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Gold Dust Literary

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Editing for authors: because every writer needs a good editor.

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Does anyone have any info/experience with this new agency?

 

mrsmig

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Hmm...the website itself looks fairly amateurish, with pop-up ads on nearly every page.

The agency was founded in February 2021, although its sister company, Gold Dust Editing & Book Reviewing, has been around since 2015. The companies' principal, LiVatia "Gwyn" Jordan, is upfront about the fact that her experience in the publishing trade is limited to freelance editing and book reviewing. If you've been a client of her editing business, she won't represent you as a literary agent. Refreshing to see that someone recognizes that's a conflict of interest.

What I'm not seeing on her short list of author clients are any sales. Granted, the agency is less than a year old, but absent a sales track record, or at least experience working at a literary agency, it's impossible to know if Ms. Jordan would be an effective agent. The authors she represents are either debut novelists, or previously published by companies that accept unagented submissions and have questionable business practices (e.g. Wild Rose Press).

I wouldn't be in a hurry to submit here until she proves she's got the chops.
 
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I can't see that they've sold anything.

I can't see that any of their authors have previously published a novel.

They do have a 'sister' company that provides editing-for-pay.

They specifically state that they want romance of "all heat levels" but that they do not accept erotica, presumably because, as they state, "there is no real plot". That last statement is pretty disrespectful of the erotica genre, IMO.
 

Maryn

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I'll go further. Saying erotica has no plot is both insulting and flat out wrong--and proves she hasn't read erotica written in the last few decades. Her loss.

And reason for a hard pass even with genres they seek.

Maryn, discerning
 
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mrsmig

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Her emphasis seems to be on romance, and under "Submissions" she goes on at some length - too much length, IMO - about what she'd like to see. (That particular page could stand some proofreading: e.g. she's got the phrase "I’m not particular to the secret child trope etc." when she probably means "I'm not partial to the secret child trope etc.")
 

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