[Agency] Writers House

Agent crush alert! Stephen Barr... awesome. Sent me the best rejection ever. He's one of those agents that you're like genuinely sad you didn't get to form a business relationship with them. For reals.

Sent query 1/31
rejection 2/1

Empress Awesome said:

Agent crush alert! Stephen Barr... awesome. Sent me the best rejection ever. He's one of those agents that you're like genuinely sad you didn't get to form a business relationship with them. For reals.

Sent query 1/31
rejection 2/1

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Yeah, he sent me an awesome rejection a while back. I really liked what he said and how he said it. Doing business with him would be a dream.

Do the agents at writers house who reply through assistants actually see all their own queries? or just the ones the assistants forward to them?

I suspect that the agents who have assistants that read queries do not see all the queries.

So what's the deal with WH with regards to what to send in query? It says synopsis on website but this is unusual, right? I'm also reading of people just sending a query with outline, or a query with 10 pages. Am thinking specifically of Steven Malk.

KookyKat, when I submitted to Steve, it was either query or query and pages, but I definitely didn't send a synopsis.
and they requested the full, so apparently that was okay!

GreaterGatsby said:

Do the agents at writers house who reply through assistants actually see all their own queries? or just the ones the assistants forward to them?

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GreaterGatsby, every time I've submitted to Writer's House I've gotten an assistant, never the actual agent signature.

I've wondered about this...If assistant Stephen B. rejected a query sent to Dan L., could you still query Stephen B for same MS? My guess is not to bother, that if he wanted to see more, he'd would have requested.?? What do you all think?

Erin said:

I've wondered about this...If assistant Stephen B. rejected a query sent to Dan L., could you still query Stephen B for same MS? My guess is not to bother, that if he wanted to see more, he'd would have requested.?? What do you all think?

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Yeah, there's really no point in querying an assistant separately after he/she has rejected your query on behalf of someone else. Sorry but, they've already read your query. If they wanted pages, they would have asked for them.

This happens a lot, you might query an agent but it's the assistant who wants to see more, usually because he/she is actively building his/her list.

Good luck!

Senora Verde said:

Yeah, there's really no point in querying an assistant separately after he/she has rejected your query on behalf of someone else. Sorry but, they've already read your query. If they wanted pages, they would have asked for them.

This happens a lot, you might query an agent but it's the assistant who wants to see more, usually because he/she is actively building his/her list.

Good luck!

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Yeah, I wasn't planning on querying the assistant (who is also an agent, by the way). Just curious if others thought the same.

You don't query assistants; assistants aren't agents. At WH, it's common practice to query the agent through the assistant's email. The assistant isn't reading to build their own list; they're reading to take some of the work load off the agent. They weed out the queries that are obvious no's so that the agent can focus on the ones that have potential.

Even if an agent from WH wants pages, it's the assistant that makes the request, not the agent him/herself. Jodi R. has the same set-up through her assistant Alec.

Do agents share assistants at Writers House?

Cyia said:

You don't query assistants; assistants aren't agents. At WH, it's common practice to query the agent through the assistant's email. The assistant isn't reading to build their own list; they're reading to take some of the work load off the agent. They weed out the queries that are obvious no's so that the agent can focus on the ones that have potential.

Even if an agent from WH wants pages, it's the assistant that makes the request, not the agent him/herself. Jodi R. has the same set-up through her assistant Alec.

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I'm talking about an assistant who's also newly acquiring on his own.

foliogal said:

Do agents share assistants at Writers House?

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Some do. I know at least Ken W. and Rebecca S. shared an assistant last year. Probably still do.

Sometimes when an assistant is being groomed as an agent they are actually acquiring their own clients, but they are clients that the agent doesn't want. I've seen this happen at several agencies. Perhaps the agent is too busy or it's a genre the agent isn't interested in. There are cases where assistants at Writers House are representing a few writers (under the agent's guidance).

But I think the answer remains the same. If the assistant had been interested they would probably have made it clear that they loved the work or something, and given you some clear reason to think they might be interested now, or would even have offered already.

Erin said:

I've wondered about this...If assistant Stephen B. rejected a query sent to Dan L., could you still query Stephen B for same MS? My guess is not to bother, that if he wanted to see more, he'd would have requested.?? What do you all think?

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Here's my take: When you sent your query, Mr. Barr was acting in an assistant capacity--he hadn't yet officially earned his agent wings, right? If so, I'd say you've got nothing to lose by querying him directly. I think that's the key here: Was Mr. Barr just the assistant, responsible for screening Mr. Lazar's queries, or was he officially a junior / associate agent who was given the green light to start soliciting clients when you queried?

I'm not sure how assistant/agent relationships work, so I'm just taking a guess here. TMK, the assistant sorts through queries and forwards ones that s/he believes the agent might be interested in, based on the agents taste or what the agent hopes to acquire for their list. I'm sure they also reject the obvious rubbish. An assistant isn't building his own list, but s/he might fwd something to the agent that they really like (and yet the agent could still reject it). (Side note: Check out Mr. Anonymous's post on Agency Internship; he shared his experience interning for a Lit Agency and he encountered this---he fwded a few queries he loved and yet the agent rejected.)

So, if Mr. Barr rejected your query on behalf of Mr. Lazar, that doesn't mean the project wouldn't interest him now that he's officialy an agent. After all, his tastes may differ from those of Mr. Lazar. What have you got to lose?

Good luck!

Thanks, Erin, for responding to my post.
Is there a list matching Writers House assistants with agents? Since the assistant is doing the screening, I would think such a list would be helpful to all involved. It would eliminate writers unknowingly querying an agent whose assistant has already rejected him/her on behalf of another agent.

foliogal said:

Thanks, Erin, for responding to my post.
Is there a list matching Writers House assistants with agents? Since the assistant is doing the screening, I would think such a list would be helpful to all involved. It would eliminate writers unknowingly querying an agent whose assistant has already rejected him/her on behalf of another agent.

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Theoretically the two agents could be looking for different things and would merit separate queries. Of course you could also assume that the asst would have given it to the appropriate agent no matter which one it was addressed to...

foliogal said:

Thanks, Erin, for responding to my post.
Is there a list matching Writers House assistants with agents? Since the assistant is doing the screening, I would think such a list would be helpful to all involved. It would eliminate writers unknowingly querying an agent whose assistant has already rejected him/her on behalf of another agent.

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Check their Publisher's Marketplace page. If they want a submission to go through their assistant, there's probably a note there in their submission instructions.

Good point, miamyselfandi. I guess it's impossible to know anything for sure when it comes to the query process. (Sigh)

Just sent a query to Jodi Reamer, will update if/when I get a response.

Jodi once asked me for a full. Heard nothing, then 'I'll get round to reading it' a couple of times and then I got another agent in the UK and thought I'd go with the UK agent (who has a relationship with CAA on the film side of things) rather than the US. Apart from my UK agent (NB I am one of her least famous clients on the basis that it's sometimes best to have the worst house in the best street) I have always been dismayed with the speed (or lack of it) that agents read material and it really doesn't have to be that way.

When I request something on the film side (ie screenplays), I generally read them as soon as I get them and they normally take me less than an hour. In other words, when I request something, I mean that I want it NOW which is why I'm requesting it NOW. In other words, I'll only request something when I'm ready to read it and ready means NOW, not in 2 weeks, 4 months or two years.

I appreciate a screenplay is 20,000 words and not 100,000 but I make that approximately 5 hours (maybe 6) to read a good chunky manuscript which should be possible within, say, 2 weeks?

Agree? Disagree? Do I get back into my enclosure?

Hillgate, you're assuming the script or manuscript lands on an empty desk with nothing ahead of it. The issue here isn't how long it takes to read a single manuscript, but how high the pile was before yours got added to it. Also, editors do a lot more as part of their daily job requirements than development executives who have more time to devote to reading.

miamyselfandi said:

Hillgate, you're assuming the script or manuscript lands on an empty desk with nothing ahead of it. The issue here isn't how long it takes to read a single manuscript, but how high the pile was before yours got added to it. Also, editors do a lot more as part of their daily job requirements than development executives who have more time to devote to reading.

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Nope. Dev execs hate reading.