[Agency] Writers House

Kind of a newbie at querying writer's house. For those of you that queried Merrilee Heifetz about how long does she take to reply if she's interested? Roughly. Within 2 weeks? Months?
What has been your experience.

MadameApeFace said:

So, I queried Rebecca Sherman yesterday and got my R this morning, sent by her assistant (quick turnaround.) She opened by calling my writing "nuanced and interesting," which is wonderful, but the rest was pure form rejection. I'd love to think that my work received actual praise (takes some of the sting out of being told "no thanks,") but I'm not quite willing to believe it yet.

Anyone know if "nuanced and interesting" is a pro-forma compliment included in all the boilerplate rejection replies?

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Would love to say it's not "form" and to take heart from it... Except I just got the same one 10 minutes ago! Well. At least it was fast! And now I can say I've been rejected by one of the Biggest Cheese Agencies of them all!

On second thought, maybe only the second part was "form" and both your writing and mine are nuanced and interesting, MadameApeFace!

winterwolf said:

Kind of a newbie at querying writer's house. For those of you that queried Merrilee Heifetz about how long does she take to reply if she's interested? Roughly. Within 2 weeks? Months?
What has been your experience.

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My experience with Ms. Heifetz is a little dated, but her assistant is pretty fast in responding i.e., within days. At the time, I had several partials and fulls out and they were pretty proactive when I pinged them with my situation about an offer of rep. Hope that helps. Good luck!

EQ to Rebecca Sherman: 5/11/2013
Full request via assistant: 5/13/2013

YA science fiction 67K words

Update to say I received my rejection today (5/21/13). They liked the main character, the writing, and the narrative throughout, but found the ending hard to connect with.

A good rejection overall, as rejections go.

Thedrellum said:

The assistant's job is to screen for what the agent likes, so it doesn't really matter whether he does or doesn't like a genre. If he's doing his job correctly, and Jodie likes YA romance, then he will pass it on (assuming he thinks it's well-written, marketable, etc.).

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Coming in a little late, but the author I interned for last semester had a nice experience with Alec. The novel we sent in wasn't YA, and among other things that meant he didn't think Jodi would be interested, but he did suggest another agent at Author's House (Susan Ginsberg).

How to query agent, Jodi Reamer?

Hi y'all,

I am new here so maybe I am posting this in the completely wrong thread but still, maybe you guys can help me out

I want to query agent Jodi Reamer from Writers House but I am confused by the information listed about her in the two websites Agent Query http://agentquery.com/agent.aspx?agentid=444
and Publishers Marketplace http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/JReamer/

As you can read, in Agent Query it is said that she is Not open to email submissions. While in Pub Marketplace, she is asking for email submissions either to her or to Alec Shane.

So, my first question is:

1. Which website information is more recent and correct?


If Pub Marketplace is the recent one, another question arises.
Alec Shane is also listed in Pub Marketplace as an agent with the same email address.
So can I still query him on behalf of Jodi Reamer?
Should I write something like 'Query for Jodi Reamer' on the title of my email?
I am confused now

Thanks to you all for reading this long question.
And any ans will be greatly appreciated.
xoxo

If you search this forum for Writer's House then you'll find the thread that contains any info you need for them. I'm sure some of the people posting in that thread will be able to help you out.

The Writer's House thread is here - <snipped> I imagine a kindly mod will merge it.

If you click on Jodi Reamer on the About Us page at Writers House - http://www.writershouse.com/content/about.asp, the link takes you to her Publishers Marketplace page. That leads me to assume that's the info she would like used. That's just my assumption, though. Perhaps someone who's submitted to her will pop in.

ETA: A quick and easy way to see if anyone's previously posted about an agent/agency/publisher/other is to check the Index sticky here - http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=792 With all the info in there, I'm surprised CaoPaux's fingers haven't fallen off. It's a huge and most excellent resource.

At least judging from Query Tracker the majority of people are querying via email and some are getting requests.

Thank you all for replying so fast

I searched the Thread for Writer's House and haven't found the answer as yet.
I might post this question to that thread now and hope that someone who has queried recently will reply to me!

I've queried Jodi before and think I can help.

The Publisher's Marketplace page is Jodi's page, so always go with that over an outside source such as AgentQuery.

When you e-mail her the query, follow the instructions on the PM page and address it to Ms. Reamer. You'll get a reply from her assistant, but you're still ultimately querying her.

In terms of e-mail header, I like to use, QUERY: Title - Genre, but that's just my preference. Good luck!

Yay. Thank you LiteraryMouse

Sending my query to Jodi soon. I just have one minor question. I know you usually follow what an agent wants--materials-wise--on his or her PM, but Writers House's website (and 3 years ago, as a young writer, I called their front desk and someone there confirmed it--rookie mistake on my part) says you should send agents a synopsis. So should I send Jodi a synopsis even though she doesn't mention it on PM?

Thank you for your answers in advance everyone.

I. Am. Gobsmacked. (I have also always wanted to use that word.)

I just got my first Writers House request after querying multiple manuscripts and getting lots of amazing requests from other amazing agents. But I never seemed able to crack the WH code!

But I did it! Queried Brianne Johnson with my MG contemporary late last night and had a request for a partial when I got up this morning. I believe it was due to the successful use of a Harry Potter joke in my query (a reference to her PM listing) but I WILL TAKE IT.

Queried Brianne Johnson with my MG contemporary late last night and had a request for a partial when I got up this morning. I believe it was due to the successful use of a Harry Potter joke in my query (a reference to her PM listing) but I WILL TAKE IT.

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That's fantastic, best of luck! Writers House is one of my dream agencies (my dream agent there is Steven Malk).

Hey, everybody. I recently interviewed both Beth Miller and Brianne Johnson of Writers House on my blog. Maybe the interviews might be helpful!

Beth: http://amymnewman.com/2013/09/24/interview-with-literary-agent-beth-miller-of-writers-house/

Brianne: http://amymnewman.com/2013/01/31/interview-with-literary-agent-brianne-johnson-of-writers-house/

i sent Merrilee Heifetz a query out a couple weeks ago. haven't heard anything back yet. not sure if that means anything because from what i've read some people get responses from her in a day and others not for a couple months. so who knows.

Merrilee is presently at the Frankfurt Book Fair. It'll probably be a few weeks while she catches up with paperwork. So stay tuned.

form rejection in the mail today. only my 1st rejection, though. i'm sure there are plenty more where that came from. ha ha

Queried Steve Malk on 11/14 and got a full request that evening. WOW!! I'm ecstatic but full of dread and anxiety at the same time. I was so confident in the manuscript until now. I now am filled with this feeling of, "It's garbage, I need to scrap the whole thing." But I know that's just the anxious part of me. He obviously likes the concept and from what I can tell he's not afraid to get his hands dirty with a manuscript, so we'll see!

Does anyone know why Alec Shane is not listed on the Writer's House website as an agent, nor is he listed on Querytracker? Is there something I should be aware of before I query him?

He has a PM website: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/gylligann/

I think it's because he is still technically Jodi Reamer's assistant, and not yet a junior agent. He's building a list, and that's about it.

Because he's been with Ms. Reamer for a while, I'd say he has a pretty good pedigree. He's not listed on QueryTracker yet, though, and most of the links I find to him on-line as an agent are from last or before.

Just a few thoughts. Not sure if they help.

Queried Stephen Barr yesterday; would love to hear something positive (but not holding my breath).

Since this thread bumped up, following up on my request from Brianne Johnson in August. I nudged her with an offer a couple weeks ago. She immediately apologized, saying my partial had gone off her radar. She said she'd read within the week I'd given her.

She ended up writing me on the day I'd said I would give my answer, but since she hadn't upgraded to full, I already knew she wasn't interested. She was super nice, though, and said she hadn't wanted to leave me hanging. Said some really nice, encouraging things. I was left with a really lovely impression of her.