Tribe Literary Agency / Wheelhouse Literary Group

[CAWriter]

Hello everyone!!
It was brought to my attention earlier that we were mentioned in this thread so I stopped by to give it a look. WOW! I am blown away. I want to offer my e-mail for ANYONE who would like to know the reasons for our departure from this agency. I have kept a civil tongue in my head for many months where this agency is concerned, but in truth, our reasons for leaving went much deeper than simply wanting to self publish. I urge ANYONE who is new to the writing world, to get educated on the ins & outs of the business and to know everything you can BEFORE querying. [email protected]
I wish everyone the very best in all their endeavors and hope you all have a wonderful day.

BTW- this is in no way a dig at Sean...he is a great guy, a wonderful writer and I believe him to be as loyal as they come so I hope no one takes it the wrong way.

So does that mean that your split wasn't as 'amicable' as you wrote in your announcement?

 

[ckwebb]

It means that our departure from there was as amicable as I could bring myself to be. We saw no need nor advantage to being nasty about it. It would only have made things worse than they were and would not have put a very positive light on us.

 

[eqb]

It means that our departure from there was as amicable as I could bring myself to be. We saw no need nor advantage to being nasty about it. It would only have made things worse than they were and would not have put a very positive light on us.

I know how that goes. *sigh*

 

[ShannonEckrich]

This is certainly true, however, you have to put things in context. This "sale" was to an epublisher, and epublishers just don't typically work with agents--partly because of the lack of advances, but also because epublishing still retains a lot of the alt-publishing ethos it started out with. You absolutely don't need an agent to sell work to an epublisher, or to get the publisher to prioritize your work (nor is there much incentive for agents to work with most epublishers, because of the lack of advances). Given this, why hand over 15% of your income to an agent? You give up that 15% for getting you in where you can't go yourself, not for placing you where you could reasonably have sold on your own.
Maybe--but wouldn't you want your agent getting you a better deal at a publisher that could afford to pay a competitive advance? Not casting aspersions on Crescent Moon, but it's a small publisher with, probably, limited finances, and I doubt it could afford to pay anything above low three figures (if that much). Getting you (for instance) a $350 advance when the publisher normally pays $250 is not really why you hire an agent.

- Victoria

Just wanted to clarify that Crescent Moon Press is not just an epublisher. They do print as well.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Based on Lynn Rush's blog, it appears she sold her book to Crescent Moon on her own.

- Victoria

 

[shelleyo]

Based on Lynn Rush's blog, it appears she sold her book to Crescent Moon on her own.

- Victoria

It certainly reads that way, as if the writer's time on SavvyAuthors led directly to the contact and the sale. But on the main Tribe page, it says her agent sold it. Maybe her agent handled the stuff that went on the site? The only thing to do is to ask Lynn herself, I guess.

Shelley

 

[CAWriter]

Here's a more complete version of the story. Lynn Rush deal with Crescent Moon. On Twitter and such I've seen Lynn thank Cari for her work on getting this contract, so this interview kind of brings all the pieces of the story together.

To quote Lynn:

"I couldn’t have done it without my Super Agent. She helped with all aspects of the pitch and handled everyone with the contract—all the while making herself available to my every question."

(Maybe Lynn didn't feel like she needed to go into detail in the conversation with her character, David, linked to above.)

 

[agentpaper]

Apparently Tribe lit has closed it's doors. This from Lynn Rush's blog.

This latest “bump” involves my agent–er–former agent. Yes. I’m sad to say Tribe Literary Agency is closing their doors. It was most unexpected. <snip>Wednesday we received an email that TribeLit was no more.

I tried to see if they'd made a formal announcement, but the website is gone, it takes you straight to the Wheelhouse one. And their facebook page is also gone.

Maybe someone with more google-fu than me can find something.

I don't suppose this was completely unexpected, but it doesn't appear they gave any warning to their authors before shutting down. I feel badly for all of them.

 

[kellion92]

That's a shame for the authors -- good luck to them. I'm not sure what kind of warning would be appropriate in advance -- it seems that Tribe was never able to get off the ground.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Tribe is definitely closed--per reports I've received, clients found out via a Facebook message. Sean Poindexter has also blogged about the closing.

Former clients are being very restrained and polite in public, but from what I'm hearing, it's not a pretty picture--submissions claimed but never made, poor or no followup, and, toward the end, major communication problems. It sounds to me as if Cari got in over her head and attempted to cover up until her lack of performance made covering up impossible.

- Victoria

 

[SeanTPoindexter]

Well, it's been long enough that now I can say something without it seeming like sour grapes. I terminated my contract with Cari a couple of weeks before she dissolved the agency. Which she did though a Facebook message to her clients...at least, the ones who were on Facebook. A few weren't and they had to get the news from other writers. One didn't get the news until he saw my blog about it and sent me a dumbfounded email asking for information. It did not feel good to be the one to have to explain it to him.

I got pulled in because I wanted to believe that her passion for my books would translate into vigor for a sale. It didn't. Victoria is absolutely correct: she went into it with good intentions, and she DID have contacts at publishing houses. She just didn't have the ability to push through a sale. Instead of admitting this, or redoubling her efforts on the writers she already represented, she took on more in the hopes that one of them would be the magic ticket into the publishing world and that all the others would follow.

Yeah, I kind of made an ass of myself, but I was sticking up for someone I thought was a friend. I apologized to Victoria months ago for being so snide, and I'll apologize to the rest of you, now.

The good news is after leaving Cari and going to publishers on my own, I landed numerous manuscript requests and two offers to publish! I've accepted one! So, in the end it all worked out. And I'm wiser now than I was before, and that's always a good thing

 

[kdesanges]

Congratulations!!! Sometimes we just have to get up and brush ourselves off and that is exactly what you did. Every experience, especially the negative ones, are an opportunity for growth. I wish you the best of luck

 

[SeanTPoindexter]

Congratulations!!! Sometimes we just have to get up and brush ourselves off and that is exactly what you did. Every experience, especially the negative ones, are an opportunity for growth. I wish you the best of luck

Thanks!