Wow, that thread is pretty damning

More on this agent in this thread: https://twitter.com/Welcome2Sumiko/status/1498775100212060161

See Bre’s Twitter for the latest chapter in this saga.

She pulled a stunt today during #SFFPit, liking and replying to people throughout the day, then putting out a tweet later saying that she was hacked and that none of the likes were actually from her. This feels really similar to another literary agent to who had a meltdown a few years ago after her father died. Can't remember her name, but it was really eastern-euro- sounding. *Edit in response: Yes Lima, that's the one. I believe she recently got charged with federal crimes involving her hiring a hitman or threatening to kill someone's family.

Has burner accounts talking shit about her under her tweets. Can't tell if they're from authors she wronged, members of JDCL, or a combination of both. In any instance, this is quickly becoming a sad carnival.

Further Edit: She's leaving agenting.

https://twitter.com/BreLStephens/status/1497569964529696778 & https://twitter.com/BreLStephens/status/1497576150452912129

"I've been talking with industry professionals, authors, friends, & family & have come to the decision to step away from agenting. Clients deserve an agent with a good reputation & right now I'm viewed poorly. I need to change that, rebuild trust. Agenting is not the way to do it. With all of that said... I now leave agenting behind."

This seems pretty shady. She still had a large list of clients that, although dropped by JDCL, could have been brought with her to another agency. If she wants to rebuild trust, this is NOT the way to do it.

Claxton do you mean weronika janczuk?

February 2022. Per clients on Twitter, agent was unresponsive and then agency (Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency) dropped all of agent's writers and put her on a forced hiatus with no efforts made to support the dropped writers. At first agent posted a long tweet chain centering her experience and talking about how this was a blessing and she was so glad to have time off. Then she quit the agency, claiming it wasn't her idea to drop her clients and blaming her agency. Either she couldn't handle her client load and her agency fired them and she wrote a post centering herself or her agency were the bad guys and she tried to gaslight her clients by praising her agency's bad decision over speaking up for her clients. Absolutely not going to query because no version of this story makes this look okay. Way too much drama.

What a mess

According to her Twitter, she quit the agency because she didn't approve of how the agency handled her clients while she was on a leave of absence, which the agency advised her to take. She said she didn't drop the clients, the agency did, and she is looking for a different agency. One of those clients (at least from what I understand she was one of those clients) expressed her support of Bre's decision. So maybe it wasn't the agent that should be avoided but the agency? In any case, the tweets seemed genuine.

Profile Update: No longer listed on the agency website.

Note about her from an author agented with her on Twitter:

"Ok since I’m getting too many pms, I’ll explain exactly what happened. Take it as a lesson or a warning. My self and 9 other authors were picked up by
@JDLitAgency last year. Our agent was lovely and all was great. We had one group meeting and nothing one on one for three months. Some of us haven’t even gotten the countersigned contract till few days ago. Understandably our agent had issues at home but few of the authors understandably yet once again expected a more professional experience. Tempers were flaring so I’ve suggested a mediation. It was a friendly, “hey…see you running workshops but our emails are going unanswered? Can we sort something out? Another author went directly to the agency and ask if there is a possibility of a transfer. Not a huge ask. Then yesterday we just get a group email saying that Jennifer, the president, stood our agent down for three months and dumped her entire client list. No official email, no talking. Just the most unprofessional kick up the ass. So yes, months wasted. We got no referrals, nothing. A possibility to re-query in three months was an option?
I’ve approached other agents days prior to mediations for an opinion and most were horrified by the wait. Still, we were willing to wait again to avoid querying process. But alas I think we feel what our value was."

May want to reconsider this agency.

Form Query: 08/01/2021
Closed No Response: 11/30/2021
Genre: Fantasy (F)
Wordcount: 90,000 - 99,999

form query 7/23/21
full request 7/26/21 - sent same day
call requested 10/30/21, scheduled for same day
Offer of rep! 10/30/21. Decision due by Nov 8.
11/8 offer accepted!

90k ya fantasy

Form Query July 14th, 2021
Nudge August 26th, 2021
Closed No Response September 9th, 2021

Adult Fantasy 160k

FQ: 7/20/21
Nudge: 8/28/2021
CNR: 9/6/21
YA Contemporary 87,000

Profile Update: Closed to queries.