The wait is killing me. I sent another query to Fifi Oscard's agency, using the form on the website. The auto-response said they'd get back to me in two weeks. As you've guessed, they didn't.
I had sent a query to them before, when Ms. Oscard was still walking the earth, and got the same auto-response and same lack of results. As instructed, I sent an e-mail asking about the status of the query, but again there was no answer. After that, I tried snail mail, with SASE, but Ivy Fischer Stone never answered that either. Now I hear that she's retiring, so I'd say there's no hope of every getting a response. Time to write off that agency, I suppose.
The short stories I've sent off to literary magazines have been equally ignored. The Indiana Review says they need two to four months, and they only accept 1% of the submissions. Thanks for that bit of info, but will you contact the other 99%? We're coming up on the four month mark, and I'm wondering if I'd be better off sending the submission elsewhere. It's hard to honor their need for exclusivity when I don't know if I'm wasting four months of my writing life.
As for the other three pieces, the journals are fine with multiple submissions, and in a way, it's more charitable on their part. If someone out there will print my novel excerpts, it's in my interest to cast a wide net. Now with the summer upon us, most of the literary journals aren't reading, connected as they are to university English departments who close down in the heat. What to do? Sit tight, perhaps, and be ready to fire up the laser printer for September and October. Cocktails, anyone?
1 comment:
I noticed that many of the agents at Fifi's agency are bailing. I never had any luck with their on-line form either. I would contact Ivy directly: ifischer@fifioscard.com
Good luck!
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