Sara Camilli Agency

^ Did you ever hear back from Stephen? I just queried them, although I wish I knew a bit more about them.

My last contact was with Sara about 12 days ago. Two publishers who offered contracts, apparently, haven't contacted her like I asked them to. One pub house dropped the ball and buried my email and her response in her draft file. The other is MIA, but I think she'll respond fairly soon.

Gawd, the snags of it all!

I haven't heard a word about Stephen, but as soon as I get in touch with Sara, I'll tell her that one/some AWers are trying to touch base with him. That's about all I can do from my end to help out.

Under the heading of: "What the heck, all they can do is say no" I went ahead and shipped off a quick query.

What's one more pebble on top of Mount Rejection going to hurt.... lol

You never know, maybe Mt. Rejection might be missing a small pebble this time around.

triceretops said:

You never know, maybe Mt. Rejection might be missing a small pebble this time around.

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That would be very, very, very much welcomed....

We have at least a couple of this agent's clients here, right?

Has she sold anything for you guys? Are you pleased with the work she's doing?

Yeah, I think there's three or four of us. She's great, has that calming effect on me on the phone or in emails. She puts forth a tremendous effort sub-wise--I've been out to lots of the biggies for review and consideration. Nothing sold yet, but I'm in the works right now with a smaller house who's offering a pretty nice deal. She's working that and trying to leverage up things.

Name evades me at the moment, but yeah, I'm pretty sure she pulled a nice deal at Prometheus for one of our AWers. I'll have to look that it up in my PM archive to find out who it was. Three (or two?) of her NYT bestselling authors are African American, and they're doing very well. She has a tremendous sales record and it's not uncommon for her to make several sales in a month when she's got the mojo going. Kennsington seems to adore her.

I just love her. She's got to be overworked, and I feel she's been in the business a very long time. She is one of those agents (of many) that primarily respond only when there's good news. Too much back and forth ties her up and intrudes on her duties--which is serving her authors.

That's about it. I'll see if I can locate that author. Might be erased from my PM list, 'cause I usually expunge correspondence that's too old and clogging my box.

tri

Thanks for all the info, tri! Much appreciated.

Most welcome, good luck!

Queried on 6-5.
Got a rejection e-mail from Stephen this morning about three minutes after he (I assume it was him because of the timing and the IP address tracked back to pretty close to where the agency is physically located) checked out my website.

Now I'm wondering, did he pass because the one graph synopsis didn't grab him or was it something on my website that scared him off.

Great, another thing to be paranoid over during the query process.... *sigh*

Wow! No one's heard back from Sara or Stephen since?

In the "end", I received a full request and haven't heard back since. Not even a response to the dozen or so emails I've sent. Sucks.

So, in summary, there's no reason to think that Sara Camilli or her son has ever helped any writer in a significant way. She doesn't have a Web presence. She doesn't get back to people.

The obvious conclusion to draw from the sum of these factors? Poser agent. Not someone worth bothering with. A waste of your time. Evidence that anyone can claim the title of "agent" (viz: "life coach," "spiritual adviser," and more). Et cetera.

Based on my experience (via a friend, fortunately) with her, I am not surprised in the least that a Google search turned up the matters discussed in this thread. Sara's son seems functionally illiterate at best and whatever qualifications her own background includes, serving in a useful capacity as a literary agent is clearly not among them.

Best to all in your endeavors!

Mike

I signed with Sara in March of this year and she's been awesome! Got a three-book deal with Grand Central fairly quickly. She did a great job negotiating and I'm a happy camper.

Everyone's story may be different. Just thought I'd share my experience.

Mike Ontiches said:

So, in summary, there's no reason to think that Sara Camilli or her son has ever helped any writer in a significant way. She doesn't have a Web presence. She doesn't get back to people.

The obvious conclusion to draw from the sum of these factors? Poser agent. Not someone worth bothering with. A waste of your time. Evidence that anyone can claim the title of "agent" (viz: "life coach," "spiritual adviser," and more). Et cetera.

Based on my experience (via a friend, fortunately) with her, I am not surprised in the least that a Google search turned up the matters discussed in this thread. Sara's son seems functionally illiterate at best and whatever qualifications her own background includes, serving in a useful capacity as a literary agent is clearly not among them.

Best to all in your endeavors!

Mike

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My experience with Sara is at odds with your conclusion. She's always been incredibly responsive to me, and she got me a two book deal with an imprint of Simon & Schuster/Atria in December with a healthy advance. One of the books she sold in that deal I'd given up for dead, as it had been widely shopped by a previous agent. Since then, she's been with me through the pre-publication process at every step. I couldn't be more pleased.

I usually hesitate to say much, because she's really not looking for clients. I'm not sure what your google search turned up, but her lack of web presence is intentional and she isn't soliciting queries. She doesn't object to them, however, and if she sees something she likes she'll take it on. Signing new clients just isn't where her attention is focused at this stage in her game. She has a number of clients she's done very well for. That's where her attention is focused. That's also one thing that qualifies her to serve as a literary agent in a useful capacity. Supporting her clients through the process is another. Providing excellent editorial input is yet another.

I haven't worked with her son in a couple of years. He was helping her with pre-representation business when I signed with her (queries, requests, preliminary conversations if she liked the work). Since signing, I've worked only with Sara. He was lovely to work with, though, and certainly knowledgable. I'm at a loss to imagine what you or your friend found objectionable about him.

Sara really doesn't need defending, so this post is really just for me. I found yours rather unpleasant. It's inspired me to leave an impression of Sara Camilli from someone who's actually worked with her. Best in your endeavors, too.

ETA: Cross-posted with LadyLex.

Giant Baby said:

My experience with Sara is at odds with your conclusion. She's always been incredibly responsive to me, and she got me a two book deal with an imprint of Simon & Schuster/Atria in December with a healthy advance. One of the books she sold in that deal I'd given up for dead, as it had been widely shopped by a previous agent. Since then, she's been with me through the pre-publication process at every step. I couldn't be more pleased.

I usually hesitate to say much, because she's really not looking for clients. I'm not sure what your google search turned up, but her lack of web presence is intentional and she isn't soliciting queries. She doesn't object to them, however, and if she sees something she likes she'll take it on. Signing new clients just isn't where her attention is focused at this stage in her game. She has a number of clients she's done very well for. That's where her attention is focused. That's also one thing that qualifies her to serve as a literary agent in a useful capacity. Supporting her clients through the process is another. Providing excellent editorial input is yet another.

I haven't worked with her son in a couple of years. He was helping her with pre-representation business when I signed with her (queries, requests, preliminary conversations if she liked the work). Since signing, I've worked only with Sara. He was lovely to work with, though, and certainly knowledgable. I'm at a loss to imagine what you or your friend found objectionable about him.

Sara really doesn't need defending, so this post is really just for me. I found yours rather unpleasant. It's inspired me to leave an impression of Sara Camilli from someone who's actually worked with her. Best in your endeavors, too.

ETA: Cross-posted with LadyLex.

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You said it better than me. I have no complaints and I adore Sara.

Congrats on the Grand Central deal!!

Sara is my sweetheart agent. She's made over 45 subs to the majors (one book) and is still subbing. Haven't sold yet but she took all my books and they are lined up for submission. She does do multiple rounds. However, she admits to being stealthy and keeping her presence very low and discreet on the internet. She reps multiple best-selling authors and really goes to bat for African Americans.

The negative: she has a really tardy history of getting back to me, but she eventually does. She has a pretty awesome sales history to NYC and the major independents. The editors CERTAINLY knows who she is.

tri

Giant Baby said:

Congrats on the Grand Central deal!!

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Thanks Giant Baby! Sara was awesome helping me navigate through the process.

Calling all Cars: Can't reach Sara via phone or email. I hope nothing has happened to her. Any of her clients know if she is on extended vacation? Gawd forbid, hospital? She always gets back with a phone call. Not this time. Been about 45 days.

Any status report would be appreciated.

Tri

Ack. No contact from Sara for three months--email or phone. Any client's of hers know what's up or have you had some contact with her? She has a Michigan phone # that she uses when on vacation. I might have to try that one next, although I feel intrusive doing that.

tri

Anything new here? I know she reps or has reped in the past some big name African American authors (I saw her thanked as agent in the back of a book I just finished)
Any updates?

quianaa2001 said:

Anything new here? I know she reps or has reped in the past some big name African American authors (I saw her thanked as agent in the back of a book I just finished)
Any updates?

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Triceretops has been posting in a few other threads I'm in, and looks to be super busy right now so I hope they don't mind me chiming in: their agent is safe and back in contact, working hard on subbing Trice's projects, and had some very good reasons for being unavailable.

Things appear to be back to business as usual. However, as noted earlier in the thread she might not be actively looking for new clients so keep that in mind if you're querying her.

Yeah, Sara has been busy with important family matters. It took her awhile to get back to me, but she messaged me to call her in the next few days to touch base and plan some more subs. I have to do this amid heavy medical visits and procedures, so it's fortunate if I get things rolling on both accounts.