Howard Morhaim Literary Agency

The discussion at the pitch session is going to be about your work not hers.
This looks to me to be a great opportunity to work with agent at a prestigious agency who in 2 years time will only take 2 clients a year.
Don't worry about her relative inexperience - she has the agency behind her and, with Howard Morhaim mentoring her, you're unlikely to go wrong.

Does anyone know the average response time of this agency on manuscripts? I've had my full out with for 2 months now. I think I could be more patient if I knew that it took them 4 months or something.

I know nothing, so I feel anxious most of the time.

Agent Katie Menick

This agent works for Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. Though I've found lots of authors represented by the agency, I've found little to nothing associated with her.

Does anyone know how long she has been an agent? Or what clients she represents?

Thanks so much for any/all information.

Howard Morhaim has been my agent for about eight years now. My first agent (since 1974) was Don Congdon, who was wonderful. I am entirely pleased with Howard's representation. He has helped me negotiate placement of my two previous novels with Shaye Areheart at Harmony/Crown, and he has sold the overseas rights to both books to Robert Hale in London. My third book with Howard, THE EGG MAN, which I have just finished, will also see pubication next year through Shaye Areheart's imprint, or through some other Random House division. I'll be going down to the city in a few weeks to meet with Howard to talk about my next book.

If anyone has questions about the agency, I'll be happy to try to answer them, but really my dealings have been specific to my work and limited to that extent. He is an excellent, well established agent, though.

Here's her Agent Query Page.

She's only looking at graphic novels at this time, and she's not accepting unsolicited queries.

Whoops - looks like there's already a Howard Morhaim agency thread.

Could one of the mods move this thread?

Miss Java, you might want to check the agency thread.

~Nancy

Katie is Howard's assistant and also handles her own stuff. She made an offer on my YA. I ended up choosing a different agent, and she wasn't thrilled about it--but after I explained I'd had four offers, she was more understanding. I found her to be very sweet and we had a lot of fun conversations, which probably explains her cofnusion when I went with someone else.

JerseyGirl1962 said:

Here's her Agent Query Page.

She's only looking at graphic novels at this time, and she's not accepting unsolicited queries.

Whoops - looks like there's already a Howard Morhaim agency thread.

Could one of the mods move this thread?

Miss Java, you might want to check the agency thread.

~Nancy

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Thanks JerseyGirl. Actually, her profile was updated today, changed to not accepting unsolicited queries and only graphic novels. I'm not sure what to think about that. She's had my full for over 2 months now (a fantasy novel). So now I'm feel a little more nervous (if that is possible).

I saw the Howard Morhaim thread, and didn't see much listed about her. And I admit, that I didn't notice the "make sure you post under the thread" rules until after I made this one. (oops) So I apologize if I'm a pain. (I can be one, once in a while)

Shady Lane said:

Katie is Howard's assistant and also handles her own stuff. She made an offer on my YA. I ended up choosing a different agent, and she wasn't thrilled about it--but after I explained I'd had four offers, she was more understanding. I found her to be very sweet and we had a lot of fun conversations, which probably explains her cofnusion when I went with someone else.

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Four offers? That is excellent Shady Lane. If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take for her to reply to your full manuscript?

There was just an interview with Brandi Bowles on the Guide to Literary Agents blog. I'm still not able to find a listing of her submission guidelines anywhere, though.

I did pitch Brandi Bowles at a conference in March. While she ultimately rejected my manuscript, I found her to be easy to talk with, very professional, and had a response time within 4 weeks, and I'd certainly recommend her.

ajkjd01 said:

I did pitch Brandi Bowles at a conference in March. While she ultimately rejected my manuscript, I found her to be easy to talk with, very professional, and had a response time within 4 weeks, and I'd certainly recommend her.

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Thanks for the recommendation! Do you happen to remember what her submission guidelines are?

Miss Java said:

I saw the Howard Morhaim thread, and didn't see much listed about her. And I admit, that I didn't notice the "make sure you post under the thread" rules until after I made this one. (oops) So I apologize if I'm a pain. (I can be one, once in a while)

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No, you're not a pain, not at all. There are so many threads on this board, that it ain't always easy to find the one you're most interested in.

Two months with your ms? Hmm. And a full. Wasn't an exclusive, was it? (Hopefully not.) Two months doesn't seem like that long (although I know it is for you!); I've read on some threads where agents have held onto fulls for longer than that.

Maybe you can send her a polite email asking if she's gotten to your ms. yet? That's about the only advice I can come up with.

And...you are working on something else so you don't spend all your time worrying about this, right? (Just most of the time. )

Good luck!

~Nancy

Why don't I see Brandi on the Web site? Is she still there?

gettingby,

Here's Brandi's LinkedIn information.

According to that, she's still at the agency.

~Nancy

Thanks, Jersey. I still think it is a little strange that she isn't on the Web site with the others. I queried her awhile ago but haven't heard anything.

gettingby said:

Thanks, Jersey. I still think it is a little strange that she isn't on the Web site with the others. I queried her awhile ago but haven't heard anything.

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Yeah, I'll admit that does sound strange. And I'm not sure how often the LinkedIn stuff gets updated.

~Nancy

Katie Menick

Katie Menick took 6 weeks to respond to my e-query and she's had my partial for 3 months. I know that agents are busy (I am quite familiar with the querying game!) but my personal experience has been that agents don't take more than 6 weeks to reply to a requested partial (just my experience---some agents wanted the full after that and others didn't). I'm disappointed that I haven't heard back from her, but I guess I'll just chalk it up to a "no." However, I doubt that I will query her again on my next project or advise any of my other writer friends to contact her.

LiteraryChick said:

Katie Menick took 6 weeks to respond to my e-query and she's had my partial for 3 months. I know that agents are busy (I am quite familiar with the querying game!) but my personal experience has been that agents don't take more than 6 weeks to reply to a requested partial (just my experience---some agents wanted the full after that and others didn't). I'm disappointed that I haven't heard back from her, but I guess I'll just chalk it up to a "no." However, I doubt that I will query her again on my next project or advise any of my other writer friends to contact her.

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I just got a response from her. It's been 3 1/2 months since I sent my full. She said she is bit behind and has started reading it. She also said that she'll have a response for me soon.

So you should still be hearing from her, probably in the near future.

Does anyone know anything about John Michel or had any experience with him? He is not listed on their website, but querytracker and agent query have him listed as being an agent with them. Does anyone know what the deal is with that? Thanks.

gettingby said:

Does anyone know anything about John Michel or had any experience with him? He is not listed on their website, but querytracker and agent query have him listed as being an agent with them. Does anyone know what the deal is with that? Thanks.

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Their website is not up to date. When I asked Katie Menick about it, she said that they will have a real website up soon.

I just got a request from this agency. I'm pretty excited. The request came from a different email address than the one I sent it to. And I was asked to send my stuff by email. I was just wondering if that how it has been for some of you.

Do you mind me asking how long ago you sent the query? I sent one awhile back and haven't heard anything yet.

It took one week to get this request. I had queried another agent there and waited quite awhile to get a form rejection from her. Feel free to PM me if you want.

gettingby said:

I just got a request from this agency. I'm pretty excited. The request came from a different email address than the one I sent it to. And I was asked to send my stuff by email. I was just wondering if that how it has been for some of you.

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Some agencies use one e-mail address just for query submissions. Once they decide to establish a relationship with you, you get access to a different address. Just a business-like way of keeping mailboxes unclogged so they can get to the requested stuff easily.

I just got a request today for the first three chapters from a query i sent March 23. I had to write them back and tell them that I've already secured representation, but it took 4/12 months for the answer, if that helps anyone.