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The McCarthy Agency

bbth

Does anybody know anything about McCarthy Agency in NY or NJ (they have 2 offices)?
Shawna McCarthy and her new assistance Nahvae Frost . The assistance sent me a reply to my query . I found the information on Preditors and Editors ,with no comments. Did'n find any bad reports about them ,but anyway decided to take an advice . Thanks
 

dragonjax

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Last year, I e-mailed Shawna a query about my contemporary fantasy. Received a reply the next day via e-mail, requesting a partial and synopsis, and that her response time was running 6 - 8 weeks. Received a hand-written rejection 5 weeks later. Since then, have tried re-querying on that project (hey, I was much greener back then) and on a completly new project (e-query, beginning of June this year). No reponse.
 

Aconite

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bbth, Shawna McCarthy is a member of AAR, and has at least 20 members of SFWA as clients. If you're asking if she's legit, the answer is yes, she is.
 

clintl

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Aconite said:
bbth, Shawna McCarthy is a member of AAR, and has at least 20 members of SFWA as clients. If you're asking if she's legit, the answer is yes, she is.

Remember, Shawna is a highly regarded editor, too. I can't speak to her skills as an agent, because I don't have any information about her success rate. But she does has a great deal of experience in many aspects of the publishing business. She has been (and is currently) a magazine editor, and has been an editor at a major publishing house, so she knows the business very well.
 

CaoPaux

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Nahvae Frost of McCarthy Agency

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06-26-2006, 03:05 AM
HeyBooBoo
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Nahvae Frost

Does anyone have any information on Nahvae Frost? She is with the The McCarthy Agency, but I can't find much information on her. She is listed as an agent under Shawna McCarty's profile on Publishers Marketplace. I googled her name, and the only things that came up for her besides the Publishers Marketplace listing, was an author's webpage who said her agent is Nahvae Frost. The author has written seven novels, but as far as I can tell, none of them are published. I've read here that Shawna McCarthy is legit, but does that mean that the agents working for her are as well? And the author I googled had a list of agents on her webpage, and Shawna McCarthy and Nahvae Frost have two different mailing addresses, does that mean anything? Thanks!
06-26-2006, 04:05 AM
waylander
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Nahvae Frost joined Shawna McCarthy's agency somewhere over a year ago and acts as her assistant and first reader. The fact that she has a different address means nothing in these days of e-mail. Shawna McCarthy represents some good SF/F writers and is entirely legit, if somewhat disorganised.
06-26-2006, 10:35 AM
HeyBooBoo
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Thanks waylander. I just wanted clear up the address thing. She does have a different email address, and that seems common enough, but she a different mailing address as well. Shawna's mailing address is in Rumson, NJ and Nahvae's is in Brooklyn, NY. I didn't know if that meant anything, or not. Thanks for the info!
06-26-2006, 10:38 AM
Christine N.
Bush has the Ring!

Well, I'm a first reader for a publisher - they're in Pittsburgh and I'm in NJ. If I request a hard copy partial or full, you're sending it to me in NJ. In these days of technology, it's completely possible to have virtual companies. And if Rumson is in Northern NJ, which I think it is, it's not far from Brooklyn.
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06-26-2006, 01:34 PM
fsr44
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Nahvae is newish, but working with an established agent. She requested a partial from me and then the full. When I got back to her to let her know that I had an offer on the table, she expedited her reading of the full for me. While I did end up signing with the other agent, I found Nahvae to be professional and completely pleasant to deal with.
 

Manxom Vroom

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Shawna McCarthy requested a partial from me 4 1/2 months ago, but I've heard nothing back from her, even after email follow up.

Somebody else on the board said that she had a history of requesting partials without replying, and this has been the case for me.
 

waylander

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She managed to lose my submission the first two times I submitted to her (one via a client of hers). The third time I got rejected, but even then the reply went astray and I had to query her assistant Ms Frost.
 

NicoleJLeBoeuf

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Remember, Shawna is a highly regarded editor, too. I can't speak to her skills as an agent, because I don't have any information about her success rate. But she does has a great deal of experience in many aspects of the publishing business. She has been (and is currently) a magazine editor, and has been an editor at a major publishing house, so she knows the business very well.
She's the fiction editor for Realms of Fantasy Magazine; I have one of her Blue Slips Of Death in my rejection letter folder.

The lack of responses from her may be a symptom of too many irons in the fire.
 

rugcat

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waylander said:
She managed to lose my submission the first two times I submitted to her (one via a client of hers).
I had a similar experience at one point. I dealt only with Ms. Frost. They do sell books, though, if you can keep in contact.
 

HapiSofi

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Shawna's thoroughly legit. She has a long list of clients whose names you'd recognize, including the author of last year's Hugo winner for Best Novel.

Odd fact: She's married to well-known SF artist Wayne Barlowe, author of Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
 

batgirl

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NicoleJLeBoeuf said:
She's the fiction editor for Realms of Fantasy Magazine; I have one of her Blue Slips Of Death in my rejection letter folder.
I have two of those, and am waiting on a third so I can send off for my fourth. The first one has handwriting on it, even.
I think she was one of the agents mentioned during VP as 'so much okay we don't even have to think about it' - I hope I wrote down the others.
-Barbara
 

clara bow

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She requested a partial from me in a matter of hours after I sent an equery--on a Saturday--so we'll see what happens.
 

Annwyn

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I got a request for a partial too but I've heard nothing back since...She is reputable
 

HapiSofi

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Here's a thing that's true of authors, editors, and agents: the fact that someone is reputable doesn't mean they aren't flaky sometimes. It just means they aren't flaky most of the time, and that the ways they're flaky aren't fatal.

The only agencies I know of that run like clockwork are the ones that use automated responses, and they're all crooks. When you work with the real industry, you're dealing with a business in which everything is singular, irregular, and an exception.

Granted, some parts are more irregular than others. Figure out what your own tolerances are and get on with it. You're the one who decided to work in the arts.

(This is a general piece of advice. It's not specific to Shawna McCarthy, and none of you should take it personally.)
 
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chartreuse

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Did those of you who submitted to Shawna McCarthy earlier this year ever hear back?

Apparently she is the agent for Robert Charles Wilson, who has climbed to the near-top of my list of favorite authors and writes books not so very dissimilar from what I am working on; I would like to query her but not ever hearing back one way or the other just wouldn't work for me.
 

xiaotien

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i submitted an email query to shawna today
and heard back within 10 minutes. she asked
for a synopsis and three chapters.
from the responses on agent turnaround time,
it looks like she is partial to asking for partials (ha!)
but if you hear back from her is a different story.

i have a feeling she says "no" by never
responding via SASE to your partial.
will post if i hear anything back from her.
 

Michelle M

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Xiaotien:

I submitted a requested partial to her last year and my SASE made it back to me about six weeks later. Hope this helps.
 

maggieuc

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McCarthy

She requested a partial from me today (Yey!) and I'd just queried her yesterday...that's a very quick response!:)
 

maggieuc

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Good :Hug2:! Good luck to you! I hope she says yes to us both!!!
 

xiaotien

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bad news. i got an ejection with a personalized
short note today. 4 days since i posted her partial
to her! very quick turn around. i'm keeping my fingers
crossed for you, maggie!
 

maggieuc

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bad news. i got an ejection with a personalized
short note today. 4 days since i posted her partial
to her! very quick turn around. i'm keeping my fingers
crossed for you, maggie!

Thanks!! I'm sorry to hear about the rejection!! But at least she's quick...I mailed mine to her Saturday (she received it yesterday), I'll keep my fingers crossed too...I'm trying not to get my hopes up though...that's always a bad idea. I'm curious Xiao, what is your novel's genre?
 

xiaotien

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Thanks!! I'm sorry to hear about the rejection!! But at least she's quick...I mailed mine to her Saturday (she received it yesterday), I'll keep my fingers crossed too...I'm trying not to get my hopes up though...that's always a bad idea. I'm curious Xiao, what is your novel's genre?

maggie, it's historical fantasy based in china.
and apparently, YA, too. haha!
who knew?

the hard fantasy agents are sort of
befuddled by it. which perplexes me in turn.
haha! what about you?