Nelson Literary Agency, LLC (Kristin Nelson)

Queried 4-6 and rejected 4-7 with form letter.

Playing the waiting game...

I queried Kristin Nelson for a YA urban fantasy on March 5th and received a partial request on March 14th. I sent the partial on March 15th--and now I'm waiting. If they request a full, I'll be really, really happy.

Joined the club! Queried 4/04, Partial Requested 22/04! I would be actually ecstatic if a full was wanted - my fingers are crossed for both of us chocolate potato!!

Okay I spoke too soon...
Does anyone know how to get around putting a phone number in on the online submission form??? I live in the UK so I have an 11 digit phone number, not a ten! Has anyone else from the UK got a submission request?
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I decided not to delete this just in case someone else from the UK gets a request. I contacted Sara Megibow on Twitter and she told me to just put in 000-000-0000 :0)

When I lived in Germany and was querying US agents I always wrote something like Tel. #(whole phone number as you would dial from the US, complete with country code). That way they'd know what that weird number was supposed to be, and they wouldn't have to look up the country code.

litgirl said:

When I lived in Germany and was querying US agents I always wrote something like Tel. #(whole phone number as you would dial from the US, complete with country code). That way they'd know what that weird number was supposed to be, and they wouldn't have to look up the country code.

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This is what I did recently for a few online queries which required a phone number. I live in Indonesia and have a 13-digit number inlcuding the two-digit country code.

Fingers crossed must bring good luck

Wildflower90 said:

Joined the club! Queried 4/04, Partial Requested 22/04! I would be actually ecstatic if a full was wanted - my fingers are crossed for both of us chocolate potato!!

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The Nelson agency requested a full today! I'll be rooting for you, too, Wildflower. And isn't it nice they're so responsive to questions? (Like the telephone number thing--that would've worried me, too. But Sara and Kristin are nice about stuff like that.)

Yayyy!!!!! Oh I'm so excited for you! You have to let me know how you get on. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you again if it's lucky :0)
Yeah, I was really pleased that she was so nice about it. Do you know who requested your full or do both read it?

Full requests

Wildflower90 said:

Yayyy!!!!! Oh I'm so excited for you! You have to let me know how you get on. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you again if it's lucky :0)
Yeah, I was really pleased that she was so nice about it. Do you know who requested your full or do both read it?

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I think both are reading it. The request was from "Kristin Nelson, Sara Megibow, and Anita Mumm." They started it with a big 'Good news!' and told me when they received the email with my attached full, so they've been super nice so far. I didn't get any of that "Thanks" anxiety--I've had both form rejections and requests start with "Thanks." I'm still wishing you good luck, and I'll let you know what happens--and you can let me know, too. We writers have to stick together.

Chocolate Potato said:

I think both are reading it. The request was from "Kristin Nelson, Sara Megibow, and Anita Mumm." They started it with a big 'Good news!' and told me when they received the email with my attached full, so they've been super nice so far. I didn't get any of that "Thanks" anxiety--I've had both form rejections and requests start with "Thanks." I'm still wishing you good luck, and I'll let you know what happens--and you can let me know, too. We writers have to stick together.

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So, you're one of the lucky ones who have been part of her current hot streak. Congratulations on the request, I hope it works out. I sent mine today so I hope for the same results.

Lord of Chaos said:

So, you're one of the lucky ones who have been part of her current hot streak. Congratulations on the request, I hope it works out. I sent mine today so I hope for the same results.

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Best of luck! I hope you get the same results, too.

Thanks for the luck :0) I just read on their blog that they've requested 9 fulls in the last 2 weeks. If you think of how many people query them, and then get partial requests, that makes you so so so close! I'm actually really excited for you :0) And good luck to you too Lord of Chaos - do you mean you sent out a full or a query?

Wildflower90 said:

Thanks for the luck :0) I just read on their blog that they've requested 9 fulls in the last 2 weeks. If you think of how many people query them, and then get partial requests, that makes you so so so close! I'm actually really excited for you :0)

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Your comment made my day. Just sayin'. Thanks, and good luck (still!) to you (and everyone waiting)!

Good luck to you all. I made the mistake of querying Kristin Nelson way too early (several months ago - hadn't a clue what I was doing). I so wish I could re-query her.

How long has it been since you queried her? I sent her a RE-HEALLY bad query letter and got rejected and then about four weeks later, after I had revised my query letter, I re-sent. This time I got a partial request. These agents get so many queries per day that they don't remember a specific bad query!

Wildflower90 said:

How long has it been since you queried her? I sent her a RE-HEALLY bad query letter and got rejected and then about four weeks later, after I had revised my query letter, I re-sent. This time I got a partial request. These agents get so many queries per day that they don't remember a specific bad query!

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I queried late September last year. The query I have now is so much better. So is my MS. I've been working on a revise and resubmit for another agent and I'm just about ready to start the query process again. I'll probably re-query Kristin Nelson, since she's high on my list of agents I would love to have.

Wildflower90 said:

How long has it been since you queried her? I sent her a RE-HEALLY bad query letter and got rejected and then about four weeks later, after I had revised my query letter, I re-sent. This time I got a partial request. These agents get so many queries per day that they don't remember a specific bad query!

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Well, this just shatters everything I thought I knew about querying, but in a good way When you re-queried, Wildflower, did you mention the earlier query, or did you just let the second one speak for itself?

Similar to tarak, I queried Ms. Megibow last fall and got a rejection, but I'm just about to finish a major rewrite, and I've toyed with the idea of querying Ms. Megibow and/or Ms. Nelson again, since the manuscript is vastly different. NLA is, in my opinion, one of the best boutique agencies in the country, so I'd love to have a second chance...

Has anyone heard from Sara lately? I queried her on 4/22, and nothing yet...

Beckstah said:

Has anyone heard from Sara lately? I queried her on 4/22, and nothing yet...

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My theory (based off of Query Tracker and my experience) is that the Nelson agency sends rejections relatively fast, and takes a little longer to get back on requests. So it's good if you haven't heard back! According to my (very limited) sense of patterns, anyway...

Good luck to you--and to anyone with revisions and requerying on their mind.

Beckstah said:

Has anyone heard from Sara lately? I queried her on 4/22, and nothing yet...

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I'm waiting on Sara's response to my full manuscript and hoping to hear back soon.

I read somewhere (either on Twitter or on Pub Rants) that the agency is holding off on reading new material while they read the manuscripts they have already requested, though I believe they are still going through their queries and requesting work to join the queue, so you may very well hear soon (I think it was about a week from my query to the partial request). Good luck!

Thanks, both of you, and good luck! This Friday it will have been three weeks since I sent the query, which is when they suggest resending, but it sounds like NLA has been too busy with your awesome subs to read queries. And if that's the case, I'm happy to wait!

tarak: Do! You don't know until you try :0)

Krista: I didn't mention the first query, so obviously the second query shouted "pick me, pick me!" lol. I would query if I were you, the ladies seem really nice.

Beckstah: I got my request the day before when you asked about. I think, like Samara Jensen says, they're just a little busy at the moment, and also I had to wait almost three weeks for my partial request so Chocolate Potato's right about that :0)

Samara: Good luck on your full!!!!

Wildflower90, I think I shall. Just making a final pass through my MS. I'm more nervous on the revise and resubmit than I was the first time I sent my full.

Beckstah said:

This Friday it will have been three weeks since I sent the query, which is when they suggest resending, but it sounds like NLA has been too busy with your awesome subs to read queries.

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Thanks - I sure hope so!

I think Sara Megibow has been attending a few conferences lately too, which might've put them behind a little. Oh, and NLA have been having problems with their server too, if I recall correctly, so they've been having trouble accessing their submissions database.

The fact that I know all this makes me sound like such a stalker!

All right, guys, the waiting paid off - just got a partial request!