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Waverly Place Literary Agency (formerly Muse Literary Management) (Debbie Carter)

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Mildly Disturbing
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I've run into this in writers' groups. Some folks offer criticism, out of a genuine desire to help each other improve. Their critiques are worthwhile. Others critique to bolster their own ideology, or salve some kind of personal disappointment. And their critiques are meaningless noise -- or, in some cases, a good indication to do the opposite of what they suggest.

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Eugene

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Any news on the lady and her agency? I'm puzzled by her stipulation that the query "in the subject line of the email" should add "a description of your book." A whole description in the subject line? What does this mean?
 

BarbaraSheridan

*insert catchy phrase here*
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Any news on the lady and her agency? I'm puzzled by her stipulation that the query "in the subject line of the email" should add "a description of your book." A whole description in the subject line? What does this mean?
Most likely it means genre not plot description such as

Mystery--Title
or Young Adult--Title
 

type3secretion

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Worst Experience with agent EVER

I'll throw in my 2 cents. My interaction occurred with her 4 years ago when I was first shopping my novel around. It is seared in my mind. I was combing through old emails, came across hers, checked here wondering what others had said, and had to post.

I am not surprised in the least that she has had next to zero sales. My encounter with her for my manuscript was one of the most absurd I had. She fundamentally misunderstood the essence of the novel and its characters, sent me flaming and insulting emails based on this lack of understanding, and despite followups on my part where I patiently tried to explain what she couldn't seem to grasp, there was no progress. She had dug in like a tick with her "position".

All this from the QUERY letter, deciding that based on that, she could lecture me about the immorality of my work, and that I would never find an audience for such trash. :rolleyes:

I've had LOTS of rejections. Some soft, some hard. Most useless, several very useful. I'm not thin skinned. Hers was by a long shot the most antagonistic, rude, insulting, and, the real kicker, STUPID set of exchanges I had.

My book is controversial (and will be published in October with Prometheus Books, btw!), but it's one thing to get PO'ed with what it actually presents, it's another to be unable to grasp fundamentals about human nature. No other reader of the novel expressed any of her sentiments, or evinced the confusion she manifested so aggressively.

<snark> So, if you want an agent that sells almost nothing, and who, if she doesn't "get" your work, will be happy to send you extremely rude commentary, then she's the agent for you.</snark>
 
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RLGreenleaf

Ummm, just one more chapter...
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Hmm, this thread seems to have come to a hard stop back in January.

Any updates?

Anyone here worked with Debbie Carter?

Even as of this date, I cannot seem to find any sales listed under her name. :Shrug:
 
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