[Agent] Rachel Coyne (nee Vater)

Way to go Toni, congratulations, lady!

Thanks for all the well wishes, guys....

Keep on believing and trying and the same thing can happen to you. Last year at this time i was pretty discouraged, but I had this idea for a book that i thought was pretty commercial viable and a friend of mine just encouraged me to keep on going. It can happen!

Woo-hoo!!! Huge congrats to you, Toni!!

-hopeful

That's huge, Toni. Strut! You deserve to.

kap

I am represented by Folio Lit Agency; but by a different agent. I can assure you that Rachel is an excellent agent and that Folio is an excellent agency.

Good luck.

For me, Ms. Vater had an ungodly quick turn around time. I queried her via e-mail on a non-fiction proposal about a certain condition that I have that I'd like to help others with (it was a self-help book, obviously), and I received a response in less than twenty-four hours.

She said she didn't think a self-help book would sell very well since I don't have professional/medical credentials, but she did say she was interested if I was willing to turn the subject of my condition into a memoir or novel, and that once I was done, I was to query her again and she'd request it.

Needless to say, that definitely got my butt in gear.

I hope this is a good sign!

Project nachonaco said:

Hey guys, another question:
She's still on my list.

From reading her blog, it looks like SOMETIMES if it's something she normally wouldn't handle, she might take a glance at it and maybe risk it....

Is this true?

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Absolutely! She told me that my book wasnt' quite what she was used to repping, but she loved it so much she decided she would. I can tell you that Rachel absolutely reads all her queries and she gets very involved with her authors.

mpinsky said:

For me, Ms. Vater had an ungodly quick turn around time. I queried her via e-mail on a non-fiction proposal about a certain condition that I have that I'd like to help others with (it was a self-help book, obviously), and I received a response in less than twenty-four hours.

She said she didn't think a self-help book would sell very well since I don't have professional/medical credentials, but she did say she was interested if I was willing to turn the subject of my condition into a memoir or novel, and that once I was done, I was to query her again and she'd request it.

Needless to say, that definitely got my butt in gear.

I hope this is a good sign!

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Sure is

Don't be afraid to re-query

For those who queried Rachel months ago and have not heard, don't be afraid to requery. sometimes those equeries do get lost in cyber space.

The query i sent to her, the one she requsted my manuscript from was the third query. she rejected my first and never saw my second, although in the third i did change the book title and I put that in the email header.

hope that might help someone.

She rejected me about a month back--remixing her form letter to drop a few praises on the premise, etc. (something her blog says she rarely does, so it took an effort not to get too emo).

LOL, now I've queried someone else at Folio, and he's replied to tell me he's forwarded it to Rachel, that it's something which would interest her. Funny, right? Wouldn't it be even funnier if having it forwarded to her attention by a coleague drilled the idea of my book into her head?

Oh, to dream big!

Barber said:

LOL, now I've queried someone else at Folio, and he's replied to tell me he's forwarded it to Rachel, that it's something which would interest her. Funny, right? Wouldn't it be even funnier if having it forwarded to her attention by a coleague drilled the idea of my book into her head?

Oh, to dream big!

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hey, you never know. I know she reads all her referrals. Good luck to you!

Hello I'm new here but I have a partial out with Rachel Vater right now and she has had it since April. I'm not sure if this is good news... or bad news But I am keeping my fingers crossed. I was just wondering if anyone had any recent information on her since I'm not sure if I should requery just yet. Thanks!

She usually replies rather quickly. Assuming you sent the partial about 8 weeks ago, I think you should send her a polite status inquiry email.

Thanks for the quick reply I sent her a status query about two weeks ago now, when she had my partial for two months, and haven't heard back. I'm not sure how long it takes her to respond to a status query but I'm worried it might have been lost in cyber space.

Does anyone happen to know what her current turnaround time is on queries? I've had one out for longer than two months, and I fear it's been sucked into a spam filter somewhere.

Five days from query to "Dear Author" form rejection. Your query might have been lost in spam. I'd try again.

I've tried twice in the past six months and haven't heard either time...it's okay. I know she's busy. I'm letting it go

Hope yours has better luck!

Yeah, I know that she has been busy. It's good to know that I'm not the only one. But I figured since I have a partial with her that I would have heard back by now. I think that if I don't hear back in about a month I will requery.

Hi Everyone--I just got the nicest possible rejectin from Ms. Vater today. She asked me for revisions of the mss based on the query and first page. No problem. I'd delighted to have the chance to revise and resubmit.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Any advice?

Thanks!

No advice, other than to say that was dag gum nice of her. Why oh why couldn't I have gotten requests for revsions two years ago when I was going after agents? If anything, the agent submission process sure has improved since then.

Tri

congrats toni! I love Rachel Vater and would like for her to represent me one day.

I was wondering if you can give me some advice. I am only 18 years old and have no professional background in literature. I have written several manuscripts, but haven't considered publishing any of them until now. How can I convince an agent to consider my work when I don't have an impressive background? Will my age effect anything?

Thanks and hope to see your book come out soon!

Hey, Sunnyxlove, I'm 22, which isn't that far off from 18. LOL. Actually, that would differ upon any given opinion, but anyways...

I would leave age out of a query, as well as any mention about having no background. While there are some people who like people young, there's also some agents who feel a bit wary for young writers, thinking that they don't yet have enough potential for the publishing industry.

Anyways, here's a question of my own:

Judging from what people have said about Ms. Vater's quick turnabout with queries, I've queried her on the 15th this month, but I haven't got a reply yet...should I give it another few weeks, or suppose it got vacuumed into her spam and resend the query?

Resend, Fionn, and state so in the subject line. Rachel has blogged on this.

I would wait a couple more weeks. She says on the website that she usually responds to e-mail queries within a month and snail mail queries within six weeks. If you just queried her on the 15th, she's only had it for about two weeks.