Nelson Literary Agency, LLC (Kristin Nelson)

Queried 1/4
Rejected 1/6

Crzywritergrl said:

I would venture to say that after looking at all their books they've sold that pitching a book with a strong female character would grab their interest more than one with a strong male character. All my books have Male main characters and I have 100% rejection by them even though I fit their needs and criteria for SF/F.

I am NOT saying that this upsets me. In fact, It's nice to see agents so true to their personal tastes.

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I have a strong female protag and was rejected so...

My current mms has a strong female character and a well-developed secondary world. I guess it didn't grab her. I'd still query Nelson Agency in a moment, if I had an urban fantasy. It's not the book, since I've already got two partials out. Sometimes it's just not reaching that particular agent, and that's cool.

Filigree

ditto on the strong female protag and the rejection. And ditto that I would resub with a new project in a heartbeat.

She represents Jamie Ford, and his Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has a male protagonist.

I think it depends on what she's interested in, or if the story sounds good to her. Just because you have a strong female character doesn't mean it fits her list. Mine has a strong female character (and a strong male character), too, but was rejected.

But yeah, I'd query the agency again... well, it will be a while (just starting on my next project).

Queried Kristin on Feb 17, form rejection Feb 18 - at least it was quick!

I queried Sara on 2/22/11 and received a request for the first thirty pages today (3/1/2011). To comment on the above, my main character is male. Also, the book is YA contemporary fantasy.

And received a rejection on my partial today (3/9/11), but with some personalized comments. Basically, Sara complimented both my premise and my writing, but said that it was leaning a little too literary compared to what they typically represent.

I queried Sara Megibow on 2/9 and got a form reject 1 hour later. They definitely are on top of stuff and know what they want.

Sorry if this question's already been answered, but is a no from Sara a no from Kristen as well? I assume it is, but does anyone know for sure?

lloyddoblerrocks said:

Sorry if this question's already been answered, but is a no from Sara a no from Kristen as well? I assume it is, but does anyone know for sure?

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From what I've gathered, it's okay to query a different agent within the same lit agency after a rejection and a period of time has passed. I plan to do so with several agencies, but only after a complete rework of my query and a few months have passed. The problem is identifying if the actual agent you submitted to read and rejected your query or if they are pooling queries and/or using an assistant to go through them. The form reject I got from Nelson Literary had Kristen, Sara, and Anita (assistant?) in the signature. Also the email they use for queries is not addressed to a specific agent. That being the case, I probably won't query them a second time in regards to my current manuscript.

lloyddoblerrocks said:

Sorry if this question's already been answered, but is a no from Sara a no from Kristen as well? I assume it is, but does anyone know for sure?

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I specifically asked Sara that on Twitter, and she said it is.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I figured that was probably the case,but after reading this post on Kristen's blog

But back to what editors might want. From this email, it was nice to see that she was not looking for apocalyptic YA (she might be an exception there) but she’d love to see the following:
Southern-set novels
Novels with authentic characters that transform
Psychological thrillers
Mg horror (oh heck yes is what I say!)
SF (sweet!)

I was really hoping I could query her with my YA Souther-set novel Unfortunately it was already rejected by Sara, and I think it could've been b/c of the genre (of course like a day later, I found the interview where Sara specificallly stated they don't rep. mystery. It's not actually a mystery it just involves a little mystery...)

Oh well, I guess that'll teach me to pay more attention

Equeried Sara Megibow on 9th March. Request for partial (30 pages) received on 18th March.

Success at last! Here's hoping for a full request!

Congrats, Samara! They're a great agency. I hope you get that full request!

I e-queried Kristin Nelson on 22nd March.

Fingers crossed.

Marika said:

Congrats, Samara! They're a great agency. I hope you get that full request!

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Thanks! I'm still waiting. It's only been a week, but it seems like forever. Just had another partial request though, so that's good!

e-queried Kristin 23 Mar, received an R on 25 Mar. It was signed by both Kristin and Sara.

Full request from Sara Megibow on 5th April!

Congrats Samara!

Samara,

That's wonderful!! I'm so happy for you!!

Grats Samara

Thanks so much everyone! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this could be the one!

Oh my goodness, congratulations!! That's so exciting!

She rejected me on two separate projects the day after I sent the query letter.

Ah well. Guess it wasn't meant to be.