Thursday, March 11, 2010

Query Submission Update

Another day at the L. Perkins Agency, where Sandy Lu has spent the entire day sorting through e-queries and snail mail. She went through 200 e-queries and 50 snail mails, and she's only up to Dec. 8.

So, from here on, check this blog to see where we are date-wise. If you haven't heard from us, we are not interested. We are no longer going to be sending out rejections. Same goes for snail mail, so please remember to include your email address, in case we are interested.

As I have told people who re-query over and over again, we receive 30,000 query letters a year. It is physically impossible to get back to everyone in a timely manner.

Please don't double or triple query (meaning sending the same query to me, Sandy and Marisa). Take the time to read about our backgrounds, and choose who you would like to read your query. If you don't know, just send it to the agency email address.

Please don't take this personally. We are trying to streamline the process. We respect your time and hope that you can respect ours.

3 comments:

J. R. Tomlin said...

Let me ask you this, Ms. Perkins, if I may. Let me preface it with the fact that I have an agent--so I'm not querying. I'm just curious.

Does your no response policy apply to material you have requested?

And all the best to you and your agency.

Ravenous Romance said...

Requested material should get a response, but no response means it hasn't been read yet (and it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out). For me personally, I have 80 clients, and I edit 75 books a year, so anyone I ask for a ms. from should understand the workload I am under. If they don't, I cannot work with them.

Aiden Corvisiero said...

It saddens me to see Ms. Perkins in the position to have to have to explain her professionalism in this manner. In her defense, I have multitudes of things to say, but will only say that 1) Lori Perkins is the most generous and gracious agent I've met thus far with writers and other agents; and 2) like most good agents out there, it isn't enough to say that she is extremely overworked and sough out. She does not have the luxury to say no right of the bat because she cares, and she takes the necessary time to respond because she gives each author the proper time and consideration. If a writer is smart enough, and patient enough to wait for such response, that author will prove to have the professionalism, knowledge of the industry, and patience to succeed in this field.