Avenue A Literary (Jennifer Cayea)

[giftedrhonda]

Hi, all. A week ago, I was contacted by Jennifer Cayea of Avenue A Literary through MySpace, asking if I had representation and offering to look at any material I may have. I informed her I already had an agent (for my YA).

Here's her web addy: http://www.avenuealiterary.com/

Anyone have any info on this agency? I looked on P&E, but didn't see any info on them except their listing.

I figured since they weren't on AW already, we could have a thread for this agency, in case anyone out there needs/has info.

Thanks!!

 

[Mystic Blossom]

Never heard of her, but I've also never heard of an agent who contacts you first. Strange to me. Not sure if anyone else knows if this practice is common or not.

 

[DeadlyAccurate]

She seems to specialize in African-American fiction, and she has an impressive list of well-reviewed books on her site that I presume are represented by her.

 

[RitrChick]

I have a partial out to her and will post any experiences/observations when I hear back.

 

[Soccer Mom]

She has solid credentials and used to be with Nicholas Ellison, if I remember correctly.

 

[Harper K]

Never heard of her, but I've also never heard of an agent who contacts you first. Strange to me. Not sure if anyone else knows if this practice is common or not.

Yes -- legit and respected agents will contact writers whose works are in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, etc.

I've even known a few people who were contacted by agents because of their blogs. This doesn't happen very often, but if someone's blogging about a niche topic and / or has a really great voice and style (and a large readership), an agent may try to snap them up for their stable of authors and urge them to write a novel, memoir, or collection of essays.

 

[giftedrhonda]

Cool--it seemed a bit weird, but I know it's been done before. Thanks!!

 

[JAG4584]

Avenue A Literary LLC

Any info?

Thanks.

 

[edgyllama]

http://www.avenuealiterary.com/index2.html

Seems OK to me.

 

[batgirl]

Jennifer Cayea's agentquery page is here:
http://www.agentquery.com/agent.aspx?agentid=341
Not an AAR member. Sales listed to William Morrow, Plume, and Berkley, but it doesn't seem to have been updated recently.
"interested in discovering first-time author who write high-quality fiction. She is currently looking for literary and upmarket fiction; literary thriller; Latino/Hispanic fiction and non-fiction; young adult, memoir, narrative non-fiction; self-help and is desperate to represent a baseball book."

-Barbara

 

[marie2]

I queried her by post back in April 17. It's been over two months and still no response. Should I safely assume that she's disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle of Agents?

 

[Mrs. Strange]

She just got back from maternity leave so maybe that's why some people haven't heard back from her.

 

[Sydneyd]

I just tried querying this agent and recieved the following message:
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message

Dunno.,

 

[Hathor]

I dunno either, Sydneyd. I see on QueryTracker that folks were saying that emails were bouncing back in June, too.

 

[CaoPaux]

If Google is to be believed, she hasn't made any sales after 2008, which supports the last run of release dates on her website (Spring '10). Anyone have recent contact with her?

 

[pavtbr]

Sent Query

After reading about no-responses and emails being bounced back, I went ahead and sent my query anyway. As of 5 minutes ago it hasn't come back to me. I'll post again when I hear something though.
Bryan

 

[MadameApeFace]

As near as I can tell, as of 10/8/13, this agency does not exist. There are no hits on QT for either Avenue A or Jennifer Cayea, and the web site is a dead link.