The Bent Agency (Jenny Bent)

Marva said:

This request was from Ms. Hawk? First I ever saw that she joined the Bent Agency was late November. Did you have a secret source of info?

I hope she gets through the erroneous adult queries and can get to we MG/YA queries. Well, we did send them to the kids email addy, so it ought to be easy to separate them from the adult stuff.

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No, from Jenny. I think dawwny was asking about Jenny since she said her query was sent Nov 7...

curlbe said:

my request came after about eight weeks dawnny, and i didn't receive an automated response even though they got it, so I wouldn't worry about it being lost just yet...

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Okay, that's good to know. Thanks, curlbe! I'll hold off on the retrying.

curlbe said:

No, from Jenny. I think dawwny was asking about Jenny since she said her query was sent Nov 7...

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Yes, that is correct, I was asking about Jenny. I had never heard of Susan Hawk at that time (and based on her interests/experience with childrens/YA, my thriller query would probably not be of much use to her).

This morning I checked my email and I had a full request from a mid-September(!) query from one of the Bent Agency's assistants. It was for a contemporary YA.

It was a great way to start a week and quite a surprise. I had sent a second query to the new kid's email address in November, but the response was from my September query. I asked if it would be considered by Susan or Jenny and she said Susan, who is the one acquiring YA at the agency.

So, yippee! I thought I'd share since I know there are several AW users who have queried the agency and have outstanding queries. Good luck to all you.

Congrats, rtrgirl! Best wishes on your full request.

I have a query out to Susan that went out about a week ago.

I have this vision of Susan running from an avalanche of post-NaNo submissions. Anyone hear anything from her since she opened shop?

I submitted to Ms. Bent and received a R pretty quick, however, she complimented my query saying it had merit, but said the subject matter wasn't what they were looking for.


Rather nice to have after the onslaught of form Rs.

Okay, I waited 9 weeks and finally re-queried. Almost immediately I received an automated "Thank you for your query, if you don't hear back from us in 8 weeks, please resend." Never got that last time.

Chalk one up to the Cyberswiper!

I tried posting an e-query today and kept getting *error* show up on the screen. Anyone else have this problem recently?

I wanted to post that I got a very kind rejection from Jenny this morning. (Hold your tears... the email came in about 10 minutes before I spoke to an agent who wants to rep me!) Anyway, it was a form reject but was extremely nice and well done.

I've gotten a couple of really lame rejections that made me wonder, "why did I even want you to judge my writing if you can't put a decent form reject together?" Jenny's was very thoughtful. Not thoughtful about me in particular, obviously, because it's a form, but thoughtful about what a form reject should be generally. Just wanted to acknowledge a class act when I encounter one.

Jenny jumped on Twitter to request suspense queries, and when I responded that I'd held off my suspense in favour of finishing my women's fiction, she sent me a DM saying go ahead, send the women's fic. So I did that yesterday.

Hi guys,
I sent my full to Jenny in November and a week or so later she emailed me asking about my intended audience. I answered but haven't heard anything since. I was just wondering how long others have waited for her to get back on fulls. Thanks!

Chumplet said:

Jenny jumped on Twitter to request suspense queries, and when I responded that I'd held off my suspense in favour of finishing my women's fiction, she sent me a DM saying go ahead, send the women's fic. So I did that yesterday.

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Dang! I queried her on my thriller three weeks ago, and (from the description of what she was looking for) I thought my ms would be totally up her alley. I got the "in queue" reply almost immediately, but crickets since then. And if you're hearing back from her immediately, maybe that means she's not interested in my stuff.... Bummer!

But good luck to you, Chumplet! She sounds like a great agent.

Like an idiot I forgot to send my first 10 pages with my query to Ms. Hawk. she requested that I send it again and I haven't heard back from her. Has anyone had any experience with her?

just got a full request from a query sent in november. i guess they're digging through the piles?

iowawriter said:

Like an idiot I forgot to send my first 10 pages with my query to Ms. Hawk. she requested that I send it again and I haven't heard back from her. Has anyone had any experience with her?

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This same thing happened to me. I even said in my query letter that I'd included the first ten pages below, but then forgot to actually do it. It's been about 1 1/2 weeks since I got the email asking me to resubmit with the 10 pages.

AuntB said:

This same thing happened to me. I even said in my query letter that I'd included the first ten pages below, but then forgot to actually do it. It's been about 1 1/2 weeks since I got the email asking me to resubmit with the 10 pages.

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If that happens then I assume you go back to the bottom of the pile.

I wouldn't expect any less. Only fair for the people who actually followed the rules the first time.

Curious if anyone who has sent a partial or full to Susan has heard back and what the response was like.

I'm waiting on an early December submission.

Thanks AW friends.

I e-queried JB 3/11/10 and received the acknowledgment that it had been received.

Now the waiting starts.

Rtrgirl, I also queried then and never heard back. I assume my query was lost in the avalanche when she opened.

rtrgirl said:

Curious if anyone who has sent a partial or full to Susan has heard back and what the response was like.

I'm waiting on an early December submission.

Thanks AW friends.

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I'm also waiting on a full from early December. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

5 days to eject on query. "Not exactly what she's looking for"

I'm waiting on a full from October 09... sent a follow-up after 2 mos. and she acknowledged receipt, then another follow-up after 2+ more months but no response to that one.

I think if I email her anymore it will technically qualify as "annoying harassment," so my plan is to leave it be. ;-)

However, I was also wondering, those of you who sent her fulls... did she always respond? I mean, if its a no, did you definitely hear? Anybody wait longer than 6 mos on a full?

e-query sent 12/1 for susan
e-ject today

Hi Chumplet! We've emailed before. You were very kind to respond to an email I sent you several months back. Good to see you on this site!