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[Agency] Richard Henshaw Group

Arquebus

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Henshaw replies

So… I emailed Mr. Henshaw to advise him that his replies were generating mild concern here. We had an interesting exchange, and he agreed to my suggestion that I post it here. FWIW, despite the fact that he already rejected my ms, if he were to change his mind and suddenly want to read it, I’d be happy to send it to him. I don’t think anyone who he’s interested in here needs to worry.

- Arquebus


From: Arquebus
Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 10:13 AM
To: Rich Henshaw
Subject: Re: historical crime novel query

Dear Mr. Henshaw:

Thanks very much for your consideration and your timely reply. I hope I am not impertinent if I give you perhaps the gentlest bit of advice: on Absolute Write, in the forum about you, people are generally positive, but there is some discussion of your use of the phrase "This sounds like fun," with multiple submissions. I understand you probably don't have time to spend all day thinking of incandescently descriptive adjectives, but I thought you'd appreciate knowing that.

Thanks again for taking a look at my query.

Regards,

Arquebus


From: Rich Henshaw <submissions [at] henshaw [dot] com>


To: Arquebus

Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 6:16:12 AM

Subject: RE: historical crime novel query

Thanks. I recently stumbled upon that. The truth is that most of my business is in commercial fiction and the object of commercial fiction is to entertain and often for me that means it’s fun to read. When a query sounds like it has that quality I often ask for it and while it may sound like a generic response it is in truth what caused me to ask for the sample. While I do frequently use that phrase when asking for a look at a partial, I’m a bit surprised that my sincerity is being questioned. The truth is that these days I would be surprised if I ask to see more than two or three samples of first novels a week out of around 500 or so queries that we get in the same time period. I guess the quality of query writing is high on Absolute Write.


Sincerely,

Rich Henshaw

From: Arquebus

Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:33 AM

To: Rich Henshaw

Subject: Re: historical crime novel query


Dear Mr. Henshaw:


Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply. I’d be happy to post that reply on AW, if you like… For what it’s worth, I don’t believe anyone is questioning your sincerity, merely your unbridled devotion to their as-yet-unseen manuscript. I think we all hope for an agent’s reply along the lines of “MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE A BEST-SELLER I CAN SMELL IT RIGHT NOW.” A certain baseless narcissism comes with territory, I guess. As for myself, of the eight agents who are reading fulls or partials of mine, the one who wrote to say she was really enjoying it and could I please be patient is the front run-runner for me, in the unusual and happy event that more than one agent makes an offer. We all want to feel special, writers perhaps more than most.


And yeah, I was surprised at the level of discourse and ability on AW. At first, I was expecting it to be more of a forum for the bitter, disaffected, no-talent dork contingent. But with the possible exception of myself, it really doesn’t seem to be.


Thanks again for your nice note.



Regards,


Arquebus

 

Perks

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I had a hopeful exchange with Rich Henshaw a while back. It didn't work out, obviously, but I thought he was a very pleasant and approachable agent.

Seems like a good guy.
 

Carlene

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I queried him twice, once last year, once this year on two different projects and he didn't respond to me either time. Least you think my queries stink, I have partials and fulls at agencies who are reading them now. Maybe he just doesn't like me?
: - )

Carlene
 

Horseshoes

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Car,
I'm sure he likes you just fine. Send your q again if your not sure it was received. Some agencies certainly do the -no response=no thanx- approach, but he and Susie doesn't strictly do that.
FWIW, I was w/ them for a bit. The contract he negotiated was better than I'd have gotten w/out him.
 

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Anyone who has recently queried Susannah Taylor? Experience?
 

jgold

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ST was lovely. She requested my partial after a week, requested the full a few weeks after that, then kept the full for four months because she couldn't decide whether to offer or not.

In the end, it was a no--a very sweet, complimentary no--but still a no. Although she offered to look at other projects. She seemed great to me and I would have loved to work with her.

If I ever have to query agents again, she'd be my first choice.
 

JJPie

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That's a great story, jgold. Sorry to hear it was a no. Thanks for sharing your experience!
 

clarkbrother

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Sent a follow-up email to Mr. Henshaw inquiring about the full I sent him after 3 months... no response. Sent him another follow-up email at the 5 month mark (3 days ago)... still no response. <scratches head>
 

JJPie

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Sorry to hear of the long wait clarkbrother. I'm still waiting too, but it's just been a few weeks.
 

spinspin

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If you look at Query Tracker data, R. Henshaw has a very fast response time for eQuery, and a terrible one for snail! This agent clearly prefers email, so go that route here.

Best,

Sp
 

clarkbrother

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Yes, he was quick to respond to my "email" query and request a full, but that was almost 6 months ago. I haven't heard a word from him since. I've got my manuscript out to a few other agents. But I'm still hoping to hear what Mr. Henshaw thinks. I'll let you guys know if I do.
 

euclid

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If you look at Query Tracker data, R. Henshaw has a very fast response time for eQuery, and a terrible one for snail! This agent clearly prefers email, so go that route here.

Best,

Sp

The problem with this is: They accept emails of 250 words only! Snail-mail, they accept a short synopsis and 50 pages. I mean what can you do with 250 words?

Also, he says he gets inundated with emails.
 

Parametric

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250 words is enough for a tight, well-written query. Hope you don't have too many credits though.
 

F.F.

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I sent a query to Mr.Henshaw and somehow their website re-directed it to Ms.Taylor. Two and half weeks later she replied to my query saying it wasn't her thing. To which I replied, I know that, I didn't send it to you, it was intended for Mr.Henshaw as you don't even deal in YA Fantasy. This is all paraphrased of course. I figured that was a colossal waste of two weeks in Querydom and moved on with my life.

But wait, she actually wrote me back, stating that she didn't know how or why she got my query and would personally ensure that it got to Mr.Henshaw.

I haven't heard from him yet and only just re-sent the query but I have to say, I was impressed that she 1) actually wrote me back and 2) was nice about the whole thing.

So as far as I'm concerned (from this one particular interaction) Ms. Taylor seems like cool beans.

Just wanted to let you all know.

;)

F.F.
 

colealpaugh

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So… I emailed Mr. Henshaw to advise him that his replies were generating mild concern here.

homer-doh.jpg
 

rebobinar

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Question for those of you who queried Richard Henshaw - I see he'll look at 50 pages in snail mail, but asks for 250 words in email and no attachments. Do you think that means 250 words for the total email? Or 250 words for the query, and then paste in pages below? How did you all do it?

Thanks!
Robin
 

eqb

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Question for those of you who queried Richard Henshaw - I see he'll look at 50 pages in snail mail, but asks for 250 words in email and no attachments. Do you think that means 250 words for the total email? Or 250 words for the query, and then paste in pages below? How did you all do it?

I sent a 250 word query by email, no pages. He replied with a request for fifty pages to be sent by snail mail.

ETA: I should mention that this was three years ago. He replied within a day with the partial request. Around nine months later, he sent a rejection with a lovely apology for letting my submission fall through the cracks.
 
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Vandal

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I queried Rich on 5/8 and got a rejection four days later.
 

socact

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I equeried yesterday, and got a same-day response for...well, he didn't say - he just said "i'll take a quick look at it." So I took "it" to mean the full, which I sent. He also said an attachment was fine. Also, for the query, I just sent a 250 word letter (no sample pages or anything).

He didn't mention snail mail to me...not sure why.
 

Zazz

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I queried today, and had a rejection about 4 hours later. It was his form "I'm inundated and must be very picky about what I choose to represent" type. But that's okay. At least he was prompt.
 

Vespertilion

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I did the 250-word query back on May 1, to Susannah Taylor. Never heard back.
 

Moost

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Got a VERY kind rejection on a snail mail partial/query to Susannah Taylor. Sent it about a month ago. It said:

Thank you for sending along the opening pages of -title-. I really enjoyed the partial, but I am going to have to pass on an opportunity to take a look at the whole manuscript.

Although I thought -title- was really charming and had a fun concept, the pacing was a bit slow for me.

-Encouragement, best of luck-

I really appreciate it when agents take the time for personal rejections. Susannah seems like a class act and I'd highly recommend querying her.

On to quickening the pace of my book...