[Agency] Writers House

By the way, how do I casually mention in a query letter the fact that I'll be seventeen in October?

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Why would you possibly want to mention it?

The only question right now is "Is your book any good?" Later, after someone's bought your book, the marketing folks might want to know about your age. But for right now ... don't let it concern you.

I suppose that I very well wouldn't have to. I've read up on it a bit, and some agents say that they don't even need to know to start off with. That's good, because I didn't really want to mention it anyway.

Well, with that, I'm going to drop off my query letter in the query letter forum to see if it's any good at all. In the mean time, the question remains:

Which agent would be best for me? Now that my query letter is up, would somebody mind reading it and inputting whom it would most likely appeal to?

Thanks.

katrina_wooooo said:

Which agent would be best for me?

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First do some research on agents. Find out who represents the kind of work you have to offer. Second, find something each agent represented that was sold. Take a look at it in a bookstore or library. Is your work similar in tone or content to that? If so, then the agent might want to see your work. This is important because agents represent what they like. If your work doesn't appeal to that agent, it's unlikely that the agent will say yes.

And guess what? You're the only person who can even make that judgment on whether what you've written is at all close to what the agent represents.

Now that you've got a short list of strong matches, prepare your query letter and send it out. Other agents who represent similar kinds of books but in different styles should be on your secondary list. Send to them when you exhaust your primary list.

And yes, there are other ways to put together a list. Many of them are just as correct. Use the one that you understand best, but don't rely upon others to give you the names. Other folks won't know enough about what you've written to give you a good match.

I think Maya would be interested in my story. She likes history and strong female leads, both of which I have.

Jodi Reamer worked with Twilight and New Moon. What amazing books.

Dan Lazar, like Maya, enjoys books that introduce him to new worlds, and I definitely have that down.

Then, there's Mr. Zuckerman, head honcho of the whole thing.... I don't even know what I think about that.

Has anybody had any dealings with Rebecca Sherman at Writers House for picture books. It looks as if she only accepts queries from writers/illustrators, unless I am reading her write-up wrong, and the pb's she's sold also look to be by writer/illustrators.
An unusual thing in todays world I'll admit, but some agents do specify they will only take these kind of subs.
I was wondering if anybody could clarify?

I'm sure Rebecca could clarify, but I didn't take her write up as meaning the author also had to be the illustrator.

Well at first, I didn't. I just presumed it was author or illustrator. But then if you look at the wording she does seem to combine the two, then I looked at the pb's she had sold and I could only find ones by author/illustrators.
I know it's quite unusual, but there are a few others on agentquery that clearly specify they will only accept subs by author/illustrators, so it's not unique.
I just didn't want to sub something only to be told - "You haven't read the guidelines properly"

I'm always getting into bother

Edited to add: This is from her guidelines:
Juvenile fiction, Lifestyle, Children's books, Picture Books (by an author/illustrator),

Dan Lazar is a really nice person. He rejected me twice quickly too, but there was a real note of humanity in them. The second one I didn't have any business sending out as I had only begun writing the story and was so excited about it I had the idea an agent would too. My heart speeds up when I see somebody posting on Writers House. It is a dream agency.

Barbarique said:

I recently submitted an e-mail inquiry to Mr. Lazar at 9:43:48 am.
I received his polite rejection at 9:54:35 am.

They do not believe in wasting your time. Very commendable.

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Writer's House Agents & my work

Given my query letter (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67262) a guide to what my book is about, which agent in Writer's House do you think would be most interested in representing my manuscript based on content?

Or if that wording didn't make sense, with whom would my manuscript be most compatible?

Options:
1.) Jodi Reamer
2.) Dan Lazar
3.) Al Zuckerman
4.) Maya Rock
5.) Other? If so, please list.

Read through interviews with them. I know there's a couple with Dan out there and probably some with the others. Also, look at the lists of what they've sold recently. I go to Amazon and read about the books they represent. That gives you a bit of feel for their tastes.

This isn't the right forum for this type of question -- at the very least it should be on the Writer's House thread.

Other than that, the answer to you question is going to be: read about the agents and whichever sounds the best *to you* is the one you should query first.

I did post my question in the Writer's House thread earlier and I got one answer before someone else posted their own question. It pretty much died.

*Sigh*. We'll, I'll just keep on looking for interviews, then. Thanks for the tips.

Do they saw what they edit? I do sci-fi.

Did they say what they edit? I write scifi.

drybonesreborn said:

Did they say what they edit? I write scifi.

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Writers House is a highly respected agency; they are not editors.

Mo

Katrina,

The reason no one is answering your question is that it is a personal thing. No one can say, "Oh, send it to Dan Lazar/Maya/Jodi!" because they haven't read the book and they don't know you.

That being said, here is some info on each agent.

Jodi is probably the biggest YA agent at WH, but because of that, she's not really building her list right now, she has stopped taking e-queries, and she has quite a long response time. She has several superstars (The Twilight series--as you mentioned--being the biggest) and takes on very few new clients. Like many uber-agents, she gets a lot of her new clients from referrals (though Stephenie got her through the traditional query method--it does happen!) In the spirit of full disclosure, Jodi is my agent and Stephenie is one of my best friends--so I'm biased.

Maya does have a focus on YA and is building her client list. She's not huge and famous yet, but with the WH name behind her, she would be a sure-fire thing no matter what. She is known for being extremely friendly and fast. Also, she was Al Zuckerman's assistant for, I believe, two years before taking on her own client list. She accepts e-queries and has a fast response time.

Dan is know for being fabulous and very friendly, but you have to have just the right project for him because he has very eclectic tastes. He sells some really, really awesome stuff and just moved up to the title agent instead of junior agent. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I thought I read that somewhere just recently.) He is also building his client list, though not quite as much as Maya. He also takes e-queries and is know for a very fast response time. (Did anyone see that he just sold a project for Smart B%^&ches?!?!)

Al Zuckerman takes on projects he likes because he certainly doesn't have to look for clients anymore. That being said, he is also the president of Writers House and I assume he has many administrative duties along with bing an agent. I don't know a ton about him because he doesn't rep my genre.

So there you go, some info on each agent. Beyond that, you really just need to make the decision yourself.

Don't be overly concerned about picking the exactly-right person at the agency. If you're in the ballpark your query will be passed over to the right person.

Has anyone queried Steven Malk before (I think he's the West Coast rep and deals mostly with children's genres)? I equeried him a few weeks ago and was wondering what his usual response time is.

Also, is he one of those agents who doesn't respond to equeries if he's not interested? I haven't been able to find a webpage for him with this sort of info.

I sent a query to him on 24th April and got a very polite rejection response from his assistant on 7th June. So yes, he does respond but you may have to wait a little while yet.
I searched the boards for his average response time as well, but couldn't find anything.

Steven Malk reps some great stuff, and yes, he usually responds, although it takes a while. Because he's got such a solid client list, I get the feeling he's not really looking much, either. Jodi Reamer takes forever to respond (and sometimes she just doesn't). Dan Lazar seems to be looking for midgrade boys' books, among other things. I know a lot of people have queried Maya Rock with YA fantasy (I got a request for 50 pages), but I don't know of any fantasy she's actually signed. I do know that she signed and sold an edgy, contemporary upper YA book recently.

WH reps such lovely, lovely books, the kind that are your favorite that you read over and over. Any one of those agents would be fantastic. I would probably start with those who answer faster (because you'll need to query them one at a time) and move on to those who take forever), all other things being equal.

I sent a query (with 5 pages) to Dan on June 13th but haven't heard back...I know this is an uber short time and everything, but it seems like Dan usually reponds in a few hours...Could something have happened to the email? Or maybe he's still looking at the query....

reenkam said:

I sent a query (with 5 pages) to Dan on June 13th but haven't heard back...I know this is an uber short time and everything, but it seems like Dan usually reponds in a few hours...Could something have happened to the email? Or maybe he's still looking at the query....

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Don't worry. I'm sure Dan's very busy right now. He responded back to my query with a rejection within a day. So don't worry if you haven't heard from him just yet. That could be a very good thing!

Moon Daughter said:

Don't worry. I'm sure Dan's very busy right now. He responded back to my query with a rejection within a day. So don't worry if you haven't heard from him just yet. That could be a very good thing!

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I'm trying not to worry...but it's very very hard when, out of the 40+ posts I've read about him, the longest wait was 3 days...

Does anyone know of an instance when he didn't answer to show he wasn't interested? That way I'd know I could query someone else at Writers House...or something...

I believe the standard time to resend or send a little note asking about your query is after two months. So in about another five weeks you haven't heard, maybe send a polite note his way. It's possible that your e-mail got lost in cyber space.

Anyone pitch Dan Conaway? He's not listed on the site yet but he joined WH in April.