Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Yesterday, I was at a book signing for one of my favorite authors, who's written several bestsellers. One of the people I was with mentioned I'm working on a book, and the author gave me some very helpful advice and told me the name and agency of an agent he's worked with, whom he said I should contact when I was ready, and to feel free to say he'd recommended it. So, first of all, yay!

However, I went onto that agent's website afterwards and saw that the agent was not currently accepting submissions. This may change by the time I'm ready to submit the manuscript but if not, I was wondering - since one of the agent's former clients recommended I contact him, would it be appropriate to send a query along the lines of, "While I realize you're not accepting submissions at this point, I met so and so spoke and he spoke very highly of you and recommended I write to you..." etc., or should I just realize that, although the author was being incredibly nice, he probably didn't know that the agent wasn't accepting submissions, and that it would be rude to go against what it says on the site, and then just hope the agent will be open to submissions soon? If it is okay to e-mail the agent, should I send a query, or ask if he'd be okay with my doing so? And lastly, would I need to e-mail the author, too, beforehand, to double-check about mentioning his name (he specifically said it was okay, but still)?

Thank you!

Falls Apart wrote:Yesterday, I was at a book signing for one of my favorite authors, who's written several bestsellers. One of the people I was with mentioned I'm working on a book, and the author gave me some very helpful advice and told me the name and agency of an agent he's worked with, whom he said I should contact when I was ready, and to feel free to say he'd recommended it. So, first of all, yay!

However, I went onto that agent's website afterwards and saw that the agent was not currently accepting submissions. This may change by the time I'm ready to submit the manuscript but if not, I was wondering - since one of the agent's former clients recommended I contact him, would it be appropriate to send a query along the lines of, "While I realize you're not accepting submissions at this point, I met so and so spoke and he spoke very highly of you and recommended I write to you..." etc., or should I just realize that, although the author was being incredibly nice, he probably didn't know that the agent wasn't accepting submissions, and that it would be rude to go against what it says on the site, and then just hope the agent will be open to submissions soon? If it is okay to e-mail the agent, should I send a query, or ask if he'd be okay with my doing so? And lastly, would I need to e-mail the author, too, beforehand, to double-check about mentioning his name (he specifically said it was okay, but still)?

Thank you!

If the author said to go ahead and submit ad mention them by name then yeah, go ahead and contact the agent directly and say that even if the agency says it's not currently accepting submissions. They may really be closed, but it's worth a shot. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely send in a query as soon as I'm ready, and just hope for the best