[Agency] Sterling Lord Literistic

Robert Guinsler

Rikitikitavi said:

I can tell you from personal experience that he is nice . . .but he is a bad communicator.

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Are you a client, former client, or someone who submitted to him? I'm just trying to put your thoughts in context. Thanks!

Michelle Humphrey Sterling Lord Literistic

First class agency it was easy to notice right away. Reply took only days for a query and very polite and professional communications from this agency.

Marcy Posner/Sterling Lord

Marcy Posner's AQ (agentquery.com) profile says she accepts e-queries and snail mail for requested material. The Sterling Lord site says it accepts no unsolicited queries. What's an author to do? Play dumb? Submit a query as per Ms. Posner's profile or submit to her agency's stated policy and send no query at all?

I would go with the AQ data. Some agency websites don't get touched from one year to the next. Query her and mention that you found her info at the AQ site.

Thank you waylander. Didn't think about the website update angle. I'm sending out an
e-query to MP today.

For anyone reading this thread -- to be more precise: the submissions guidelines on SLL's site stipulate that the agency takes no unsolicited e-mail queries and then lists criteria for unsolicited snail mail submissions.

I sent a query to Neeti Madan and got back a "no longer at this address" on the envelope. I guess she's not there anymore? I triple-checked the address and I still have it because I'm going to resend... If she's not there it'd be nice to find out on their website. It was a big-ass package, too.

i got a three day rejection from michell humprhey
with an equery. YA historical fantasy.

A good friend is agented by SLL; they are top-drawer, but very low-profile. For quite a time they had no website--they aren't trolling for random submissions.

I met Marcy Posner at a conference back when she was running her own one-woman agency. Nice, smart, professional. If you wnat to see her bionotes from back when she was on her own, go to page 13 of

http://www.ppwc.net/Documents/04_Conference_Brochure.pdf

churchillgirl said:

Marcy Posner's AQ (agentquery.com) profile says she accepts e-queries and snail mail for requested material. The Sterling Lord site says it accepts no unsolicited queries. What's an author to do? Play dumb? Submit a query as per Ms. Posner's profile or submit to her agency's stated policy and send no query at all?

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waylander said:

I would go with the AQ data. Some agency websites don't get touched from one year to the next. Query her and mention that you found her info at the AQ site.

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Yes. I e-queried Marcy Posner and I heard back from her assistant 8 days later, requesting the full. Ultimately she rejected it in 3 weeks with a nice note. It was a good experience (except for the part about how I'm not rep'd by SLL, but on & up).

It's good to check out specific agent's submission guidelines- Writers House also says they don't accept e-queries, but Maya Rock does. This comes up occasionally (and I've noticed that many of the agents who break agency form do so because they prefer e-queries).

David McAfee said:

Nikki Van De Car of Harvey klinger requested a partial from my query the day after I sent it.

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If I should start a new thread, please let me know - I've never posted in here.

Has anyone heard anything about Nikki Van De Car moving to Sterling Lord Literistic? She's not on their website, but her listing on AgentQuery puts her there, with Harvy Klinger listed as a previous agency. I'm a little confused by that, and also by the fact that her profile says she will accept email queries, while SLL's website says in no uncertain terms that they wont respond to e-queries.

Anybody know anything?

sunna said:

If I should start a new thread, please let me know - I've never posted in here.

Has anyone heard anything about Nikki Van De Car moving to Sterling Lord Literistic? She's not on their website, but her listing on AgentQuery puts her there, with Harvy Klinger listed as a previous agency. I'm a little confused by that, and also by the fact that her profile says she will accept email queries, while SLL's website says in no uncertain terms that they wont respond to e-queries.

Anybody know anything?

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As already discussed here http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75823&page=2

SLL don't seem to update their website very often - they're probably too busy being very successful.
I would go with the AQ data and send her an e-mail query noting that you found her information on AQ.

sunna said:

If I should start a new thread, please let me know - I've never posted in here.

Has anyone heard anything about Nikki Van De Car moving to Sterling Lord Literistic? She's not on their website, but her listing on AgentQuery puts her there, with Harvy Klinger listed as a previous agency. I'm a little confused by that, and also by the fact that her profile says she will accept email queries, while SLL's website says in no uncertain terms that they wont respond to e-queries.

Anybody know anything?

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I believe the preferences of individual agents will override the preference of the agency in general (unless all queries go to the same intern before being read by the actual agents).

For example, this blog post states that Michelle Humphrey at SLL prefers email queries.

SLL Submission Process

I read on AQ that Ms. Posner accepts equeries and on SLL.com that they do not. I specifically posed this question on the AQ board about such conundrums and the info I recieved was that her preference was, in fact, email over smail. So, it appears these agents call the shots as to their own submission guidelines, if they are something other than than the house rules.

As I live in Europe, I avoid subbing to any agent who doesn't accept equeries, as it just isn't feasible. I was also able to submit my partial and full ms (to other agents) that way.

Thanks for all the insight listed here. I felt quite simple not knowing much about SLL but one look at their Web site and I quickly knew they were 'BIG' time. Let's see if Ms. Posner gets back to me. LOL. AW has been quite helpful, as I come here often but only joined today. This query process is harder than writing the ms and one needs all the help/support one can get.

has anyone queried david dunton
lately? i sent on out a week ago.
i know it hasn't been long, but he usually
seems to respond within a few days.

argh. i'm so bad at waiting and
then guessing what agents are up to.

i have no life.

/insert sad pathetic icon here

xiaotien said:

has anyone queried david dunton
lately? i sent on out a week ago.
i know it hasn't been long, but he usually
seems to respond within a few days.

argh. i'm so bad at waiting and
then guessing what agents are up to.

i have no life.

/insert sad pathetic icon here

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I can't add insight about DD, so maybe I shouldn't say anything at all. But that's not like me, so here I go: We are all the same way.

pins and needles,
needles and pins,
oh, how we lose it
when the reading begins!

LOL. It's not sad or pathetic just part of this query madness. Now, if you would like to see something both sad AND pathetic, go over to the BC thread and read what kind of fresh hell I'm in. *SMH* Keep your chin up, he'll get back to you soon, I'm sure.

one month kind and gracious no from george
nicholson. i had sent fifty pages.
tho he started the email :

Thank you for sending us your manuscript. Clearly, you have a great deal of talent.

i'll take that!
cause i'm feeling down about
waiting for editor responses, so a
writer will take whatever she can get.

he wanted me to submit a contemporary
chinese story instead. in case i'd written one.

Marcy Posner/exclusive read

I e-mailed Marcy Posner -- just a query letter -- and she replied in 2 hours, requesting a synopsis and three chapters.

I'm not dancing in the streets just yet, because she wrote:

"I only read on an exclusive basis so if no other agents are reading at this time please send a synopsis and the first three chapters by email."

I actually have partials out with four other agents at the moment.

What should I do?

If the mss is out with another agent when someone asks for an "exclusive" read, I usually tell agent #2 that it's out with one other and offer not to send it out again until I hear from them -- sort of a "semi-exclusive." But FOUR other agents?

It doesn't seem to me logical or an attractive sell to tell Ms. Posner that I'll have to wait for four other agents to reject the mss before sending it to her!

Any advice?

smallthunder said:

I e-mailed Marcy Posner -- just a query letter -- and she replied in 2 hours, requesting a synopsis and three chapters.

I'm not dancing in the streets just yet, because she wrote:

"I only read on an exclusive basis so if no other agents are reading at this time please send a synopsis and the first three chapters by email."

I actually have partials out with four other agents at the moment.

What should I do?

If the mss is out with another agent when someone asks for an "exclusive" read, I usually tell agent #2 that it's out with one other and offer not to send it out again until I hear from them -- sort of a "semi-exclusive." But FOUR other agents?

It doesn't seem to me logical or an attractive sell to tell Ms. Posner that I'll have to wait for four other agents to reject the mss before sending it to her!

Any advice?

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I had this problem with a different agent. I just sent the submisison, saying that I wouldn't send additional subs out but that I already had X, Y and Z floating about; and that I would not consider any additional offers without letting her know first. Seemed to work!

Blerb. Went back to fix formatting and made a whole new post!

smallthunder said:

...I'm not dancing in the streets just yet, because she wrote:

"I only read on an exclusive basis so if no other agents are reading at this time please send a synopsis and the first three chapters by email."

I actually have partials out with four other agents at the moment.

What should I do?

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Marcy requested my full a few months ago with the same statement and I also had some partials out at the time. I sent her assistant the ms with a note explaining that I had some partials out, but that I would be happy not to send anyone the full manuscript for a period of two weeks. Her assistant just replied "great!"

You could do that with the partial as well. If she requests the full, it'll likely be with another request for exclusive. Again, I'd set a time limit you can live with if you choose to grant it.

It wasn't a problem- Marcy responded in 10 days to the full--sooner than I heard back on any of the partials already out anyway. I don't like exclusives and rarely grant them, but in my case she respected the exclusive with a remarkably fast read and some very nice comments.

Good luck!

I did exactly as suggested, and she replied immediately with "Ok."

The bit about contacting her should anyone else offer representation probably was the clincher.

I didn't bother to give a time limit on this semi-semi-exclusivity, since my mss is out with several other agents -- but I certainly would've if she was to be the only one with the mss in hand. I can't for the life of me understand why someone would give an exclusive read to an agent when it's a response to just a query letter ...

Or, rather, I can understand -- but it's for the wrong reasons, I think.

Does anyone have any info on Nicki Van De Carr?

JenWriter,

I had heard Nikki was an assistant to Laurie Liss, but I've seen some recent news about her becoming an agent, so you might want to do some more digging.

Hi, just bumped into this thread. I haven't been around AW in some time. Anyhow, as recently as last week I know that Nikki was still working as Laurie's righthand, aka assistant. Laurie is my agent but correspondence frequently comes through Nikki, who is usually prompt and professional.

Thanks Dantes, for clearing up. I imagine some people are confused. AgentQuery lists Carr as an agent.