Donnettetxgirl:
Anyone had any dealings with Durant Lit Agency?
How did you find out about them?
Durant Website:
While being a newer company, we are confident that we can offer the necessities in order to provide you with the opportunity to have your work published.
How new is new?
Durant Website:
While we are not members of AAR, we still function within the same guidelines for our business.
It's comforting that they're giving assurances about acting in accordance with AAR guidelines (i.e. presumably they don't charge fees), but the main criteria for AAR membership is proven sales and if they don't meet that criteria, then that's not a good sign.
Also, I'd be somewhat worried about the
Competition that they're running, which seems to be to cut across the AAR's rules in that it's a fee charging contest that invites poetry (why when there's no market for it) and fiction for a $15 and $25 entry fee respectively. Those are high entrance fees and the only reason to enter a contest is because the judges are respected.
Regarding this contest:
Contest Ruels:
Entries may not have been published in any professional media. Self publication is okay.
Don't see why self-publishing is okay given that first publication rights are still used up.
Contest Rules:
The Spring 2010 DLA Poetry and Fiction Contest will open on January 20, 2010 and will close for entries on March 31, 2010. Winners will be announced on April 30, 2010.The top three winners for each category will be notified via email.Winners will also be posted on the DLA website indefinitely.
That's a quick turnaround time, suggesting either that they're not expecting many entries or they're not really going to be expecting to spend a lot of time reading them.
Contest Rules:
The decisions of the judges are entirely their own, and are final. The judges will be announced shortly.
No. Details of the judges should have been given before the contest started accepting entries.
As regards those judges whose details are given:
Contest Rules:
The fiction judge will be Jessica James. Jessica James is the award-winning author of the historical fiction novel, Shades of Gray, an epic Civil War love story that has twice overtaken Gone with the Wind on the Amazon Best-Seller list in the romance/historical/U.S. category.
Shades of Grey appears to have bene published with Patriot Press, a printer and not a publisher, which leads me to wonder if it was self-published. The fact that it's beaten Gone With The Wind on the Amazon Bestseller List is not a qualification for judging a fiction award IMHO.
Contest Rules:
The poetry judge will be Mary E. Gonzalez. Mary graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Creative Writing/Literature in 1995. She's published poems in various collegiate magazines (The Observe, Quarto). She's had the special opportunity of interviewing former Poet Laureate, Charles Simic, and studied poetry with the likes of Colette Inez. She draws inspiration from Jane Kenyon, and various known and unknown poets.
Again, interviewing poets and having some magazine credentials does not make for a qualified judge IMHO.
Contest:
In addition to our invited judges, the entire DLA team of agents and editors will assist with the judging of the submissions.
Again, no information on who any of these people are or what qualifies them to judge a contest.
Contest Rules:
The first place winner of the poetry contest will win $250,posting of their work on our website, and a contract for literary representation. The second place winner will win $100.The third place winner will win $50.
The fact that the offer of representation seems to extent to people submitting poetry is a classic red flag. There is no money in poetry, which is why most agents don't touch it.
Contest Rules:
The first place winner of the fiction contest will win $1000 and a contract for literary representation. The second place winner will win $500 and a contract for representation. The third place winner will win $250 and a contract for representation.
How does this agency expect to sell a book that has previously been self-published?
Durant Website:
Each submission will be analyzed and taken into perspective from not only an agent's point of view - but from the publisher's point of view as well.
I don't see how they can analyse from a publisher's point of view if they're not publishers.
They can only review a manuscript to assess if they think they can sell it to a publisher. They can't make a decision on a publisher's behalf.
Durant Website:
We are a team of 15, consisting of English & Journalism majors and much more.
Who cares if they've got English and journalism degrees? What they need is agenting experience and/or publishing contacts. The fact that they're not advertising this could lead some to infer that they don't have any.
Notice also that none of these 15 team members is named on the website, or any professional details given on any of them.
Durant Website:
the Durant family has many major connections within the Entertainment industry
I've never heard of the Durant family and without setting out what those "major connections" are with the Entertainment industry, it's difficult to see how this will help them sell books. In fact, entertainment industry connections are of little use compared with publishing connections (which again, they don't seem to have).
Durant Website:
Durant Literary Agency requires all queries to be delivered by email. Our email address is: dlaqueries [at] gmail.com.
I never find it encouraging when an agent has a website but the email has to be sent to a free internet account.
Nor is it a good sign when an agent has Google ads all over their website.
Durant Website:
If we are already representing your work or if you are a publisher and you need to speak with us, we are available by email at
[email protected].
Why would a publisher be looking to contact this agency via their website?
I'm assuming that the agency's existing clients are those profiled on its
Members Page. To be honest, I've not heard of an agency doing this before - it seems to be part social networking, part professional information but of the profiles I checked out, none appeared to have any sales.
It's also weird that the agency feels the need to have a Testimonials Page. I've been trying to get it load up but the whole website's a pig anyway with everything taking way to long to load on the screen. The only Testimonial that an agency needs is sales. Full stop.
MM
