EQ: 7/6/20

Historical Romantic Women's fiction 77K

Form query: 6/27/2020, upmarket / multicultural, 90k
FR: 7/6/2020, sent same day

Profile Update: Genres updated.

Query: 07/01/2020
Rejection: 07/02/2020

She was polite with her rejection and encouraged me to see if another agent at BookEnds would be interested.

EQ: May 29, 2020
FR: May 29, 2020
ER: July 2, 2020

75K Women's Fiction

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"Dear Kelly Ann,

Thank you so much for answering my request for your material and for giving me and BookEnds the chance to review ODESSA.

I hope you and yours are staying safe during these times. BookEnds offices are working remotely, and being in isolation is giving us plenty of time to read, leaving me extra thankful for my submissions.

I was intrigued by the opening of your book and of course the manuscript, but the style of writing didn't grab me like I hoped it would. I had a hard time connecting with Odessa and the story itself.

I'm sorry I don't have better news. Publishing is such a subjective business that it's quite possible you'll find someone else who feels differently. Maybe even here at BookEnds. I encourage you to review our submissions page to see if another BookEnds agent might be better suited to your work.

I wish you all the best in your search for representation and thank you again for giving BookEnds the opportunity."

Saw on Twitter that she was light on queries so I submitted and got a Full request the same day. Crossing fingers.
100k Horror/Thriller/Supernatural/Historical/Fiction
Query 6/26/20
Full Request 6/26/20

Form rejection after 1 day but polite. She said that she does not represent my genre and suggested querying another agent at BookEnds. I submitted an upmarket dystopian under the speculative fiction genre. I'm a little embarrassed I misread what she represents so poorly but it is a learning experience.

@alibrynToday 7:29 am, you bring up something interesting there--I've been wondering if maybe a speculative fiction category should be added. I write supernatural horror, but it's literary and not super-gory and could be of interest to the kind of agents who say they want speculative fiction but don't want genre (which makes it really tough to target my queries, let me tell you). Being able to search for the agents who say they're looking for speculative would help me, since serious SFF agents aren't necessarily going to be into my book, and it's hard to find these people without reading every word about them on the internet. This addition would be a lot of work for Patrick and his team, though (I hope he has a team)...

FWIW, her genres here lists fantasy, but her website and her QueryManager page only list speculative / magical realism, which isn't as broad as the term fantasy suggests.

On 20 Feb 2020, she said, "I’m not interested in straight fantasy or science fiction."

So maybe "fantasy" should be removed from her genres? Just a thought. I find this with many agents on here listed as repping fantasy when what they really want is spec fic or light magical realism. It doesn't even sound like she's interested in contemporary or urban fantasy.

https://bookendsliterary.com/2020/02/19/jessica-fausts-fiction-wishlist/

Form query: 04/14
Full request: 04/14
Rejection: 06/25

Upmarket commercial fiction, 101k words

FQ 6/22//20
ER 6/23/20
92K upmarket (LGBTQ/YA crossover/New Adult)

Helpful personalized letter, suggested submitting to another agent at BookEnds

Submitted traditional mystery. 84K
Online submission form.
Liked my tweet from #pitmad.
Requested full ms next day.
Sent full ms today. Had formatting issues, had to go through entire ms to correct.
June 19, passed. Open to re-submission with revisions. A very nice letter. Will consider whether to resubmit.

Profile Update: Genres updated.

EQ: 5.27.2020
FR: 5.28.2020

84K Horror

Lightning fast response - less than 24 hours. Strong query but not for her, please query other agents at Book Ends if I desire.
EQ: 6/6/20
ER: 6/7/20
60,000 upmarket fiction