Profile Update: Open to queries.

Thanks Sara79

reviewed the agency site and submitted query to Lori, then logged into QM to record the query sent.
QM states that she is closed to queries, but the website did not note this...

shane21, they are a well established agency. The problem is that Ms. Perkins owns part of a publishing company, which could be a conflict of interests. But, P&E only lists it as a "Conflict Advisory" and not a "Not Recommended" because no wrong-doing has been reported.

If they push a self-publishing service on you, please let someone know. In the meantime, it is possible to keep the two businesses separate, which they seem to be doing.

This is a bogus agency. The reason they (recently) posted the no longer accept unsolicited queries notation is do to the conflict of interest advisory by p&e. Some of their agents are also writers who feed the e publishing company this "agency" actually owns.

Profile Update: Agent website added.

(Thanks saetter)

New website is up finally: http://www.lperkinsagency.com

Query update posted on her blog: "Sandy just left at 10 p.m. after a full day of query-hunting. She came in and there were 843 queries as of this morning, and she left with 485 to go, the last of which was dated 3/29/10. Many partials were requested from this batch, but if you haven't heard from us, I'm afraid we've passed on your material."
I love when agents take the time to let us know what's going on in their world. :)

In other news: I received a partial request from Louise Fury on 5/31
Then I got a full request yesterday! W000T!
So far correspondence with her has been a delight and I love her last name.

her blog says "I am a Literary Agent and an Editorial Director. I have a fondness for cross-genre fiction, erotica, vampire novels and romance." So why is crime/detective listed here? Or am I missing something?

Queried in early February, received partial request from Sandy Lu 6/10. I'm not sure how to report this, exactly.

Made a query on 2/16. Requeried on 5/18. No response from either.

Not at all impressed with her professionalism (i.e. blog post mentioned before). Never understood people who think "They were unprofessional first" is a valid excuse for an attempt to publicly humiliate a querier. Made my decision to exlude them from my query list easy. I will not be sending anything here.

Anaquana: You have a good point. I went back and re-read the letters he sent and their responses. The exchange perhaps shouldn't have warranted a public blog post as he seemed pretty polite but made a faux pas in going over Sandy's head to her boss. Lori was likely a bit put out with that and was rather blunt in her reply. As I said in my first comment, I've dealt with Ms. Lu and when she ran her own agency she was ridiculously slow and strung me along interminably. I finally gave up on her and eventually she did send a rejection. Frankly I wouldn't waste my time with her.

And yes, I understand it is a standard practice to send a status query on partials/fulls after 3 months. And Nathan Bransford is terrific (I do read his blog as well as Jessica Faust and many of the publishing link blogs she lists including Janet Reid who makes Lori sound like Ms. Manners).

Tarzan, the conflict of interest is because she is also a part of Ravenous Romance which is an e-book publisher.

I take umbrage with the fact that she berates this poor individual (in public) for merely trying to find out the status of his *requested* submission two months after the stated deadline. There was nothing arrogant or "entitled" about his emails. Going above Sandy's head may have been an error, but Lori's response was beyond rude and arrogant. She read things into his emails that simply were not there.

It is perfectly acceptable in this industry to request status updates from an agent. Nathan Bransford says to send a status update request after 3 months and then every month after.

Anaquana: A couple of things. I looked at the P&E 'advisory conflict of interest' notation. Any idea what that's all about?

Also, I think you must be addressing the blog entry regarding someone sending a couple status queries to her associate, Sandy Lu. I don't quite take as much umbrage as you do with Lorie's blow-by-blow take on it. However, I will say this regarding Sandy Lu since I have had experience with her in this department. She requested a full from me and did answer at least two status queries from me promptly. However, each one simply asked for more time. After nearly a year she finally responded with a standard reject. That was when she had her own agency. Apparently she's still painfully slow.

Based on her extremely rude and public bitchfest about a writer merely requesting a status update, I decided to pull my query from her consideration. I do not want an agent that unprofessional representing me.