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Seymour Agency

Hapygrl135

Does anyone have any information concerning Mary Sue Seymour/The Seymour Agency? I have researched and found a bit of info, but nothing conclusive.

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KL
 

ByGrace

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I received a request for the first 50 pages. After reading over the Seymour Agency's website they do look solid, have many credentials. However, I read on one site where a writer was asked to pay for editing. I'm worried. Does anyone know anything?
 

victoriastrauss

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For a while in the 1990's, the Seymour Agency offered rejectees the opportunity to pay $50 for an edit of the first 50 pages of their mss. This put them on a lot of "Beware" lists. However, they discontinued the practice in 2000 or 2001. I haven't gotten any complaints about editing offers since.

- Victoria
 

jenn0927

She recently requested a full manuscript from me. Hopefully I'll know something soon.
 

Julie Worth

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I'm still laughing at this bit, taken from her site:

Mary Sue is a spiritual person and often attempts to soften a rejection with a prayer card...
 

Brady

The Seymour Agency

Has anyone had dealings with Mary Sue Seymour or the Seymour Agency? The have a dollar sign on P & E. I'd like to know more on her before I send a manuscript.:D

Thanks!
 

BrookieCookie777

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The Seymour Agency

Hi guys. I'm searching for a Christian genre agent and although I find good things about Ms. Seymour - I also find bad things about her on other sites. Very confusing. Anybody have any info on her?

Thanks!
 

BrookieCookie777

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Thanks Mods!

Thanks for moving this to the correct thread. :e2cheer: Yea, Mods! This info is very helpful.
 

ChelseaWriter

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Has anyone had any more recent experience with her? I'm planning on sending my first 50 pp since Victoria stated in her last posting that the fee thing was an old practice. Any new info would be helpful.


I queried her with 50 pages of my novel (women's fiction) back in July. She responded quickly, by mail, with a very nice letter, requesting the full manuscript exclusively. It's been exactly 3 months since I mailed the mansucript, and I haven't received a response yet. However, in the Guide to Lit Agents book, she has "3 months" down as her time to view full mansucripts. So, I thought I'd wait another 2 weeks and email her about the status...

She has not mentioned any fees of any kind.

I'd also be interested to know if anyone else has had their work rejected/accepted by her (and how long it took for a response).
 
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ChelseaWriter

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Thanks, that's helpful. I'm curious, what exactly is women's fiction? Is that just a catch-all?

Yes, "women's fiction" is a pretty wide label. I interpret it as being fiction (either commercial or literary) that's more concerned with relationships than anything else - whether that's romantic relationships, family relationships, friendships, etc. It does sound like that other woman who emailed you was looking for a very specific genre with very specific criteria. Straight romances or straight mysteries seem to be that strict in guidelines, but I think "women's fiction" is a lot more broad.

Seymour seems interested in Christian books (I'm a Christian, but this novel of mine is not specifically Christian - there are VERY specific guidelines with those types of novels, too, and I like to be freer with my plots/characters). But - on the Preditors/Editors site, she also expressed interest in "branching out" into women's fiction, which is why I submitted to her in the first place. If she'd only accepted Christian fiction, I wouldn't have tried. So, we'll see....

I actually snail-mailed Seymour's with my query and 50pgs, and she snail-mailed me back a response after about 2 weeks, requesting the entire manuscript. I've had agents request full manuscripts a couple of times in the past, and the turnaround time varied - anywhere from one month to one year (yikes!). I've read that 2-3 months is probably the most reasonable time, especially if they've asked for exclusivity.

I guess it's all just a big gamble, and even though I get impatient waiting to hear something, I'd rather take the risk and give an agent exclusivity if there's a chance of representation. I'm preparing myself for either response - I've already got a list of other agents to query again, if she rejects my manuscript.

Best of luck to you, in getting representation! I'll keep you posted (in this thread) on how things go with my submission. I'd love to know about how yours goes, too! :)
 

ChelseaWriter

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I'm halfway through the third book in my series and am considering preparing a synopsis submitting all three books as an anthology.

I'm considering going back and editing one of my older novels (I finished several earlier this year) and then submitting those instead of submitting these three in the series:D. If I have several different novels, then I can submit them to several agents, right? That might be better for me. I wouldn't mind so much if they edited those novels, but if they over-edited this series, I'd be crushed.

It does also seem from her website that Seymour likes series books (mine is also a series, but I'm not sure yet as to the scope of it - how many books I'll have).

Yes - great idea to take an older novel and edit it. And, yes, I do think it's perfectly fine to query a few different novels to different agents. It'll increase your chances, for sure. This submission process is exhausting, and it can really wear you down. But I think it's worth it, just to try. :)
 

jodiodi

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I queried her and she requested the first 50 pages. A few months later, I got a rejection, but she was very nice. I'll probably query her again with new projects as they're ready.
 

Carlene

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Last summer a friend of mine obtained representation from this agency - and spend a LOT of money paying for photocopies and mailings. She never sold her book and I'm not sure if she's still with the agency. I HOPE they have changed this policy as my friend could ill afford all the money she paid.

Carlene
 

J. R. Tomlin

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Thanks. I've added it to my thread list and printed the pages so I know what's reasonable. I received two rejections today from the query letter and synopsis I mailed last Tuesday. They didn't even bother reading it, just looked at the genre and sent a form letter. Not even a letter, but a little piece of photocopied paper. Disappointing. The other form letter was mailed by the secretary who was at least up front about the lit agent not even reading it. Was hoping that reputable agents at least ready your letter rather than letting the secretary blow you off entirely. Oh well, still looking, but I'm typing up a new query letter and putting it in the "women's fiction" genre rather than "romantic suspense". We'll see if that makes a difference. :)

Thank you so much for your help. It's nice to find so many friendly writers out there. I have no clue how much novels make, so when I hear fees, I cringe. :)

Now, I have another question for you. Have you ever tried sending the first twenty pages of your ms rather than a synopsis with your query letter? Have you had any luck sending directly to publishers rather than lit agents? I've read on some of the usenet groups about people who go straight to the publisher and there's another thread here where they queried Llewellyn directly. I'm wondering if that might be the way to go or to at least give it a try. It can't hurt. I've got over a dozen finished novels on my hard drive and have no problem writing up query letters for each. One of my college degrees is in science so I'm viewing this as a science experiment with my kids as I try to get published. lol. It keeps me from getting depressed. I feel like the last girl asked to the prom. :cry:
I send what the agent or publisher says on their submission page that they want to see. What they want varies pretty drastically from one to another.

Many people send mss. directly to publishers. Again, you can tell by their submission page which accept unagented mss. And you can use resources such as duotrope and ralan.com.
 
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J. R. Tomlin

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Wow, this is so helpful. I just tried both. I didn't even know they existed. I think I'll try some of those places while I'm submitting my queries to agents. It can't hurt. Have you had any luck with those website publishers? Thank you!! :D
I have two novels currently under consideration at publishers, so I suppose I have had some at any rate. :)

Duotrope is immensely helpful as I use their submission tracker in addition to their database and their search is very user friendly. Good luck and happy to help.
 

ChelseaWriter

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Now, I have another question for you. Have you ever tried sending the first twenty pages of your ms rather than a synopsis with your query letter? Have you had any luck sending directly to publishers rather than lit agents? I've read on some of the usenet groups about people who go straight to the publisher and there's another thread here where they queried Llewellyn directly. I'm wondering if that might be the way to go or to at least give it a try. It can't hurt. I've got over a dozen finished novels on my hard drive and have no problem writing up query letters for each. One of my college degrees is in science so I'm viewing this as a science experiment with my kids as I try to get published. lol. It keeps me from getting depressed. I feel like the last girl asked to the prom. :cry:

I haven't queried publishers as yet. I'm keeping an open mind, though, and will probably go that route soon.

As for the queries to agents, I always only give them what they want, whether it's 50pgs, or the query letter only. I've been to too many conferences where agents told us it makes them angry to get unsolicited submissions (even if it's just a few chapters of something they didn't ask for). But, I have heard that it's okay to include maybe the first 5 pages with a query - I don't really think that small amount can hurt.

Take heart, about the rejections - I know exactly how you feel. Just remember, the odds against us are enormous. You're not alone. I read somewhere that, in an average week, the average agent receives anywhere from 400-600 query letters. From those, they only select maybe 2 or 3 writers from whom they request more material (chapters, manuscripts). *sigh*
 
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