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Erin Murphy Literary Agency

emandem

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I had brief correspondence with her about a week ago...I think she is very busy right now but, as always, very professional and courteous concerning submissions. Madison, who are her associate agents--?
 

Madison

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Ammi-Joan Paquette is (I think) the only associate agent according to PM. I'm in correspondence with her about a manuscript... and just looking to hear more about the agency.
 

litgirl

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She's looking at a revision I sent her a couple weeks ago...trying (unsuccessfully) not to think about it too much. (Which is naturally why I'm here, checking out what her current response times are like!)

Here's a list of all the books the agency has got out to date: http://www.indiebound.org/users/emla/lists

As to personal interaction, I don't know her assistant, but Erin's smart, savvy, and editorial-eyed. Very nice and professional.
 

MaryL

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I'm represented by this agency. Erin and Joan are professional, helpful, and everything I could ask for in a literary agency. You can not do better than this, IMO. I was agented before, so I was a bit cynical when I signed, but not anymore. It is a delight to be represented by such a class act.
 

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Joan was browsing AW recently and requested three chapters from at least two people who had posted their queries in SYW (including me). She seems very nice, and sent me a confirmation shortly after I sent the chapters when I started querying.

(ETA: I was grateful for this thread at the time because, not being an agency that accepts unsolicited queries, I hadn't heard of them)
 
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ILove2Write

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It says they only take queries by referral. Have you all been sending them unsolicited and still getting asked for partials?
 

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Well, for me, it was requested. I didn't query her.
 

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That partial was rejected yesterday. The rejection was very complimentary, and she told me exactly why she was rejecting. Also she was the first agent to compliment me with more than "great premise," which I'm very happy about.
 

cubofaslan

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Does Joan respond to all queries, assuming they're referred? Or is she one who answers no with silence.
 

lvae

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She responds :) But you have to make it clear who referred you.
 

Feathers

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Does anyone have any experience with Joan that they could share? I got an email from her about my WIP, and I'm trying to do some research, but there really isn't a lot about her or the Erin Murphy Agency for that matter. (Although what people have said so far is pretty encouraging.)

What do people know about Joan, beside the fact that she's pretty new, and has the same submission policy as Erin?
 

inkspatters

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Joan seems great. I won the Secret Agent Contest over at Miss Snark's First Victim and she requested a full and offered a twenty-five page critique as a result. She actually critiqued more then twenty-five pages of the MS -- more like forty, and her comments were really insightful and pretty awesome. She said she'd be happy to take a look at the revised manuscript. This week she sent me an email after reading a Teaser on my blog saying that it reminded her of how much she loved my writing, and she was looking forward to reading revisions -- she didn't have to do this, and I thought it was really lovely of her.

Also, if you search for Erin Murphy Lit on PM, you can see their agency page which lists several sales she's made :D
 
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Joan is building her client list. The agency is closed to queries, but she'll search AW for material she'd like to see from people and requests here. PM lists the agency as one of the top deal makers for YA and MG in the past 12 months. (#3 for MG, and #1 and #2 are Andrea Brown Literary Agency and Writers House, which seem to have more agents).
 

Krista G.

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Just got an invite to query Ms. Paquette with my current WIP (although I'm still months away from that stage, unfortunately). She saw an excerpt over on the Miss Snark's First Victim blog and was interested in seeing more.

So if you're interested in getting an invitation from Ms. Paquette, you may want to submit some material to that blog, as she seems to check it fairly regularly. (Authoress, who runs the blog, holds Secret Agent contests every month, but she also hosts other (non-contest) critique sessions in between.) Here's the link:

http://www.misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/
 

jscribbles

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Just got an invite to query Ms. Paquette with my current WIP (although I'm still months away from that stage, unfortunately). She saw an excerpt over on the Miss Snark's First Victim blog and was interested in seeing more.

So if you're interested in getting an invitation from Ms. Paquette, you may want to submit some material to that blog, as she seems to check it fairly regularly. (Authoress, who runs the blog, holds Secret Agent contests every month, but she also hosts other (non-contest) critique sessions in between.) Here's the link:

http://www.misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/

Which entry is yours, Krista?

She also asked me to query her recently, after seeing some of my work on SYW. She seems really nice.
 

Roly

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I've seen on various blogs that sometimes agents will take part in secret agent contests. Like the one on the blog linked above (miss snarks) or the one on Cornell DeVille . I think they have a few on querytracker (Jason Yarn judged one - but I can't find the link D: ) and the guide to literary agents blog too.

I know that Joan has done this too on the miss snark blog, but do you know of any she's been in where she's left public critiques of people's queries or whatever they submitted? I'd love to see what kind of notes she has for work that's been submitted to her. The stuff Ms. Chilton said on Cornell DeVille was really helpful.
 
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inkspatters

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Hi, Roly, if you look at the January Secret Agent contest at MSFV and look in the comments section, you'll see comments from someone called "Secret Agent" critiquing/giving feedback on all fifty entries. That someone is Joan.

Also, Joan is my agent and she's absolutely fantabulous :D
 

Roly

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coool thank you!

Yeah I saw your post on Goals and Accomplishments! I'm so psyched for you! Definitely keep us all updated on your success!!!
 

YooprGurl

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Unless you're conceited, having an agent make first contact throws up a red flag. I was very grateful for this thread, as Ammi-Joan Paquette does seem to frequent Absolute Write SYW. She requested a query then a partial from a query I had in Query Letter Hell. I also checked out their website http://emliterary.com and page on Publishers Marketplace http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/ErinMurphy. I am waiting for a response on the partial, but correspondence has been professional and timely.

In short, if Ammi-Joan requests something from you, don't freak out! She's legit! Send it!

UPDATE: I did get a "no" on my partial with a few very helpful reasons as to why. I'm not quite there yet, got to keep working on it. I guess I'll hold off on queries for now until I'm done with my new round of revisions.
 
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Shiela

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Unless you're conceited, having an agent make first contact throws up a red flag. I was very grateful for this thread, as Ammi-Joan Paquette does seem to frequent Absolute Write SYW. She requested a query then a partial from a query I had in Query Letter Hell. I also checked out their website http://emliterary.com and page on Publishers Marketplace http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/ErinMurphy. I am waiting for a response on the partial, but correspondence has been professional and timely.

In short, if Ammi-Joan requests something from you, don't freak out! She's legit! Send it!

Thanks, yoop! She asked for mine today and I did freak out a little :) I feel better now. Let us know what happens!
 

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Full request from Ammi-Joan today. She invited me to query her after seeing some teasers on my blog. I queried on May 31.