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Weaver Literary Agency

Feriku

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The Weaver Literary Agency (or Weaver Literary & Management, since both names are used) is a new agency that just opened up: https://weaverliteraryagency.com

The bio for Bethany Weaver says she's worked as an agent before, but I couldn't find any details about writers or books she's represented in the past. Does anyone know more?
 

Sonya Heaney

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I wouldn't be signing with a newbie agent with no clients, whose only publisher connections seem to be to a couple of small presses I've never heard of (and even then the listed connections are vague). Not even a profile on LinkedIn that I could find.

Not sure how this agency (in reality, one agent) could get your work in front of any known editors or publishers when she appears to have no connections or experience of her own.

When you're starting out as a literary agent the point is to build those connections within a bigger agency before branching out to do your own thing. I wouldn't be handing my manuscript over as a guinea pig for someone with so little experience.

EDIT: thewokewitch.com redirects you to the "Weaver Literary Agency" website. This is a bookstagrammer who decided to turn her personal site into a literary agency site. This ... is not how literary agencies are meant to work ...
 
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Feriku

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Yeah, those are the concerns I had, but then when I saw that her bio said she'd worked as an agent before, I thought maybe there was something I'd missed. Maybe not.
 

CaoPaux

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Recent sales are audio and foreign rights for previously self-published books.
 

Turtle2023

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Just saw a #MSWL tweet from Bethany, so I started poking around, too. Her bio now lists two literary agencies for which she worked, but in neither case was she an agent. She has history selling foreign rights, but I'm not seeing traditional domestic literary deals.
 

Maryn

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IMO, then she's still not up to being on a list of agents to query.
 
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Fiender

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Bethany Weaver came to my attention as she's just joined QueryTracker. The opinions in May were very unimpressed. I'm curious if the following is new information or if it isn't as promising as it seems at first glance. These sales are visible on Bethany Weaver's PM page, separate from the copious rights sales:
-Isadora Brown's SEA & ASH in a three book deal (Boroughs)
-Tate James's MADISON KATE series in a five book deal (Bloom/Sourcebooks)
-Freydís Moon's HEART, HAUNT, HAVOC in a three book deal (Union Square)
-Tate James's HADES series in a four book deal (Bloom/Sourcebooks)

Maybe it's just my amateur sleuthing, but these publishers and deals seem noteworthy, and make this agent seem promising.
 
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Nether

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Bethany Weaver came to my attention as she's just joined QueryTracker. The opinions in May were very unimpressed. I'm curious if the following is new information or if it isn't as promising as it seems at first glance. These sales are visible on Bethany Weaver's PM page, separate from the copious rights sales:
-Isadora Brown's SEA & ASH in a three book deal (Boroughs)
-Tate James's MADISON KATE series in a five book deal (Bloom/Sourcebooks)
-Freydís Moon's HEART, HAUNT, HAVOC in a three book deal (Union Square)
-Tate James's HADES series in a four book deal (Bloom/Sourcebooks)

Maybe it's just my amateur sleuthing, but these publishers and deals seem noteworthy, and make this agent seem promising.

Considering two out of the three publishers listed take unagented submissions, I feel like this is probably more of a wait & see.



Union Square is the only one that explicitly only takes agented queries.

 

Turtle2023

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Considering two out of the three publishers listed take unagented submissions, I feel like this is probably more of a wait & see.



Union Square is the only one that explicitly only takes agented queries.

This was my thought, too. They aren't bad publishers but you don't need an agent to sub to them. Most people looking for agents want someone who can get them in at agent-only houses.
 

Nether

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I think it's just romance that Sourcebooks are open to unagented submissions. The rest of Sourcebooks takes agented work.

After looking over the list, right now they're taking unagented romance, horror, and non-fiction (and then unagented children's non-fiction from experts). So yeah, it's not everything, although since they list some as being open, it's possible that the others are periodically open, too.

(And, as a non sequitur, I actually saw one of the audio version of This is Where It Ends at one of my local Goodwills a while back (possibly a former library copy?), so Sourcebooks definitely makes its rounds. And, on a related note, I'll have to add Sourcebooks to my list of publishers for projects that don't land an agent... or where I get really antsy.)
 
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Undercover

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Well I know the YA and I think the children's fiction books only take agented work with Sourcebooks. I haven't checked in a while so I'm not sure on that. They used to, I remember submitting to them. Then they got big.
 
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