Monday, June 8, 2009

SCBWI, Query Questions

Scott returns from Jersey today with tales of a fantastic SCBWI conference. Many thanks to all who made it possible, and to the 14 billion (or so) writers who shared their work. What we're hearing: boy middle-grade is still much in demand. So send us those rough-and-tumble stories.

I received a question today about our exclusivity policy. Exclusivity means submitting to us and us alone for a finite period - in our case, thirty days. We ask this because we don't wish to compete with other agencies for your work. If you'd like us to represent you, we get first dibs. Multiple submissions refers to sending more than one piece to different agencies. This is generally discouraged.

As always, I am delighted to answer questions via email (general@scotttreimelny.com).


-JC

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem I'm having is w/ agencies whose policy says "no response means we're not interested."

That's fine. But when I didn't get a response from an agency w/ this policy, I moved on to another agency. Agent #2 wants to see my ms, but then agent #1 surfaces wanting to see it, too. Hello? I thought their silence meant "not interested" when it really meant "we're very, very busy."

How to tell the difference between the two??

Tabitha said...

Oh! Oh....I totally did not understand that. I thought available meant, well, available. :S Sorry about that.

STNY said...

Re: LiteraTeens - I happen to think Agents should *always* respond. The only exception to this rule is when the query is completely out of left field (say, a self-help book to a children's agency). If the Author's done no research, we won't bother responding. Otherwise, it's a must.

There's no harm in writing to Agent #1 and saying "Hi, I have some interest in this manuscript. Would you like to see it first?"
-JMC

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