Has anyone heard from Stephen Fraser lately, or does anyone know if he doesn't send rejections? He requested my full ten months ago and I'm still waiting for a response. He has stated in online interviews that he likes authors to follow up, so I nudged him a few weeks after I first sent the MS, and he replied that he hadn't gotten to it and to check back. So now I've checked back at least six times, even resent the MS file, and haven't heard anything else.
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The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency
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Wow, 10 months?! I hope you have been submitting elsewhere in the meantime? That is kind of a scary long wait. I'd almost want to just consider it a lazy No.
Yep, Elinor - I've definitely been submitting elsewhere. Just curious if any of the others who previously posted on this thread (or anyone else) who also waited on their fulls ever got any resolution.
It's been several years since I queried Mr. Fraser, but I had a similar experience. The first time I queried him--this was waaaaaay back in 2009--he requested a hard-copy partial, which he politely rejected a month or two later. (He even sent it back with handwritten notes.) I queried him with my next project in 2011, and he requested a digital partial, which he never responded to. (That request, I just realized, is still open on QueryTracker.) Still, I let him know about my next manuscript when it was ready, but even after I got an offer, he never responded, so it does look like this is a bit of a pattern.
That said, he's sold scores of books, including some I really love, so he certainly has the contacts. But he clearly doesn't communicate with querying writers very well.
Hmm, so no success stories about writers who kept following up, as he suggested, and got somewhere, but if anyone has one, do share. Anyway, thanks, Krista and Becca.
Has anyone heard from Roseanne Wells recently? She's reading a requested revision from 4/14 but hasn't responded even to a nudge, which seems unlike her.
I'd love to work with her, but she's my last agent standing and I'm wondering if I should start querying small presses.
I'd love to work with her, but she's my last agent standing and I'm wondering if I should start querying small presses.
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I'm getting my queries together and compiling a list of people to query. I'm trying to decide whether to send one to Linda Epstein or Jennifer DeChiara. Both say that they want a one paragraph synopsis and an author bio as part of their query package. Can I assume that the one paragraph synopsis mentioned does not mean a separate paragraph on top of the normal rundown included in the body of the query letter? Mine is three short paragraphs, though (total around 170 words). I could mush it into one, though Janet Reid on QS seems to prefer queries with multiple short paragraphs. But my query rundown doesn't actually give the ending away, and synopses usually have to include the ending.
Guess I'm a bit confused what this agency wants here. Just the normal query letter, but mushed into one paragraph, or a synopsis that's condensed to just one paragraph on top of the normal query letter?
I'm used to being told that we shouldn't put personal stuff that isn't either publication credits, or industry experience, or a serious workshop like Clarion, or professional organization memberships (I write fantasy, so I can't join our professional organization, the SFWA, without pro rate publication credits).
So lacking all these things, what do I put in an author bio? My profession? The fact that I've participated in a small writer's workshop? That I moderate on a small fantasy writers' web site? My hobbies? My pets?
Guess I'm a bit confused what this agency wants here. Just the normal query letter, but mushed into one paragraph, or a synopsis that's condensed to just one paragraph on top of the normal query letter?
I'm used to being told that we shouldn't put personal stuff that isn't either publication credits, or industry experience, or a serious workshop like Clarion, or professional organization memberships (I write fantasy, so I can't join our professional organization, the SFWA, without pro rate publication credits).
So lacking all these things, what do I put in an author bio? My profession? The fact that I've participated in a small writer's workshop? That I moderate on a small fantasy writers' web site? My hobbies? My pets?
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Queried Rosanne Wells earlier this year, didn't receive a response to the query though.
Anyway, I saw the one para synopsis for exactly what it is, a dust-jacket blurb that is more succinct than the query letter pitch, ie: this is what it's about, this it how it ends. So I'm not trying to hook them into reading, just telling the agent what its about.
(Heh, didn't work, so take with a grain of salt!)
Anyway, I saw the one para synopsis for exactly what it is, a dust-jacket blurb that is more succinct than the query letter pitch, ie: this is what it's about, this it how it ends. So I'm not trying to hook them into reading, just telling the agent what its about.
(Heh, didn't work, so take with a grain of salt!)
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Emailed a query to Stephen Fraser this morning. Heard back 27 minutes later with a very excited request for a full. I don't want to get my hopes up, especially since a lot of people never seem to hear back. But that sure made my day.
Does anyone know what Jennifer's response times (on fulls) are like? She's had my full for 2 months now.
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Whitley Abell, Alex Barba, and Colleen Oefelein, all formerly of Inklings, are now at Jennifer DeChiara: https://twitter.com/4writers/status/966316146638155776
I'm thinking about submitting to someone at this agency, but there are multiple agents that I think my MS might be a good fit for. I looked around their website for anything mentioning if they are a "no from one is no from all"/an agency where they pass queries around in case they think another agent is a good fit, but I've found nothing. Totally possible that I'm just being blind. Does anyone know their policy on this?
When agents attack: My dismal experience with the Jennifer De Chiara agency
Go to hell.
I’m not responding to anymore emails from you, so don’t bother responding.
— Jennifer De Chiara.
Long-time lurker here, grateful for all the wisdom I have gleaned over the years. Congratulations to all the writers who have secured agents. For those of you still struggling, take heart: No agent is better than a bad agent. Per forum rules, I will merely summarize my experiences, which are detailed in my blog (click here).
In a nutshell, Jennifer De Chiara has ceased communication with me on the eve of the tentative* publication of a book that I ghost-wrote for Artimus Pyle, the former drummer for the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. She had not communicated (phone, email, letter) with either of us for 18 months until I emailed her on Christmas Eve seeking clarification of our relationship.
Her terse - and increasingly rude - responses indicated that she had no idea what was happening with the book. She did not even know that the publisher had been sold, and blamed me for not sharing that news with her.
As you can see from the above quotes, she is officially AWOL right at the time when we need an advocate to negotiate with both the publisher and Audible Books. She is also supposed to negotiate foreign-language rights, but at this stage has arranged just one deal (I don’t know the info) with a publisher in a very small European territory.
I am trying to fire her, since she has not lived up to her contractual obligation to employ her “best efforts” to represent the book “enthusiastically.” Of course she has not replied to my emails. A certified letter is en route.
There’s one moral: Be suspicious of an agent who uses an AOL account, a very old head shot, and can’t spell the celebrity author’s name correctly.
And another moral: Self-publish!
* “tentative” because there are legal issues detailed in the blog; these would not apply to 99.9% of authors.
Go to hell.
I’m not responding to anymore emails from you, so don’t bother responding.
— Jennifer De Chiara.
Long-time lurker here, grateful for all the wisdom I have gleaned over the years. Congratulations to all the writers who have secured agents. For those of you still struggling, take heart: No agent is better than a bad agent. Per forum rules, I will merely summarize my experiences, which are detailed in my blog (click here).
In a nutshell, Jennifer De Chiara has ceased communication with me on the eve of the tentative* publication of a book that I ghost-wrote for Artimus Pyle, the former drummer for the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. She had not communicated (phone, email, letter) with either of us for 18 months until I emailed her on Christmas Eve seeking clarification of our relationship.
Her terse - and increasingly rude - responses indicated that she had no idea what was happening with the book. She did not even know that the publisher had been sold, and blamed me for not sharing that news with her.
As you can see from the above quotes, she is officially AWOL right at the time when we need an advocate to negotiate with both the publisher and Audible Books. She is also supposed to negotiate foreign-language rights, but at this stage has arranged just one deal (I don’t know the info) with a publisher in a very small European territory.
I am trying to fire her, since she has not lived up to her contractual obligation to employ her “best efforts” to represent the book “enthusiastically.” Of course she has not replied to my emails. A certified letter is en route.
There’s one moral: Be suspicious of an agent who uses an AOL account, a very old head shot, and can’t spell the celebrity author’s name correctly.
And another moral: Self-publish!
* “tentative” because there are legal issues detailed in the blog; these would not apply to 99.9% of authors.
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I won't comment on the rest without hearing all three sides of the story (yours, Jennifer's, and the truth!), but that's really not the moral I take from this story.
Snide comments about her age (old head shots) don't help your cause, either.
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Hi Fiender,
No, but I did query one agent and received a R one hour later, and then six months later queried a separate agent and after a couple weeks had an R not because they'd already seen my material to a different agent, but because the query didn't spark her personal interest.
So--I'd guess you can query multiple agents. They do seem to respond to queries one way or the other, which is preferred to me to CNRs.
I've had a query out with Zabe Ellor here for over a month now. He's replied to a bunch of people after me according to query tracker, so I think he's at least considering it. How nerve-wracking!
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I queried Zabe on 10/24 after a PitDark request. It seems like he responds pretty quickly. Fingers crossed!