Donald Maass Literary Agency

Anaquana, that's awesome! Good luck!

Anaquana said:

Cameron just requested my full saying she was "totally hooked."

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Yay! That's wonderful! I hope you're back to post good news soon

Thanks, Hester and Emily. I haven't heard anything back yet, but it looks like she responds mostly on the weekends, so I'm hoping either tomorrow or Sunday I hear back from her.

Has anyone had responses from the Donald Maass Agency? I have been waiting three weeks now and I was wondering if they are a company that responds either way or if I should assume it's a no?

Hi Sara, welcome to the forum!

I've queried Jennifer Jackson and Cameron McClure and received responses from both of them.

Three weeks is not a long time to wait at all. Especially not from a company as large and well-respected as the Donald Maass Agency, their agents get hundreds of letters a week.

I queried JJ in October of 08 and had a response in 2 days.

I queried Cameron the following April and never got a response.

Oh, good to know. I have sent out like 42 queries over the last three weeks. So far I have had 11 rejections and one request for a partial. The rest are all no responses as of yet. This is the first time I have ever queried and it is pretty nerve racking. I check my e-mail at least 20 times a day. I am feeling a bit obsessive.

Oh, sorry. Hello to everyone!!!

Does anyone find querying stressful? I think I am losing my mind!

Just heard back from Cameron!

She loves the plot and set-up, but she has issues with the characterization of the main character. She said she would love to take a second look if I revise it.

*dances*

What she suggested aren't difficult changes at all! I'm so excited!

WOOT!! Go Anaquana!

Fantastic!

Congrats, Anaquana!

Sara Lou, I queried Donald Maass on 2/19/10 via e-mail and got a rejection just this week, on 3/30/10. So that's over a month.

It was a longshot query. I'm not surprised it wasn't a fit. It was something of an experiment. I had been pitching my book as Literary Fiction and thought I'd see if it actually got any traction as a Literary Fantasy. Probably won't do that again.

Good luck! And yes, it can drive you crazy. Try not to let it, though.

Got my rejection from Jennifer Jackson on April 5th--almost a month. It wasn't a form rejection, though, which was nice. She is going to be at the Pennwriters Conference next month so I am hoping I might get a minute or two with her to ask her what she looks for in a query letter--mine does not seem to be cutting it. 30 rejections and counting!!

Sara Lou, have you put your query letter on the board here? If AWers can't knock it into shape, no one can. (It's an art form that can escape even the most accomplished writer-artists.)

Writing a *good* query letter is harder than putting together a stepfamily or losing weight. (I've failed at all three--trust me, the Q-letter ranks WAY up there . . . )

Try it.

I'll try that. Thanks!

Just sent my YA Urban Fantasy to Amy Boggs. Has anyone else queried her? I think she's new, not alot of data on her at querytracker and I didn't find her name in the forums here.

I just queried Amy for my historical paranormal romance. I'll let you know how it goes.

I queried Cameron for a YA urban fantasy manuscript this morning. Fingers crossed!

I'll keep my fingers crossed as well, Beckstah since we Beck's have to stick together.

I'm just waiting to hear back from a beta reader on how well I implemented some of the changes Cameron asked for before sending the revised full to her.

Good luck, Anaquana - that's so exciting! Even if she rejects me, it'd be good for ONE 'Beck' to succeed.

Just heard from Cameron! She liked the concept, but she wasn't sold on the opening pages - she wanted a little more of a sense of the character before I jumped into the action. She said I should resubmit to her if I do some work on it.

Very helpful, professional and polite. I'll see what I can do about those opening pages!

Queried Amy Boggs on 5/3/10. I'll let you know how it goes.

Just posted an interview with Amy Boggs on my blog. Here's the link, if you'd like to check it out:

http://motherwrite.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-agent-amy-boggs.html