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Janis A. Donnaud & Associates

RottenLuckWillie

I've been reffered to agent Janis Donnaud by a 'friend' from Random House. :rollin Anybody know about her? I gather she is very hot right now? I went looking for a website, but didn't find one. Anyone know about that?
rlw
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Janis Donnaud

Major, major agent. She looks at new writers, usually by recommendation, and is especially good for cookbooks (she specializes in non-fiction).

Janis A. Donnaud and Associates, Inc.,
525 Broadway, 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10012


AAR member

The hot agents don't need websites. They already have all the business they want, and can get more any time they feel like it just by letting it be known that their lists are open. Among the top agents, the ones who have websites at all do them as celebrations of their clients, not of themselves.

She's hot because the editors who know her matter, she knows what house is looking for what kind of works, and she can tell a good/marketable manuscript from one that's less good. Editors trust her. She's probably also a good negotiator for contracts.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Janis Donnaud

Janis A Donnaud
Member of AAR
Signatory of WGA

Represents 40 clients.
5% of clients are new/unpublished writers.

Specializes in: This agency specializes in health, medical, cooking, humor, pop psychology, narrative nonfiction, photography, biography, parenting, current affairs. "We give a lot of service and attention to clients."

Currently Handles:
100% nonfiction books
Art/Architecture/Design
Biography/Autobiography
Child Guidance/Parenting
Cooking/Foods/Nutrition
Creative Nonfiction (narrative)
Current Affairs
Health/Medicine
Humor/Satire
Psychology (pop)

Query with SASE
description of book and 2-3 pages of sample material

Prefers to read materials exclusively

Accepts e-mail queries
Responds in 1 month to queries.
Responds in 1 month to manuscripts.

Obtains new clients through:
Recommendations from others

Actively seeking: Actively seeking serious narrative nonfiction; cookbooks; health and medical all written by experts with an already established platform in their area of specialty.

Does not want: Does not want to receive fiction, poetry, mysteries, juvenile books, romances, science fiction, young adult, religious, fantasy.

Sold 25 titles in the last year.

Recent sales:
Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Oscars, by Bronwyn Cosgrave (Bloomsbury)
Sunday Suppers from Lucques, by Suzanne Goin (Wiley).

Agent receives 15% commission on domestic sales
Agent receives 20% commission on foreign sales
Agent receives 20% commission on dramatic rights sales
Offers written contract
Termination notice: 30-day

Charges clients for messengers, photocopying, purchase of books.
 

marky48

Re: Janis Donnaud

And if I was looking that's what I'd have found. Good deal, send her the package.
 

RottenLuckWillie

Re: Janis Donnaud

Whoa! Thanks people! Mr. Mac, you are the best!
rlw
 

caruna

more questions about agents

Anyone have info on Alison Picard or Jeanne Fredericks? These are two agents that have expressed interest and I have know idea how to tell if they are good for my book,
 

wwwatcher

Were they

So were they listed in Preditors and Editors? No?

Have you got thier basic info from say Writer's Market or the Literary Agent Book written by Jeff Hermann?

Doesn't sound like anyone has any nigative feedback for you.
 

caruna

agents

No negative feedback and not listed in "predators..." It's tempting to just think, well if it's NYC they must be cool/big/well connected to publishers, etc. On the other hand, someone small might give more attention, then again, what good is attention if they can't get you to a publisher who can push the work. I'm also wanting someone who can promote speaking engagements as that's a big part of my platform and my income. This is like moving to a new town at 14 and having to learn a whole new way of getting in. Sucks.
 

DaveKuzminski

Agent listings

Hi Caruna, P&E deliberately misspells "predators" as "Preditors" for trademark purposes.

As to our listings, we list businesses by the first letter in the first significant word because businesses don't have last names. If those did, many of the agencies would be in the A pages since Agency is a frequently used last word in literary agency business names.

To keep our listings uniform, we also list individual agents in the same manner even though they do have last names. That way, if the agent opens an agency under their own name, both should show up on the same page or can be combined sometimes to save space. Besides which, we've noticed that most Internet search engines don't care about the sequence of the name. It only matters if you're manually paging through the P&E pages.

How about cross-referencing? Yes, it's been considered. However, we use borrowed space from our hosts.
 

caruna

confusion

Thanks for the "look under the first name" advise. Picard is there and "not recommended" Why? Disgruntled writer, unethical agent? How to know? Fredericks is there with no info. What does that mean. Appreciating the advise, feel like there is no time to learn a whole new languaged AND finish the book. Never caught the predator thing. Can't spell well enough.
 

DaveKuzminski

Listings

Frequently, we list only what we can so we won't violate someone else's copyrights. Whenever we're in doubt about fair use, we take the route of not copying and post that we don't have further information.

A lot of times, no attribution appears after quoted material. That happens often because the originator doesn't want to be listed.

When no reason is given for a P&E recommendation, it still stems from one or more of the criteria listed within the site. Yes, P&E does list when agencies charge fees if we know about those. That saves many writers the time and effort of checking out someone they can't afford. Also, it's a holdover procedure from before the criteria were posted on a single page.

Consulting P&E should always be considered only a small portion of what a writer might do when it comes to properly researching any agency or publisher or other writing service. The publishing industry is simply too large and dynamic for any one resource to adequately document.
 

HapiSofi

Re: confusion

Every agent has some disgruntled clients. That's normal. Some relationships just don't work out. But that's not enough to get them onto P&E's "not recommended" list. If someone's got a "not recommended" rating, it'll be for cause.
 

starwrite7

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Okay, here is my take on Janis A. Donnaud. I sent her my query and she responded quickly asking for my proposal without mentioning my name.
She wrote something like: "please send your proposal" that's it.

I was surprised to get a request for a proposal without her mentioning my name, but figured out she must be overloaded with her cook books, so I decided to send her my proposal, although it was serious nonfiction, not a cookbook.

What happened? She disappeared with my e-proposal and never responded to my emails.
Conclusion? You can connect the dots. I just wanted you to know how she treats writers who write to her.