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[Agency] Donaghy Literary Group

JulianneQJohnson

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Website is here: http://www.donaghyliterary.com/representation.html

Anyone know anything about Stacy Donaghy? She's started her own agency, and as far as I can tell, her only experience is a stint with Corvisiero Literary Agency. Corvisiero's thread on this forum mostly talks about how they had a "pay for editing" business on the side. I can't find any record of sales for Stacey Donaghy, and I find her website a little off-putting.

"With over twenty-two years of experience and formal training in Adult Education, Management, and Social Services, Stacey brings a wealth of technical and professional experience to the literary world."

That just makes me think, "but what about your agent/ publishing experience?"

She's actively seeking new clients, and has quite a list of "pending" sales on her site.

Anyone have any information? I admit to being rather skeptical when it's an agent I've not heard of, but perhaps my google-fu is weak and I'm just not finding her sales. Or maybe it was this sentence from her site: "Some of Stacey's first-time and self-published authors are bestsellers."

Why would one need an agent to self publish? Is that a thing? Why?
 

hikarinotsubasa

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She has made some good sales in NA especially. Some of her sales are still listed on the Corvisiero site, and I believe one of them was a "significant" deal for three books.

You don't need an agent to self-publish. But I know some authors who get an agent and then are unable to find a publisher for the book choose to self-publish. Why not? I don't think Stacey or any agent would go straight to self-publishing without even trying to sell it.

The wording there is unclear too... "first time or self-published authors" could mean authors who self-published BEFORE signing with her, and found an agent for a later book, not necessarily authors whom she helped to self-publish.

My personal experience with her is pretty limited... I queried, she rejected. But it did seem like a personal response. I got the impression that she read and responded to my query herself... so that's nice. I haven't personally seen anything I'd call a red flag. Check out her sales on the Corvisiero site. She's only been on her own for a few months, so most if not all of her sales were there.
 

EMaree

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The Announcements page has some reputable deals on it. Her client Kevin Craig is one of our own.

She's actively seeking new clients, and has quite a list of "pending" sales on her site.

Anyone have any information? I admit to being rather skeptical when it's an agent I've not heard of, but perhaps my google-fu is weak and I'm just not finding her sales. Or maybe it was this sentence from her site: "Some of Stacey's first-time and self-published authors are bestsellers."

I wasn't able to find those "pending" sales you mentioned, just the additional available rights under the deal announcements.

The deals page does clarify what she means by "bestseller", though. (Bold my own.)

Jay crafted three amazing stories under the HarperCollins William Morrow imprint. Readers love The Marked Men Series with her first book, RULE, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller.

K.A. Tucker's four book deal with Simon & Schuster Atria Imprint began with the first book in the series TEN TINY BREATHS, an overnight success and Amazon e-Kindle best seller.

Nothing on the page jumps out to me as a red flag. She's a new-ish agency but she's already securing some very nice deals. Donaghy Literary Group seems to have a focus on turning Kindle bestsellers into trade deals, and it's quite interesting to see literary agencies adapting to the new self-pub landscape.
 
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jtrylch13

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Queried Valerie Noble with YA Post-Apocalyptic on 10/19/14. Received a personal rejection on 11/24/14. She was really nice and said how much she loved my sample, but didn't think she could sell YA PA right now. I will definitely be querying her in the future.
 

Undercover

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I queried Sue Miller 8-11 and got a full request a few days ago. They definitely have some good sales. I'm hopeful for now. I just hope she's not a non responder.
 

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This thread hasn't been posted in in so long that you can no longer search for it using key words like "Donaghy." After this, you will be able to.

You now query these agents using Query Manager. Can't say about the others', but the form for Valerie Noble requests a query, synopsis, 10 pages, AND 1-paragraph pitch. I aimed for 3 sentences for the 1-paragraph pitch, though I could have used a polished version of my #pitmad pitch in 2.
 
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Pisco Sour

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Last year I queried Sue Miller with (now trunked) space opera genre-mash up: 06.07.16
Form rejection 04.09.16

So, almost two months which wasn't too bad in terms of waiting times.

I will try again with new novel when I'm home from my holiday.
 

kaitM199

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I sent Valerie Noble a query using Query Manager on July 20th. I got a request for my full manuscript yesterday July 26th. It is YA Science Fantasy. I'm totally pumped! I sent her a message thanking her for taking the time and she even got back after that and again said to bear with her on how long it would take her to respond. Three months for a turnaround on a requested full, not bad in my opinion.
I can't wait to see how she likes it/ or if rejected, know what I can do to fix it!
 
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Shoeless

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I sent Valerie Noble a query using Query Manager on July 20th. I got a request for my full manuscript yesterday July 26th. It is YA Science Fantasy. I'm totally pumped! I sent her a message thanking her for taking the time and she even got back after that and again said to bear with her on how long it would take her to respond. Three months for a turnaround on a requested full, not bad in my opinion.
I can't wait to see how she likes it/ or if rejected, know what I can do to fix it!

Your mileage may vary on how she chooses to reply to you, but I got a full request from Valerie Noble earlier in the year, and ultimately when she decided it wasn't for her, I got back a form reply. Hopefully, things will go better for you, and even if it doesn't work for her, she'll give you some good feedback.
 

kaitM199

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That is good to know. I'm hoping she does like it, but I always accept any form of feedback, positive or negative. It helps the process. But I swear, the worst thing about the entire process is the waiting! Talk about nail-biting.
 

AstridAuthor12

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I participated in the recent #KissPitch event on twitter and got my pitch favorited by Stacey. I queried 2/14 and she asked for the full manuscript a few hours later! That was the fastest response I’ve ever gotten... haha! I hope it’s a good sign.

And now I wait. Lol it’s the worst part, I agree with you all.
 

CristinaRoswell

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Queried Sue Miller on February 17th.
Just got a formal rejection.

And that makes my third rejection today. I was complaining yesterday about not having received any answers to queries, but if they are all going to be rejections I think I already had enough for today, lol.
Nah, bring them on, I'd rather receive all the rejections quick than after several months of getting my hopes up :)