Alive Agency--submissions welcome

Thanks for the heads-up. I'm going to copy this to the Christian forum, for the benefit of those looking for an agent.

i went to the website and this is what i found:

Regretfully, we have concluded that we cannot invest in the staffing resources necessary to handle the rising volume of unsolicited proposals, so we ask that authors please not send us proposals in the mail. Unrequested proposals arriving via US mail are not considered. We will no longer return unsolicited manuscripts sent to us, even if a self-addressed stamped envelope is included.

so will mr. pape take something from me, a struggling newbie?

kim

Send a query first. Then, if they ask to see your proposal, it isn't unsolicited.

Dancre said:

i went to the website and this is what i found:

Regretfully, we have concluded that we cannot invest in the staffing resources necessary to handle the rising volume of unsolicited proposals, so we ask that authors please not send us proposals in the mail. Unrequested proposals arriving via US mail are not considered. We will no longer return unsolicited manuscripts sent to us, even if a self-addressed stamped envelope is included.

so will mr. pape take something from me, a struggling newbie?

kim

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Looks like he only takes in those who have writing careers established or by refferal by one of his clients. Bummer.

zizban said:

Looks like he only takes in those who have writing careers established or by refferal by one of his clients. Bummer.

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that's what i thought. GRRR! oh well, God has a plan!!!
kim

Kim,

That just means to query first. It doesn't hamper a newbie. They don't want to get wads of thick mail with complete pieces. Query away. You're not wasting much postage that way, either.

Query letter vs. Proposal

Alive Communications works primarily with well-established, best-selling, and career authors. On rare occasions, we accept new clients at the start of their careers, generally from referrals of current clients.

Regretfully, we have concluded that we cannot invest in the staffing resources necessary to handle the rising volume of unsolicited proposals, so we ask that authors please not send us proposals in the mail. Unrequested proposals arriving via US mail are not considered. (emphasis mine)

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Sounds to me like they won't even accept query letters. By proposal, do they mean query letter? Or manuscript sample? Confused here...

Cheryll

Wow...that's pretty discouraging in general. From "New Agent, accepting submissions!"
to:
"Don't even look in my direction unless you're established and well on your way already (in which case you don't really need an agent, do you?).

It's fairly typical of a lot of agents out there, but part of being an aspiring writer is that ever-glowing ember of hope that keeps you moving to the next rejection letter you hope will be an acceptance. Ours, is not a talent/desire for the faint-hearted or fragile flower.

Yes, this thread looks kind of discouraging on the outside, but it is the successful (eventually) writer who says in their heart, "Oh well...their loss!"

Query Away

I queried them via email, regardless, and I received a nice letter from them telling me that though the work was interesting, it wasn't what they were looking for at the moment. It was an email response and wasn't a standard form rejection.

It doesn't hurt to query. Any agent would be silly not to at least look at a query because they never know when they might get the next breakout artist.

Who did you query? I send an e-mail to don pape, using the address given above in one of the posts and got a reply back that he was out of town at the convention in Denver. (What convention in Denver?) Should I wait for his return, or try to find someone else to query? Thanks for the assist.

What convention ...

Doyle said:

I send an e-mail to don pape, using the address given above in one of the posts and got a reply back that he was out of town at the convention in Denver. (What convention in Denver?)

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Um .... I think the CBA convention was just held in Denver.