[Agency] Writers House

thanks, Ann. in my case, i've actually moved on to querying a whole different manuscript since i first queried Rebecca, and now i feel Steven Malk would be a better fit.

interesting that DrawsBooks got such a speedy response, though. congrats!

Sent a query to Al Zuckerman by USPS on 9/21 and got a partial request on 10/14. About three weeks - not bad. I only hope they read the partial as fast since the full is out with three other agents and a publisher!

Anyone have any experience with full manuscript response times from Al Zuckerman?

Does anyone know if Miriam Newman is still Merrilee Heifetz's assistant at Writers House? I've seen some comments on QueryTracker suggesting that Morris Shamah or (possibly) Sarah Nagel might be filling that role now. Does anyone know if Merrilee is still accepting e-queries through her assistant? (and if so who that assistant might be...?)

Chris

Hi all,

So, I have a bizarre situation. I was asked almost a year ago to work on extensive revision with a senior agent at Writers House. Three months into it, I got a phone call from the agent that basically said, "you're a great writer, and I want you to rewrite you entire book." So, I did. Six months later I emailed him the full manuscript. He responded within a week and said he was very much looking forward to reading it.

It's been almost five months and I've heard nothing. I've nudged, very politely, three times. Nothing.

It'll be the "one year" anniversary of my original query to him in two weeks. At what point do I withdraw my manuscript and go elsewhere?

Note: I rejected an offer of representation to work with this guy. He's my dream agent, but now I'm feeling as if he's too big/too busy to work with me. The whole thing is sort of tainted now, and I'm irritated that I turned down the other agent a year ago.

Thoughts?

Ouch. This is always the dark side of working with an agent at a big agency.
Individual writers can be lost in the shuffle.

It's not out of the ordinary for an agent to take six months to get around to a full or a partial, especially if they are really busy. At the six-month mark for the revised full, you might want to send him a polite note asking yet again about the mms' status.

How much would you have liked the other agent? Is that someone you might want to do business with? If so, you might contact that person if the Writers House agent doesn't get back to you. At the least, you might consider querying other agents with the revised mms. Writers House doesn't have an exclusive on it, they haven't offered you rep on it, and you're certainly free to take it anywhere you want.

how frustrating, Mccleark. i would absolutely be querying elsewhere by this point. if you get another offer of rep, you can nudge the Writer's House agent (if you aren't already completely soured on working with him). sometimes dream agents aren't as dreamy as we think - and there may be a much more responsive agent out there who might be at a smaller agency but would serve you much better. your manuscript must have great potential!

Thanks Filigree and JoyMc... frustrating indeed.

I'm at the point where I can't really do any new querying until January anyway- so I'll probably just wait it out and give up on nabbing him as an agent. I'll just go out again and find a new person, or approach the former agent who wanted to sign me within two days of reading my manuscript last year.

There is a double sword with having a really popular agent. This is true!

Thanks for your helpful words.

mccleark said:

Thanks Filigree and JoyMc... frustrating indeed.

I'm at the point where I can't really do any new querying until January anyway- so I'll probably just wait it out and give up on nabbing him as an agent. I'll just go out again and find a new person, or approach the former agent who wanted to sign me within two days of reading my manuscript last year.

There is a double sword with having a really popular agent. This is true!

Thanks for your helpful words.

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So very frustrating. Did you inform the WH agent that you had an offer of rep?

Oh yes. He knows I gave up an offer to accept his. More recently, I had an editor of a small press approach me and offer to publish my book. He knows this, too.

Well, if he wants the book, he'd better get cracking. With those offers in mind, if it were my book, I'd be querying other agents soon.

Filigree said:

Well, if he wants the book, he'd better get cracking. With those offers in mind, if it were my book, I'd be querying other agents soon.

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Now. Query others now.

I've seen it a thousand times, and anybody else who follows these boards has, too. Never put all your eggs in one agent's basket. Never stop querying just because you think your dream agent is interested. And unless the offer from an agent was an agent you really didn't want (which can happen, I guess) I'd have given the WH agent a time limit and if he couldn't meet it, I'd have gone with the other agent.

Snail mail query to Ms. Heifetz and full request by email about five days later!

*And she passed on my work. Good luck to everyone!

Well, somebody's awake over there! Great agent, if you can snag her interest. She gave me a personalized rejection about a year ago, that helped me iron out some problems with the mms.

FYI, there seem to be a couple of new junior agents listed on the Writers' House website: Brianne Johnson and Kristy King.

http://www.writershouse.com/content/about.asp

Johnson has a PM profile linked with genres she's looking for (mostly kidlit/YA) and query information, but I haven't been able to find similar info for King yet. I believe that she's Steven Malk's assistant in the California office.

Does anyone know if Writer's house has a "only query one agent at a time" policy for email queries? I know it's true for snail queries, but I can't find a definitive answer on their website about queries of the electronic variety.

A.P.M. said:

Does anyone know if Writer's house has a "only query one agent at a time" policy for email queries? I know it's true for snail queries, but I can't find a definitive answer on their website about queries of the electronic variety.

Click to expand...

Their submission page has this fairly clear statement, in bold:

Please do not query two agents within our agency simultaneously.

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I'm not sure why you'd think this doesn't apply to e-subs.

I snail mailed my full childrens picture book manuscript and query letter to Jodi Reamer at Writers House on 10/5/2011. It is now 11/22/2011 just shy of 7 weeks now, and still haven't gotten a reply. I'm going crazy! She is my top choice and I would love more than anything to have the chance to work with her.
Has anyone here heard back from Jodi Reamer after 7 or more weeks? I know it's typical to wait 6-8 weeks for a response but i'm beginning to go a little stir crazy. How long should i wait before accepting i wont get a response from her and move on to querying another agent?

The waiting is harder than I thought it would be.

you should definitely begin querying other agents. that doesn't mean you have to give up on Reamer - she does seem to respond eventually. but why wait? even if another agent leaps on your manuscript and offers immediately, you can send a nudging email to Reamer letting her know you have an offer on the table.

so start querying, by all means! and don't do your queries one at a time, either, or you could be at this finding-an-agent stage forever!

Thanks for the advice JoyMC. I guess I was a little worried that it would complicate things in the future if Jodi Reamer eventually decided she liked it and I had jumped on with another agent and regretted not waiting long enough or something.
I'll definitly start querying more agents now and hopefully get the ball rolling instead of waiting in limbo for no real reason!

Query others. If you get an offer, tell everyone who has the manuscript and give them a weekend or two to read and decide if they want to offer as well. They expect that. It's the way it's done.

Good luck!

Just got my rejection letter in the mail from Jodi Reamer's assistant. Bummer! at least I started drafting additional query letters!

Better luck next time i hope

glad you heard from her and got closure, though.

good luck with your future queries!

Update- heard from the WH agent's asst. on my manuscript he's been sitting on for five months and many days... two weeks ago she said he would be emailing me within the week. He never emailed.
I've moved onto querying others. I went and queried an agent who sent me the nicest personalized rejection letter, and within twenty minutes she requested the full. I'm withdrawing my manuscript from WH.

Be warned that if you choose to query a big agent, expect to wait a LOOOOONG time.

Still waiting to hear back on a partial after 6 weeks. Already got an offer from another agent at L. Perkins. I'm writing off WH.