Donald Maass Literary Agency

I had a fantasy submitted to them last year. I got a nice personal rejection from DM about 3-4 months after I submitted to him.

Good luck.

I have an email query with 5 pages into McClure. I sent it yesterday so perhaps I should not worry if I don't hear for a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the info here.

It's been six weeks since I sent in a requested partial to Jennifer Jackson and I haven't heard back. Is it too early to do a status query?

Depending on her reading load, JJ takes about 8-12 weeks in my experience. With the first ms I sent to her, I didn't SQ and she got back to me after 8 weeks...with the second, I did SQ...and still didn't hear until about 12 weeks. (Not much help, huh.)

andracill said:

Depending on her reading load, JJ takes about 8-12 weeks in my experience. With the first ms I sent to her, I didn't SQ and she got back to me after 8 weeks...with the second, I did SQ...and still didn't hear until about 12 weeks. (Not much help, huh.)

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Thanks. I'll let it go a little longer before I start worrying about SQing.

one day ejection from s barbara. i've officially
queried everyone in this agency, except maass himself.
haha!

The agency's submission guidelines say they only take fiction, no nonfiction, but the page about each individual agent's tastes say that Cameron McClure does take some nonfiction (and then lists the kinds). I assume the individual tastes override the guidelines for the whole agency?

Odd--I believe Stephen Barbara was beginning to take non-fiction about eight months ago. Unless he decided against it.

I just have to chime in to say that Stephen Barbara gave me, like, the nicest rejection ever. I'd gotten SEVERAL "Dear Writer, Not Right For Us" forms and was feeling very discouraged. SB's rejection basically said he had something similar already, but to keep querying because I was sure to generate lots of interest. It was awesome. So happy, warm feelings towards him!

Does anyone have experience with Stephen Barbara's usual response time? I sent him an E-query on March 26th...still no word.

P.F.

i requeried jackson with a new beginning!
(she had invited me to do so when
she first ejected me.)

23 day kind ejection.

rejected twice!!

I got a response to be SB equery the same day, Phoenix. But I've noticed there isn't a lot of consistency in equery times; I think sometimes we get quick responses because we just caught them at the right time.

Cameron McClure requested my full off of five pages yesterday, which seems odd as last time I queried her with five she asked for a partial. Here's hoping she likes it.

i had to add here, that after my annoucement
in publishers lunch came out regarding my deal,
jj emailed me to congratulate me. how classy is that?

she's great!

Jennifer Jackson requested a partial from me back in April and since then I have been revising my manuscript. Should I email her and let her know this or wait until she gets back to me? Any advice would be appreciated!

She might have a blog post on this very subject. I vaguely remember reading one -- I'd go through her archives and see what you find. *If* I'm remembering correctly, she doesn't suggest you mention such things (because it makes it look like we queried before we were ready, and it's annoying to the agents). But I'm not positive about this, so do look through her archives. And good luck!

Um.. Oh yeah, I signed with Cameron McClure about three weeks ago. Sorry I didn't update this everyone, I've been... busy. With all kinds of crazy things. I really should thank you all for the support and everything. You've all been great. Fingers crossed and all.

Great news, Spiny. I am still waiting to hear from her, but you are in good hands. Good for you!

I just got the sweetest rejection from Stephen. What a nice guy.

I queried Stephen Barbara on 9/08 and received a rejection two hours later. He was prompt and the rejection was personalized and encouraging.

What we're looking for this month

I'm just wondering if anyone has archived past Donald Maass' "What we're looking for this month." I just think it's fun.

FWIW, I e-queried JJ sept.9 and had a form yesterday. Pretty quick response...not the one I wanted, of course, but hey...

xiaotien said:

one day ejection from s barbara. i've officially
queried everyone in this agency, except maass himself.
haha!

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So, as I understand, we either query the agency as a whole by writing to Mr. Maass, or we can query multiple agents individually (but not simultaneously)?

Also, is there any benefit to querying agents individually?

gingerwoman said:

I'm just wondering if anyone has archived past Donald Maass' "What we're looking for this month." I just think it's fun.

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I have them back to I think last November. PM me if you want the list.