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FinePrint Literary Management

Elaine Margarett

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I submitted to FinePrint a couple of weeks ago and got an email reply the following week saying "This is not a form rejection..."

They were simply acknowleding my submission was recieved and they would be getting to it. I thought, "Wow, how professional!"
 

Thedrellum

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Got a nice, fast rejection from Suzie Townsend today (fast since I'd queried her this morning). She gave some brief comments in her rejection that showed she'd read the sample pages (at least a few of them, enough to know she didn't want to represent).

My YA is 92K -- which she was saying is a little long -- though the premise also struck her as more Middle Grade. Well, not my concept itself -- but I should probably not reference The Graveyard Book and Lemony Snicket. Even though those books are close in, well, overall concept, their writing is aimed at a younger audience than mine.

Something new learned about query letters = check.
 

Marika

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I haven't heard from Brendan yet about what's going to happen with the manuscript he requested from me.
 

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I don't think he's taking any fulls with him as an editor. He seems to be finding homes for them with other agents at FP, but he has a backlog to go through.
 

kaitie

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I'm not entirely certain he could do that without permission from the author. Starting one's own agency and taking fulls with you is one thing, but many people (myself included) query only agents and don't send directly to editors. It also seems like potentially...well, not a conflict of interest per se, but something like that, to place a book that you were considering as an agent. Personally I don't think I would feel comfortable doing that. I'd be more likely to suggest the person resubmit at the new location. It's also possible that the publishing house doesn't take unagented queries and it could go against policy to continue considering them. Obviously he would be the one who could say for certain whether any of these were an issue, but I imagine it's a bit more complicated than if he had just opened his own agency.
 

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Peter Rubie Submission Guidelines

Does anyone know Peter Rubie's specific submission guidelines / preferences? Fine Print's website only seems to have a bio of each agent but not specific guidelines. If I email him, should I paste the synopsis and first two chapters in the body of the email since they don't want attachments? Anyone who has received a response from him, what did you do and what response did you get?
 

Anaquana

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LiMeiLing, if there are no specific guidelines for the individual agents, go with the agency guidelines which are synopsis and first two chapters along with query. And yes, you would paste everything into the body of the email.
 

kaitie

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Agent Query says that he takes two chapters snail mail, but that by email he takes only the query. I'd probably add in five or ten pages at the end, but probably not two full chapters because of that.
 

LiMeiLing

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Thanks Anaquana and kaitie! The Agent Query info is really helpful. :)

If anyone knows if Rubie prefers snail mail or email (or can account for more or less success with one or the other), though, I'd love to know.

From the Agent Query site that kaitie mentioned, I see Rubie mentions snail mail twice. And part or me would like the opportunity to actually send some of my writing. But if he responds better to email, I'd rather do that.
 

kaitie

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I think it's really up to you. If the agent takes both and you think it will be more beneficial to have your writing sample there (it probably is) then I'd say go for it. The only downside is that it takes longer. I'd honestly do more snail mail just for that reason alone if I didn't live out of the country. Postage is a pain in the butt.
 
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thmafi

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does anyone know what suzie townsend's turnaround times on submissions are? i think she takes on a lot, though she works just as much.
 

NDZone

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I'm not entirely certain he could do that without permission from the author. Starting one's own agency and taking fulls with you is one thing, but many people (myself included) query only agents and don't send directly to editors. It also seems like potentially...well, not a conflict of interest per se, but something like that, to place a book that you were considering as an agent. Personally I don't think I would feel comfortable doing that. I'd be more likely to suggest the person resubmit at the new location. It's also possible that the publishing house doesn't take unagented queries and it could go against policy to continue considering them. Obviously he would be the one who could say for certain whether any of these were an issue, but I imagine it's a bit more complicated than if he had just opened his own agency.

No, I didn't mean to imply he would take what would now be unagented manuscripts. I know he referred clients to other FP agents. I know he's reading projects repped out of Agent Alley that he'd known about. I made the leap that some of those would be projects he had once repped. Perhaps I shouldn't assume.
 

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I saw on QT that she requests partials off about 25% of queries - couldn't find much on times, but maybe I was looking in the wrong place. She said in her auto response to me to allow her 12 weeks, though.
 

thmafi

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yea.. me too. i guess i was just wondering if anyone had a personal experience with her turnaround time. thanks for the help!!
 

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For LS, she went from query to partial the same day, partial to full in about 2 weeks, full to rejection in about another 2 weeks. This was back in August-September

For Fireflies, she also requested a partial the same day. And that was the 22nd.
 
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For Peter Rubie, I sent an e-mail query letter that resulted in a snail mail partial (that was almost immediately rejected)
 

thmafi

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awesome. thanks so much sage -- i appreciate the input!
 

Sage

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Thanks, Sage! That's good to know. I love your picture by the way. What's it from? :)
It's a picture I found (on flicker, probably) when I searched for firefly pics for Fireflies. I thought it matched the book well. Thanks :D
 

Colleen Lindsay

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Heads up:

Tonight on Twitter, I'll be hosting an #askagent session at 10:00 EDT (or, if the State of the Union Address runs long, immediately afterward).

Usually I do these on the fly, but this is the first one I've scheduled beforehand. Please feel free to join in. Use Tweetchat.com to easily follow and join in the conversation. I don't know which agents or editors will be joining in, but rest assured, there will be a few joining in.

The Rules for #Askagent:

1.) Use the hashtag #askagent
2.) Please do not ask us questions about query letters or word counts. Rather, I would encourage you to use this opportunity to ask questions about how publishing & the book industry actually work.

Hope to see some of you there!

Colleen
 

Erin

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does anyone know what suzie townsend's turnaround times on submissions are? i think she takes on a lot, though she works just as much.

Query to full request in 1 day. Full rejection in little more than 3 weeks (with Thanksgiving holiday thrown in the equation).
 

LiMeiLing

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It's a picture I found (on flicker, probably) when I searched for firefly pics for Fireflies. I thought it matched the book well. Thanks :D

Cool! Part of me has always wished authors could have more say in cover art. But I'll still be ecstatic if I ever get published even if I hate the cover.

And DARN! I can't believe I missed Twitter chat with an agent! I was busy trying to write my synopsis most the day. :p
 

thmafi

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Query to full request in 1 day. Full rejection in little more than 3 weeks (with Thanksgiving holiday thrown in the equation).

Thanks!!