March, addressed to Kim Witherspoon, since I noticed that she was the agent for Julie Orringer, whose debut novel was well over 100,000 words and that told me that she was open to longer than average books. I got a reply from another agent in less than 24 hours saying he'd love to see the manuscript. Unfortunately, a few weeks later I got a rejection saying they found the story itself very interesting, and they admired my inspiration for it, but they weren't emotionally moved by the characters and so couldn't take it on. I wish they'd told me exactly why they hadn't felt moved, in case that's something I need to work on, but I thought it was nicer than a form rejection.
 

DocsLadie

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Still Waiting

Sent Catherine my manuscript February 18th, received a quick "Thanks!" the next day...and still waiting to hear more. It is a very long manuscript (450,000 words), so I figure she'll need at least two months to get through it, with the rest of her busy schedule. Noticed she just had a major signing last week. Go Catherine!