[Agency] Trident Media Group

aruna said:

I have a TMG agent, and my book, which he shopped around about 2 years ago, did not sell....The book he has is non-fiction.

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Thanks for all of the information! Can I ask, do you know how many publishers the agent tried to sell it to? Or, if you don't care to reveal that, did the agent send out in one round of manuscripts to publishers, or did he send it out in multiple rounds with a chance to improve the book based on publisher input in between rounds?

Also, the book that you have with him now, is that a different book?

newstylus said:

I am a new member and a new writer...So I'm just getting into submissions. One thing I have already realized: a person could (literally) age 10 years waiting to get an agent. I am SOOO not going to fall for the etiquette bs. I plan on submitting to as many agents as possible (those that fit my criteria), and--unless an actual contract negotiation is in effect--I have no qualms with contacting other agents, or with nudging.

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If it was me, having dealt with queries over the years, I would get it to my top choices first, but by no means would I wait and not query others. If someone really wants something, my experience is you'll hear from them in hours to a week. If someone wants your stuff that fast, then you can check out their track record, and if you don't like them, decline whatever they are offering.

canttakeitwithyou said:

If someone really wants something, my experience is you'll hear from them in hours to a week.

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That is AWESOME that that's been your experience, but it's definitely not an across the board thing. My agent (super legit) offered after five months with the full. I know many people with similar stories. It just varies completely from agent to agent and manuscript to manuscript.

JoyMC said:

That is AWESOME that that's been your experience, but it's definitely not an across the board thing. My agent (super legit) offered after five months with the full. I know many people with similar stories. It just varies completely from agent to agent and manuscript to manuscript.

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Thanks! If it helps anyone here, during my most recent queries, an agent who also has great credentials (but doesn't rep my kind of work) advised me not to follow up a full request for two weeks. In other words, he thought two weeks was okay.

For your represented work that took five months to get representation, how long did things take with publishers, and did you get a deal?

canttakeitwithyou said:

Thanks! If it helps anyone here, during my most recent queries, an agent who also has great credentials (but doesn't rep my kind of work) advised me not to follow up a full request for two weeks. In other words, he thought two weeks was okay.

For your represented work that took five months to get representation, how long did things take with publishers, and did you get a deal?

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My experience was similar to Joy's (who just signed with her agent, so she probably hasn't even gone on submission yet). I queried four manuscripts over four years, and it took my now-agent four months to offer after making a request from my initial query. (Apparently, I have a thing for the number four.)

It took almost a year for that manuscript to sell, but only five months for the second. Was the second manuscript stronger? Not necessarily. It all came down to timing and finding the right editor for both projects.

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it might not be best to query first, research later. If you put together a solid list upfront (or as you're going along), you just might save yourself a lot of time and heartache down the road.

Krista G. said:

Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it might not be best to query first, research later. If you put together a solid list upfront (or as you're going along), you just might save yourself a lot of time and heartache down the road.

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I agree 100%. When I was saying to the other poster I would query my first choices first, obviously, for me, research is necessary to determine who the first choices are. When I was referring to looking at their track record later, I was referring to a situation where a poster was talking about sending out mass queries, rather than waiting years to hear from one agent. Obviously, even if sending mass queries, researching each agent is optimal.

Congratulations on getting your books placed!

newstylus said:

I am SOOO not going to fall for the etiquette bs. I plan on submitting to as many agents as possible (those that fit my criteria), and--unless an actual contract negotiation is in effect--I have no qualms with contacting other agents, or with nudging.

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When I subbed to Kimberly Whalen, and she asked for the full (within a week of getting my email), I had to sign a one-week exclusive with her. She liked it but was so swamped she asked me to sub to another agent in their firm with a referral from her (it was a new agent who worked under her). Kim had been responsive. The other agent...no so much. After a couple of months of crickets I sent it to others and within weeks offers started coming in. I signed with someone else.

So yes... query whomever you want and don't wait around wondering. If they want an exclusive read period, they'll let you know. Just be courteous to them. If you get an offer somewhere else, contact the agents who've requested a full and let them know. Allow them a week to make a decision. That's how I got my agent. She was one of the ones who'd had the full and I'd emailed her after I'd received offers from other agents.

canttakeitwithyou said:

Thanks! If it helps anyone here, during my most recent queries, an agent who also has great credentials (but doesn't rep my kind of work) advised me not to follow up a full request for two weeks. In other words, he thought two weeks was okay.

For your represented work that took five months to get representation, how long did things take with publishers, and did you get a deal?

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Two weeks is extremely fast to nudge for a full request. That might be one agent's advice, but most agents - and there are lots of agent interviews to be found online to feel this out - will say something more like 3 months to nudge on a full. Basically, publishing is slow, and you don't want to seem like you're going to be too pushy and impatient as a client.

For what it's worth, I had 47 full requests (over several manuscripts) and I can think of one that responded in two weeks. They tended to average more like 2-4 months.

Like Krista said, I'm just starting this part of the journey. But I'm going into it with no timeline, just planning to keep my head down and write my next project.

canttakeitwithyou said:

I agree 100%. When I was saying to the other poster I would query my first choices first, obviously, for me, research is necessary to determine who the first choices are. When I was referring to looking at their track record later, I was referring to a situation where a poster was talking about sending out mass queries, rather than waiting years to hear from one agent. Obviously, even if sending mass queries, researching each agent is optimal.

Congratulations on getting your books placed!

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Oh, I see. Yes, I definitely don't think that writers should query one or two agents at a time. You've got to query widely (but wisely, too).

And ditto Joy. I think it's best to follow up on a request after three or four months (or if an agent posts her typical response times, one or two weeks after the long end of that window).

Thirding the recommended 3 months nudge on a full, they can take a long time to read. (Just ask the poor, patient people I'm beta-ing for...)

When I said that I was told to wait two weeks on a full by an agent (not from TMG), that agent had phoned me within maybe a day of querying. The majority of the small number of agents I queried have got back to me in three weeks or less. The agent that took about three weeks to ask for a full was told I agreed to allow TMG represent my manuscript.

I guess my point is there are agents, who if they like a query will respond to it quickly, and also read your ms very quickly. My agent at TMG is one of these types of agents. These agents may have different expectations of what is acceptable for a writer to do than an agent who needs four months to read a manuscript.

All of this said, I will add that the non-TMG agent who said wait two weeks also said it is important not to annoy agents, so I guess one can judge based on a wide variety of factors what would not be annoying and error on the side of caution.

Also, I just want to clarify, I never had to give TMG a nudge to read my ms, I was only pointing out what another agent advised me to try to be helpful.

Just signed on with MacKenzie Fraser-Bub at TMG - woot! I already have a four-book deal with Permuted Press, which she will now be hammering out with me, for some supernatural sci-fi thrillers. Couldn't be more stoked.

Congrats Popgun!

LadyLex said:

Congrats Popgun!

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Thanks LadyLex!

Hey congrats! Happy for you...

haunted said:

Hey congrats! Happy for you...

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Thanks Haunted - I couldn't be happier Heard from Permuted yet?

No I haven't! But the book hit #28 on the top 100 bestsellers list at amazon, and usually hovers from the 20's to the 50's on that list. So we'll see what happens! Love their company though. Congrats to you all around!

Posted an insightful interview with my literary agent, MacKenzie Fraser-Bub of Trident Media Group!

I'm having an odd issue with Trident Media Group's web portal:

http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/submissions.html

Tried two different web browsers, but they both cause the web portal to kick back an error that my 'Submit Query Letter' field contains "illegal characters". It's a 1379-character PLAIN TEXT document?!?? No formatting codes or anything weird like that. Aside from spaces, a slash (/), and a (non-smart non-curly) quotation mark or two it doesn't even contain any characters that would be illegal as file names or email addresses!

A forward slash isn't an option as a file name nor as an email address.

I can't say for sure, but that looks to be your problem.

I was unable to submit to them for the same reason. Not sure why... my query doesn't contain any unusual symbols or anything.

robjvargas said:

A forward slash isn't an option as a file name nor as an email address.

I can't say for sure, but that looks to be your problem.

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I think you misread: I said except for the forward slash and a few quotation marks, (and spaces), it contains nothing that couldn't be in an email address or a file name.

But it's not a file name, it's my query ITSELF, the text thereof, pasted into their web-based submission screen. I just meant "no weird characters in here, it almost conforms to email and file name standards it's so basic".

I was looking at the query I sent on April 8, and I didn't use the automated system - I emailed my query directly to Scott Miller, who forwarded the query to MacKenzie Fraser-Bub who is now my agent. I don't think it's a problem sending queries directly, especially if the automated system is down. I would email it directly to the agent and let them know the circumstances. Agent email addresses are available here.

AHunter3 said:

I'm having an odd issue with Trident Media Group's web portal:

http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/submissions.html

Tried two different web browsers, but they both cause the web portal to kick back an error that my 'Submit Query Letter' field contains "illegal characters". It's a 1379-character PLAIN TEXT document?!?? No formatting codes or anything weird like that. Aside from spaces, a slash (/), and a (non-smart non-curly) quotation mark or two it doesn't even contain any characters that would be illegal as file names or email addresses!

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It just worked for me. Maybe give it another try?