Summer Buzzing and Reading

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I’m spending the longest day of the year in a place where the sun barely sets in the summer. It’s incredible to see clearly at 2am, it really brings a whole new meaning to the solstice. It’s also given me more hours of bright reading light, which has been helpful in catching up with submissions. My deepest apologies to those of you who had to wait as I considered yours. Due to outside forces, it took me far longer to read through my maybe-pile this past winter than I expected, I had to extend my submission closure through spring. At last I’m back on track, having whittled down my list to 10 requested fulls (for those of you wonking out on query stats, that’s just 1% of the submissions I received in the fall, mostly upmarket adult fiction). So I will be opening for the summer after the 4th of July!

I also will be on faculty for two conferences this fall: 

Say hello if you are attending!

Submissions Update

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Despite the best laid plans, I was unable to open to submissions this winter. As much as I would love to sign new clients, current clients take priority, so I’m remaining closed to submissions until my schedule opens up again. My goal is to respond to pending submissions and re-open by this summer, maybe a bit earlier. To the handful of people who are waiting for a response to their submission, I thank you for your patience. Know that your submission is still under consideration.

For those of you who love query stats–I received about a thousand queries while I was open in Oct/Nov 2023. Of those, about 100 made it into the further consideration pile. Since then: I have responded to 60 or so. Quite of few more, around 20, received offers of representation on which I stepped aside. I have yet to request any fulls.

Do note, my standard timing is elongated due to outside forces, but as personal and professional interruptions that cut into submission response times are fairly common in an agent’s career, it’s a good statistical variable to take into account.

Closing to Submissions

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The mornings are getting chillier, and as the popular meme says the “let’s circle back after the holidays” season has begun. I am closing to queries until the new year to catch up. For those of you who enjoy the wonking out stats, I received over 1000 queries since opening in mid-Oct. From the earlier batch this past spring, I am currently considering 16 fulls, which I hope to respond to by the end of the year, before I request more fulls from the newer pile. I wish my response times were faster, but that’s not possible at this time. See you in 2024.

I hope everyone who has the privilege of a holiday season enjoys it, may it be lovely and restful.

Praying for peace 💔

Submissions Update

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It’s the Season of the Witch, and pumpkins abound. As do, unfortunately, book bans. Penguin Random House has created a wonderful resource for anyone interested in joining the resistance to these bans, click here.

For those of you following my submission stats, I’ve officially narrowed the inbox down to full requests. I opened to submissions for three months this past spring and had 1,850 submissions. I ended up requesting 19 full manuscripts and so far have made 3 offers of representation.

Now that I’ve caught up on queries, I’m opening to submissions for the remainder of the year and will likely close again in the new year to catch up, as settling in at the new agency and this little one is keeping me busy.

Mary C. MooreSeptember 11, 2023

One of my favorite independent publishers is hosting an auction. Levine Querido is doing amazing work in the kidlit publishing space, so I’m happy to support them with a donation of two query letter + five page critique. To bid on one of my critiques click here! (If I have already reviewed a submission of yours, you can still bid.)

Or check out the rest of their amazing offerings at the auction here.