Avoiding the Agent Scams
There are a lot of people out there preying on the aspirations and dreams of others.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You've just finished your first novel. You've heard how hard it is to break into publishing; you've read tons of market listings that say "no unsolicited submissions, please!" You decide that it might be worth your while to hire an agent, so you begin searching for one who is willing to represent new writers. Eager, indeed, for fresh new talent to promote.

Is your book really good enough for an agent? Will they, like so many publishers, reject your labor of love? Here's where you begin to make your first mistake – deep in the back of your mind, you crave acceptance. You want your manuscript to be loved unconditionally. You do not want to see it with the jaded eye of a bean counter, analyzing its sales potential in today's literary marketplace. You are ripe for the picking.

A successful, busy agent may well turn you down if he or she feels that your work isn't marketable, or if he or she doesn't have the time to market it properly. Another agent may love that same manuscript, may be hungry for new clients, and may have contacts in different markets. A different agent may see something in your work that says "This is the next bestseller! I have to have a piece of this!" That's a business reality. Of course the best agents can afford to be picky – imagine being Stephen King's agent! (I wish.) Now, imagine being Stephen King's first agent, back before he was earning scads of money. What you need is a visionary, not a scam artist.

If an agent calls you and tells you how promising your work is and how eager he is to represent you, of course you're inclined to listen. Of course that's exactly what you've been hoping to hear. But you need to really listen. Do the compliments come with strings attached?

Some agents will ask for a retainer fee, up-front marketing fees, reading fees, or other fees from the writers they purport to represent. Beware! A reputable agent makes money from selling your work. Reputable agents will charge a commission of 15% on the advance and royalties from all uses of rights. All agent fees and commission should be collected out of book sale proceeds as they come in from the publisher. Publishing receipts generally come through the agent to the author, so the agents usually take their cut out as it passes through their hands. Be sure to choose a literary agent wisely. Some people who pose serious agents will ask for money up front, reading fees, evaluation fess, and pay-to-publish contracts. A reputable agent will earn their money based off of commissions and not from charging money to their clients. (from http://www.stliteraryagency.com/1197/literary-agent-literary-agents.html) You may be expected to pay some or all of the reasonable costs of marketing your work. Ask about commissions. Most agents charge a 15 percent commission on anything they sell on your behalf, and some charge for incidentals like photocopies and postage. And since agents only earn a fee when they have generated income for you, they have a strong incentive to work on your behalf. (from http://www.ehow.com/how_107938_hire-literary-agent.html) Notice that "reasonable costs of marketing your work" include such things as phone calls, photocopies of your manuscript, and postage, not glossy brochures and nationwide ad campaigns. Still other agents, searching for a stigma-free way to obtain money upfront, came up with the notion of marketing fees. Marketing fees go by many other names--contract, submission, processing, circulation, preparation, expense, retainer--but basically the idea is the same: the writer is being asked in advance to defray the expenses of marketing his/her work to publishers. (from http://www.sfwa.org/beware/agents.html) So these agents now expect the author to assume all of the financial risk and still be willing to share 15% of their income. Sure, they still have some incentive to market the work – after all, they could get a 15% commission, if it sells. But there's no incentive to turn authors away because their work isn't really marketable, or to work hard on their behalf – they've already been paid. By the same clients they were supposed to be helping to earn money. You might just as well self-publish and cut out the middleman.

A coworker of mine, Greg Morris, got sucked in by Dorothy Deering. (See http://www.edinboro.edu/cwis/polisci/jimfisher/scams/horror.html) Now, I just bought two of Greg's books (available through Amazon.com) and he's a good writer. Though the books are self-published, I think they are on a par with many of the traditionally-published mystery novels I've read. I don't regret the money I spent buying them. Had he taken a little more time to market them (irony of ironies, he's a marketing manager), I have little doubt he'd have been successful. As it is, he's sold enough to more than cover his costs in publishing them through iUniverse.com. He's still writing, in his spare time, and looks on the whole Deering incident as a learning experience. For some authors, though, it would be a crushing blow, both emotionally and financially. A serious dream killer.

If you have been scammed, realize that the scam is a business scheme – it doesn't necessarily mean that their compliments on your writing were mere flattery and lies! mmiles nearly fell victim to an agent scam. She turned to her friends on Writing.com and asked what we thought of the deal. I did a little searching on Google, and what I found there set off all the warning bells. I hated to trample on Mik’s enthusiasm and excitement, but I couldn’t stand by and let her be suckered in. She wrote back: As soon as [the agent] said she wanted $3000 up front, I was a little wary, though still excited. I think I mentioned I started searching for her client list on Amazon and BN.com and found nada. That's why I came here, because I knew you would know.

Intellectually, you know. Emotionally... you want to believe. That's why vanity press operations like Poetry.com are so hurtful, too. They're so good at the flattery. When a talented poet receives their marketing lit, it sounds great. When that talented poet learns that the guy who submitted something his cat typed up got the same letters, it hurts. It doesn't suddenly mean that the talented poet is on a par with the cat, but that's how it feels. The truth is that these people prey on everyone's hopes and dreams; they don't discriminate. What a feather in their cap it is to sucker in someone who actually has some talent or ability! These folks would dearly love to get hold of a naive John Grisham to lend themselves an air of legitimacy. Persistence will pay off, in the end. Keep the faith.

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm

Choose Your Weapons
by wildbill , Guest Columnist

If you're going to write an action/adventure story, you owe it to the reader to utilize some basic research on weapons to prevent errors and discrepancies from creeping into your writing. As you learn, you'll improve your stories by injecting authentic details about weapons and incorporating them into your plots. Then you'll find your artful words will create that magic moment when the reader suspends disbelief and you transport him into your illusionary world. I’ll close with a word of advice from Raymond Chandler, a writer of action stories, on writing for light crime, action/fiction magazines (pulps): The demand was for constant action...when in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.

Starr* Rathburn--10 yrs w/ WDC writes:

W.D.Wilcox © ¿ Φ writes:

Great to see you back Jessie. An outstanding newsletter as always.

Thanks, Bill! It’s great to be back. I do appreciate your keeping my chair warm while I was gone.

Vivian Zabel - author writes: