Yeah its a lottery. Casey, I don't think this is worth worrying about that much - what you were told is just the view for that agency i would imagine. I've read to the contrary that you can address it to who you want at an agency but usually their assistants will vet it first. Again per that agency.

I go by what they say on their web-sites, some say send to submissions, where they don't quote that then I look up the agents at the agency and address it to the one who fits the bill. Most web-sites give information so that this is possible.

I like Waxy's idea, but I'm not a phone person. Wish I was that brave

Thanks guys, yeh, i know, a lot of it's down to luck. Interesting to hear all of your experiences, though. Just goes to show there is no hard and fast rule - like everything else to do with writing...

Casey

the agent I eventually signed with, I targeted very carefully indeed. And found his personal email address, which wasn't on his website.

you stalked him?

Stalking? Amateur surveillance? Matter of perspective

Colin, Dylan Moran is great, and what writer couldn't empathise with that sketch? Lol. Thanks for the laugh.

I think a background in telesales and crawl centre work certainly helps me brave the odd agent over the blower. After you've had people rain fire and death down upon you and your family, just because you're trying to sell them a fax machine while they're enjoying dinner, you kind of become immune to being shy.

JB

<Added>

Piss midget - too funny!

Hi Casey - from the other point of view, be sure you are clear with contact guidelines if they are specified somewhere like the WAAY.

I once phoned a few agencies to request names to submit to and got the names with no problem. I then phoned another whose entry in that year's WAAY covered 2 pages. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't check the entire entry. If I had I'd have seen that the agent requested no phone calls. She was more than a bit miffed with me and pretty much rejected me there and then. Lessons to learn, and all that.

But if they don't make such specifications then go for it and try and get a name.

Sharon
x

Sammy,

if you call 'stalking' going through book industry websites to see what rights deals he'd posted, looked him up on Publisher's Marketplace where I found his personal email, Googled his clients to find information about him, eventually found a tenuous, coincidental link between me and his most financially successful author (we both did biochem at Oxford) and used that to grab his attention in an email header...

Then, yes, if you like, I cyber-stalked.

I used to search the Web for business competitor intelligence as a job. Even so, I remember that as a thorough afternoon's work.

Paid off though.

That's great that it paid off, Maria. When you said 'I targeted very carefully indeed' I had an image of him in the window of a top-floor flat while you stood on the roof of the building opposite, looking at him over a barrel of a gun.

I suffer from having an overactive imagination.

When you said 'I targeted very carefully indeed' I had an image of him in the window of a top-floor flat while you stood on the roof of the building opposite, looking at him over a barrel of a gun.

LOL! That's not an overactive imagination, it's brilliant comedy.

Just read an old thread and someone heard an agent from Curtis Brown talk who said that he couldn't remember the last time they had taken someone on from the 'general pile', because people who made a personal approach were more the kind of person they liked to work with. Hmm.

I'm inclined to agree with that. I sent them a manuscript on the strength of their website which said that all ms are read and replied to within x weeks. Mine came back within a week. So if you figure three days to get there, a day on the receptionist's desk - just long enough for her to slip it into the SAE along with a presigned form letter - and three days to get back to me....
Next time I'll try phoning first.

So if you figure three days to get there,

Where does your agent live? Mars?

Where does your agent live? Mars?

Funny.
I was factoring in the weekend and the 2nd class stamps. So by my calculation the ms didn't even make it to the slush pile

I wonder if scripts submitted with 2nd Class stamps are taken less seriously? . . . . or do they create sympathy for the pennyless writer?

Hello, I'm new. Day 1 of my free 30 days!

Or even scripts with no stamp, hand delivered!

Or even scripts with no stamp, hand delivered!

The rottweiler slavering at the agent's throat is quite effective too.

Indie, I doubt if they notice stamps in opening the couple of hundred of unsolicited submissions that arrive every day at a middle-sized agency. An individual slush-pile reader might notice the 2nd class on your SAE when they're stuffing your work back in, but, alas, they've decided by then.

Emma