Johnson Literary Agency (formerly Caren Johnson Lit. Agency)

fificolston said:

Hey everyone- I only pointed you to my blog so you could have a laugh. I point people to it for my illustrations as well. Sorry if the irony missed you.

[...]

But if you are in the business of trying to get an agent in the States, I guess that makes it all pretty serious. I am not (serious or trying hard to get a NY agent).

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I think the irony missed us, and it only grows more confusing in your last post, is as to why you would submit to an agency when you already have an agent, and as to why what is supposed to be a business transaction is supposed to be funny? If your post is simply meant for a laugh and not a true record of a serious business transaction, why attach to it to Caren Johnson Lit?

caren johnson and nudging

Hi Guys,

I queried CJ in February and received and immed. req. for pages. Waited ten weeks and checked in. Was told that she lost or couldn't read file of pages would I pls. resend? She said do not chide yourself for checking in. You are simply following up on your work. So I resent the pps. She confirmed that they came through fine. That was April. Which according to my math is now going on 15 weeks ago. I got back to her mid-June to see what was going on. No answer. So...Maybe the wicked fairy of queries has sprinkled icky dust on it, or CJ hasn't gotten to it and can't respond, or, or....I teeter between moving on and nudging her one last time. Actually I have moved on. Two other agents are reading either full or 100 pps and a third will read but only with an exclusive. I figure CJ's not the one for me. But I might nudge her anyway just for the thrill of it. I'm sure she's a great agent. We've just got a disconnect.

As for patience in this wait. Querying is like being on a hamster wheel. You just keep going. But be sure you get off, too. For food, water. Which for us wordsmiths is putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and writing.
Best of luck to us all.

why you would submit to an agency when you already have an agent,

why attach to it to Caren Johnson Lit?

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Thankyou for your insights Alex- I have an agent yes, and she mostly deals with childrens book stuff for me. I approached Caren through a chance stumble over her blog-directed there by a friend. I didn't see any submission guidelines it was a general call for new work. I guess I could have done some homework but but I did, in my Kiwi naievity think you could actually start a conversation first before submitting. Thats the way it works here. It seemed to me that it was an automated e-mail rejection. Someone asked at the start of this thread if anyone had had any dealings with her agency and that was mine. I am sure others in the world have had the same and yet others have had a great/good experience. I try to find the funny side of life's downsides and the downside of this was that it seemed pretty hard to even make e-mail contact with an overseas agent. Apologies everyone. Seems my humour was misdirected. There- have I fallen on my sword enough yet? Over and out (of here...)

Hey Fifi-

I got your irony, but then I'm an Aussie and our sense of humour is very similar. It even made me giggle.

churchillgirl~

Caren is my agent, and I just wanted to let you know that the CJLA is closed for vacation until Sept. 2nd. I know how hard waiting is, and I hope this info will alleviate a little of the tension for now.

Best of luck in your agent search

Lee Ann Ward

Anyone heard anything recently? I noticed there have been no blog posts since July.

I've had a sub out since April. Nudged in July and got a nice reply stating they were behind on their reading. Just wondering if anyone else has gotten responses...of any kind...

I just got a form rejection from Caren this week. The query was sent 8/3.

dolores haze said:

I just got a form rejection from Caren this week. The query was sent 8/3.

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What email addy did you use? I just tried to send to [email protected] and it bounced back immediately. So I just resent to [email protected] which I found on Publishers Market. I thought the cjohnson was the old one and the submissions was the new one. Any info anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Oh and Aug 3 was my b-day...sorry it didn't bring you any luck.

Thanks!

Rosepuddle

I received a request for a partial on 8/9 and the e-mail address they used was [email protected].

Hope that helps.

Mrs. Strange said:

Rosepuddle

I received a request for a partial on 8/9 and the e-mail address they used was [email protected].

Hope that helps.

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Thanks. I havent had anything bounce back from the cjohnson addy but I'll keep this one as a back up. Thanks!

I sent 2 requested partials 06/23 to the cjohnson addy. After seeing on her blog that she'd had email troubles around that time, I sent a follow up email Friday and had a response Monday asking me to please resend to the new gmail account. She also posted a new blog to that affect.

Wonderful to hear back so quickly...but back to square one wait-wise. *sigh*

Okay folks, it's been over a month. Who's got good news or any news from this agency?

Anyone hear back from Rachel Downes lately?

She just asked me for 3 sample chapters and a synopsis 10 days after my e-query and sample chapter. Someone tell me something good.

Ah, man! Was my initial query really that long ago? I have since contracted one of the partials I sent to an exciting new division of Hades Publications.

Guess I should think about sending a fresh query or two for the other project. At this point, I feel safe assuming her no response is a no.

Lainey (I love that name!),

So you sold directly to a publisher sans agent? Where's the fun in that? Just kidding. Congrats on the sale!

Nothing from CJL after one month?

T'anks, Jimmer! That part of the 'name' is actually mine.

Fun? Is this supposed to be fun? I must have missed that seminar.

Actually, I'm looking at more than a month. Five weeks. But who's counting?

When I followed the site given it was click and go to new site, which everyone maybe getting but I thought I'd post it in case the transition directions on the old site disappear into hire this cyberspace.

http://johnsonlitagency.wordpress.com/submitting-to-cjla/

Clicked it, it worked for me for now.

S

Thought I'd share my weird experience. Queried at the beginning of April and got a partial request within 24 hours. Yay!

In mid-June I status queried. Got a lovely same day response saying she was behind on her reading but was looking forward to getting to it. Yay!

In September, still no response, I did some requested revisions for another agent, thought it strengthened my submission and resent it to Caren, forwarding the original materials request email to the new gmail account listed on their website. Yay!

A week later I got the form query rejection - definitely the generic query rejection - from the new office assistant. I replied asking if this was on the partial.

No response.

Sounds like they went through a major personnel transition and my submission got lost in the shuffle. Oh well. Chalk it up as a loss and move on.

Blondchen,

Stories like yours, however sad, seem to happen all the time. I often try to see things from the other side.

Imagine an agent with a massive pile of submissions in front of them. Imagine that they know maybe one out of a thousand are worth their time to even read much less consider as clients. Imagine they are changing office locations or personnel. It would be very easy, however unprofessional and unfair, for them to, er, "lose" that particular pile.

I'm not sure it's always an accident. They might figure the highly motivated writers will probably follow up and resend their mss. They might figure the ones who don't are just out of luck. It might just be one more way they have of sifting through the slush.

Or maybe it was just oversight. I don't know.

I queried Rachel Downes on Oct. 21 and got a request today for the full proposal and 50 sample pages of my non-fiction book. In her e-mail, she said she would review it immediately, but added that her review could take up to 8 weeks. Given all the requests for partials that ended in rejections with that agency, I'm not getting my hopes up. But at least they are making decisions based on real writing, not just on query letters. Gotta respect that. A lot.

happywritermom said:

I queried Rachel Downes on Oct. 21 and got a request today for the full proposal and 50 sample pages of my non-fiction book. In her e-mail, she said she would review it immediately, but added that her review could take up to 8 weeks. .

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Her email to me said the same thing. I thought it was kind of funny. I will review it immediately. Then, in the next sentence it says reviews may take as much as 6 weeks. I thought maybe it was a typo or something.

One thing I've learned.....never get your hopes up. Never. It's fun to be in the game though.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one. I sent my query in April and received a partial request three days later. The request said it could take up to ten weeks to read. I waited until July to follow up and make sure she received it. She did and said she'd get back to me soon. I followed up again in September because I was ready to query another novel, but she never responded to that e-mail. Now, I really don't know what to do. Maybe one last nudge? I just don't want to be annoying.

Brimfire,

Life goes on. I'd move on. I wouldn't want an agent that failed to respond as promised, would you?

Jimmer said:

Brimfire,

Life goes on. I'd move on. I wouldn't want an agent that failed to respond as promised, would you?

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Ditto! I know I am completely wet behind the ears (only about six agent queries out there to date) so I might change this mindset down the road, but I really don't intend to 'hard chase' anyone.

A follow up to insure they received the material? Sure. But, yeah, if they can't even find the time to respond to a properly submitted query in their own stated time frame?

Jimmer said:

Brimfire,

Life goes on. I'd move on. I wouldn't want an agent that failed to respond as promised, would you?

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Hmmm.... That's just it. I know their clients come first, but to not answer on partials or fulls, or not have an assistant.... I'd worry about the communication if that agent were mine. One thing about my first agent, he got back to me on the partial, the full, and for the almost two years of me being his client, emails were replied to within a day, even if it was just an "I'm out of the office" auto-reply.

There's an agent who is (more of a "was" now, I think,) highly respected, but you couldn't get a reply unless nudged. And that was even with her clients.

I have this recurring dream. The phone call goes something like this:

Agent X: I just got to your manuscript (6 months after submission) and I loved it! I'd really like to offer representation. I think I could sell it as is.

Me: Oh, so sorry. I accepted Agent Y's offer 5 months ago. She's already had an auction.

Agent X (in a huff!): You could have had the decency to inform me!

Me: You could have had the decency to respond to the requested full within the time frame you'd promised.

I wake up smiling every time.