[Agency] Writers House

RE: Dan Lazar/Writers House -Response time
Just queried Dan Lazar with my contemporary novel. Received a polite rejection the next day from his assistant.

Southern Girl said:

Thanks I actually forgot that another agent requested a partial way back when I first started querying, but they turned it down. Larsen Pomada. So, that makes two that requested partials. Better than I thought! I've started my querying process again.

Shoot. I had a good question and now I can't remember it. Anyway - I scrapped the Agent Inbox thing. I hate losing those six contacts, but lesson learned.

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In 3-6 months if you haven't heard back from them, you could send a snail mail or a new e-mail query and assume your query was eaten by their spam-bot.

The reason for the long waits is that there are stacks of manuscripts ahead of each new submission, and agents also have a lot of work to do with their existing clients, so finding new clients is often a lower priority (depending on how many clients the agent already has, of course).

Expect rejection, since that's the default, keep querying, exercise patience and thick skin.

You can also get some good feedback on your query letter in the Share Your Work forum here or less publicly via the beta readers forum.

Thanks for the info - I just rec'd a full request from another agency, Sarah Jane Freymann. JR hasn't asked for my full yet, but her letter says that if she does, she wants it on an exclusive basis. I guess I'm okay to send it to SJF since JR hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'm just not sure what to do if she does.

Southern Girl said:

Thanks for the info - I just rec'd a full request from another agency, Sarah Jane Freymann. JR hasn't asked for my full yet, but her letter says that if she does, she wants it on an exclusive basis. I guess I'm okay to send it to SJF since JR hasn't gotten back to me yet. I'm just not sure what to do if she does.

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If JR asks for a full, just let her know that someone else has it. I'm pretty sure she'll be ok with it as long as you're honest. Sarah Jane Freymann tends to get back to their queriers pretty quickly (2-3 weeks), though, so I would send them the full and not worry about JR for now.

Hi all, does anybody know who the assistant to Jodi Reamer is?

sciri said:

Hi all, does anybody know who the assistant to Jodi Reamer is?

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Alec Shane

Thanks!

How about Maya Rock's response times? (I think this was said before) But anybody query her recently and by e-mail?

newgreekwriter said:

How about Maya Rock's response times? (I think this was said before) But anybody query her recently and by e-mail?

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Querytracker.net has response times, and you can limit the data to the past 30 days. For all time she has a one week average response, and in the past month that hasn't changed. As for non-responses, that's running about about 12%, which is less than average. Her average acceptance rate is 10%--higher than average. Her submission response rate is also fast--2 weeks--and her positive responses to requested submissions is running about one in 12. This could be partials turning into fulls, though, and not necessarily offers of representation. So overall, the chance of a query turning into an offer is something less than .6%.

Julie Worth said:

Querytracker.net has response times, and you can limit the data to the past 30 days. For all time she has a one week average response, and in the past month that hasn't changed. As for non-responses, that's running about about 12%, which is less than average. Her average acceptance rate is 10%--higher than average. Her submission response rate is also fast--2 weeks--and her positive responses to requested submissions is running about one in 12. This could be partials turning into fulls, though, and not necessarily offers of representation. So overall, the chance of a query turning into an offer is something less than .6%.

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.6%? great! =) Haha. Thanks for the stats, Julie.

newgreekwriter said:

How about Maya Rock's response times? (I think this was said before) But anybody query her recently and by e-mail?

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I queried her early in October and she got back to me 17 days later with an R. So I guess you're looking at about 2 weeks.

Back in the beginning of September, it took Maya Rock only a few hours to reply to my query with an R.

And to Rowan and anyone else who's waiting for Merrilee, I received a form R in the mail over the weekend. Good luck to everyone else!

Josh Getzler leaving WH

FYI:

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/jgetzler/

After almost three fascinating and productive years reacquainting myself with the world of publishing at Writers House, I am joining Russell and Volkening, Inc., as a (mostly) fiction and young adult/middle grade agent on Monday, November 16. Please feel free to email me at my new desk starting the 16th, at [email protected].

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Oh no! Josh has my FULL! Does that mean he's taking potential clients with him (do agents usually do that?), or should I worry about falling through the cracks on this one? I think I'm going to e-mail him....

I e-queried Steven Malk yesterday afternoon, got a request for a full a few hours later. They did ask for a 2-week exclusive, which is fine for this one. I have a picture book out to other agents, but not my novel, so it works out.

I'm excited and hopeful all over again, especially since he reps Adam Rex (The True Meaning of Smekday).

Sarah Christine said:

Back in the beginning of September, it took Maya Rock only a few hours to reply to my query with an R.

And to Rowan and anyone else who's waiting for Merrilee, I received a form R in the mail over the weekend. Good luck to everyone else!

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Ah, that's a bummer, Sarah. Good luck w/the rest of your queries!

Dawnny Baby said:

Oh no! Josh has my FULL! Does that mean he's taking potential clients with him (do agents usually do that?), or should I worry about falling through the cracks on this one? I think I'm going to e-mail him....

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Yes, Josh will be taking requested material with him.

pegasus358 said:

Yes, Josh will be taking requested material with him.

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Cool! Thanks, Pegasus! (BTW, how do you know this? Did you e-mail him? In the end, I did not e-mail him. I didn't want to be a pill, since he's only had my full for 2 1/2 weeks.)

I've spoken to Josh, so it's first-hand knowledge.

pegasus358 said:

I've spoken to Josh, so it's first-hand knowledge.

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Awesome! Thanks for letting me (all of us, actually) know about the requested materials!

Got a full request from Steven Malk (!) within 20 minutes of initial equery I love fast responders

bclement412 said:

Got a full request from Steven Malk (!) within 20 minutes of initial equery I love fast responders

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Yay, bclement! Awesome!

pegasus358 said:

Yes, Josh will be taking requested material with him.

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Does he want the 5 pages in the body of the query or as an attachment? It doesn't say on his site.

Preacher'sWife said:

Does he want the 5 pages in the body of the query or as an attachment? It doesn't say on his site.

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I would say you should paste it into the body... most agents will not open unsolicited attachments.

Anyone have recent dealings with Simon Lipskar? He repped a book slightly similar to mine but I'm wondering if he's too much of a long shot for me.