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FinePrint Literary Management

Sage

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Cheering you all on!
I queried Suzie today with my new ms, despite the fact that Brendan has not officially rejected my full of the old one. I know that anyone he could pass LS to in FP has already rejected it, so I figured I might as well take Shady's announcement as the go-ahead.
 

bclement412

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Hey guys--

I've been given the clear to reveal that Brendan Deneen is moving on to an editorial position at St. Martin's (yaaay Brendan) so he's not agenting anymore. (I'm now repped by Suzie Townsend, if anyone's curious. ;))

Duuuuddde you just made me a zillion more times excited to send my partial! I was super excited before, but this just put me over the top :D
 

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And I received a partial request from Suzie the same day. (Yes, I'm having a good day)
 

WriterMorgan

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True...but Cassandra Clare NEVER queried...she's friends w/ Holly Black who passed the MS to her agent and then he signed her... :)

So in that case, it worked out for her. But generally high count YA gets the big R from agents (not always - but usually)...

Good luck!! :)

Edit forget it, I emailed her instead :)

Also: YAY FIRST REJECTION!! Automated response within two minutes of sending because my word count was too high. I'm not 100% sure it's a rejection of course because it didn't actually say that, but I'm pretty sure it is. Still, what's a warrior without battle scars? :D

I've heard of YA fantasy novels exceeding 120K, like Cassandra Clare's City of Bones which was a bit over 130K, but I really did try to bring it down. The first draft was 160K and I got it down to 127K. Still too high, though I was hoping some agents might still look at it.

Oh well, I'll see how this batch goes and if I get the same responses, I'll start chopping plot lines :)

Thanks Colleen!
 

rebobinar

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Isn't Clare's agent Barry Goldblatt, who also reps Libba Bray and her very large word count books. Although, pretty sure Bray didn't have to query her husband, either... connections do help a bit!

It's funny you'll have an agent like Nathan Bransford who says word count doesn't matter, and then an agent who will auto delete based on "word count abuse"
 

sciri

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Most any agent (at least in North America, not sure in Europe, I'd be curious to know about that) will reject a YA that's over 100,000 words these days. I think even Nathan agrees to that, although I can't quote him directly. Unless you have "connections", like Rebobinar rightfully points out. Apparently Meyers got lucky with Twilight (at least that's what she claims on her website).
 

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I see people in the YA forum saying all the time, "What do you mean the OP can't have a word count over 100K? I got an agent with my 100K book." Take that as you will. But lower than 100K is better, yes.
 

Buster

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Has anyone heard if Brendan Deneen will be getting back to writers who have a full with him?
 

waylander

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Isn't Clare's agent Barry Goldblatt, who also reps Libba Bray and her very large word count books. Although, pretty sure Bray didn't have to query her husband, either... connections do help a bit!

It's funny you'll have an agent like Nathan Bransford who says word count doesn't matter, and then an agent who will auto delete based on "word count abuse"

I remember asking Mr Goldblatt at WFC in 2006 what the word limit was for a YA book and he said 'after Harry Potter, who knows'.
 

Sage

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Has anyone heard if Brendan Deneen will be getting back to writers who have a full with him?
No, nobody knows yet.

My guess is, he'll either reject us with a note about how he's moving on, or he'll ask around at FP to see if anyone wants to read it. It's all the same to me. Everyone else at FP has already rejected that particular ms.
 

kaitie

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Why doesn't someone just email him and ask? It seems like a reasonable enough question.
 

GreySpy

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Ken... for serious? He's your agent but didn't tell you he was not only leaving the agency but quitting agenting altogether?

Wow. Stay classy, FinePrint....

Having a drink for you, Ken!
 

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It's possible there was a miscommunication or an e-mail got lost in the web or he's trying to find homes for his clients' work before he contacts them
 

Brendan Deneen

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Hi all. I thought I'd drop in and clear up any confusion.

First off, this news was announced here before I was ready to announce it myself. Therefore, I wasn't able to get in touch with everyone before this speculation began.

As for material that I've requested, I'm going through all of it now and forwarding on to other agents at FPL. It may take awhile but all submissions (and queries, for that matter) will be responded to, either by me or someone else within FPL.

Thanks and best of luck with your writing!
 

Ken

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... was just contacted by email. Offered to introduce me to another agent at the agency. Pretty cool. My pulse is back in the 180 range ;-)
 

karo.ambrose

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My requested manuscript with Brendan is now in the hands of Suzie Townsend.
 

Phantom Writer

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It's very sad that Brenden is leaving/quitting. I received a really nice rejection from him this week and a short email exchange. I did send my query back in August though, so it appears they are getting through the backlog before he is gone. So sad and such a sign of the economy/business climate.
 

kaitie

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It isn't necessarily a sign of the economic climate. He's taking on an editorial position with a publisher. Maybe I'm missing something, but I was thinking more along the lines of wow, nice opportunity and assumed he was moving into something he's more interested in and actually thought it was probably moving up the career ladder. It never even occurred to me to think that it had anything to do with not making enough money as an agent. Or that it wasn't something to be happy of. Well, happy in that "Good for him!" way. Sad in the, "Aw, man you were next on my query list!" way. ;)