Beware of Mary Evans
Indeed, Mary Evans certainly says the right things, but having had her as an agent I would strongly NOT recommend her (or her partner in blather, Tanya McKinnon).
I found her to be consistently unprofessional, less-than-forthright, and often just plain bizarre. Let me give you an example of the last quality:
I actually took on Mary Evans AFTER I had sold my novel to a major house because I'd heard how literary she was etc.... Anyway, Mary and Tanya were always talking about how they wanted to meet my editor, who was a young up-and-comer. So Mary has lunch with my editor. A week or two later, Mary attends a party for me after my first reading which my editor also attends. Now my editor is rather distinctive looking (in a good way), tall and quite noticeable, but in this group of say, 30 people, Mary Evans DOES NOT RECOGNIZE MY EDITOR WITH WHOM SHE'D HAD LUNCH A WEEK OR TWO BEFORE! My editor had to reintroduce herself to Mary, who had previously SO wanted to meet her. Now isn't this a little odd?
My publisher also gave a kickoff luncheon for my book in NYC, attended by folks from The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, etc. The ONLY invitee who did not RSVP to my publicist's invite was--you guessed it--my own agent, Mary Evans, who never actually let us know whether she planned to attend (a bit of a problem when the restaurant wants to know how many will attend). As it turned out Tanya McKinnon showed up (unfortunately), but neither of them ever responded to my publicist and this, to be honest, was rather embarrassing for me. Thanks so much for being supportive, guys.
In her post, WishWords says that Mary seems like someone "strong who will stand behind you." That may be how she SEEMS, but in my experience it is not how she IS. On the contrary.
Or how about the numerous times she and her staff lost stories I sent them to be submitted to magazines? I mean, they lost them AFTER Mary had called to tell me how much she liked them. The stories were never sent out. Until I called months later and inquired whatever became of them and, oh, oops, gee, let us look... Oh, gosh, here it is! We'll send it out now.
Or how about this: I get a rejection from then-fiction editor Bill Buford at the New Yorker asking specifically to see more of my work. (From a friend who works at the mag I understand that this is a big thing to reach him and hear directly from him.) I send a new story to Mary and specifically remind her and her assistant to send the story to BILL BUFORD who asked to see it.
You can guess what happened... I get a rejection from Roger Angell, to whom they sent it instead.
Or how about agreeing to sell one of my stories to an editor at a major publication who, it turns out, everyone BUT Mary seemed to know was on his way out? So after a wait, the story is actually NOT bought in the end and, because the book in which it is included is coming out imminently, it is too late to submit it anywhere else.
I could go on and on. But I will point out that I am not the only person who has noticed that Mary (and Tanya) do not seem to be quite "all there." The Director of Marketing at my house also made remarks suggesting that Mary was unreliable or "flakey," to put it euphemistically.
But, gee, if you want to sit and listen to her talk about how successful Michael Chabon is, you'll probably enjoy her. (Though, in the interest of historical accuracy, Mary in no way "discovered" Michael, her biggest client. Mary was working for the famous agent Virginia Barber at the time and Michael was handed to her.)
In sum, you know those stories about erratic diva writers and their long-suffering agents? With Mary Evans, you should reverse that relationship. Maybe it's different if you make her a million dollars. But in my case it was a great relief to get that gasbag out of my life.
PS And I found Tanya to be just as gassy and self-absorbed. Some of the things she said about writing were so empty-headed they made my jaw drop--though they were supposed to "sound" good, if you weren't actually listening (or thinking).
