by Lynne Marie Zerance

There’s no question about it: Writers, as a group, are among the most vulnerable. And let’s face it: we’re among the biggest dreamers, too. Perhaps that’s what makes us an easy target for those who make their living preying on people they perceive as naïve and gullible. After all, who better to tell (and sell) a tale to than a writer with a tale they’re trying to tell—and hopefully…someday…actually sell?

Making a business of exploiting aspiring writers is not a new game, but neither is it an old one, and unfortunately, it shows no signs of becoming a “lost art” anytime soon. Unless, of course, we (meaning the publishing industry as a whole) crank up the volume to a decibel that can be heard by every hopeful writer who’s got his ears on, and share with them what we know about the publishing-related “enterprises” whose business practices are somewhat, shall we say, less than ethical—or at best, simply ineffective. Perhaps then, the mighty pen can tip the scales of justice more in the favor of writers than the bottom feeders who feast on their vulnerabilities.

Hence, the genesis for this article about “the dark side of publishing”—which this writer hopes will wing its way across the Internet and be shared freely and widely until it reaches every pair of newbie-writers’ eyes.

My personal interest in this sinister subject came about as a matter of business: a prospective client of ours, Christian Bertoni, here at The Editorial Department (TED) called to inquire whether we knew anything about the literary agency with which he’d recently signed, a firm known as The New York Literary Agency or NYLA, for short. He’d just finished writing his first novel, Blue Jeans and the Rest of the World, and he’d been delighted to find that he was able to land an agent rather easily. But at the time of his call, he was beginning to question the firm’s integrity, so he rang our main office to see if we knew anything about them.

A quick background check on Preditors & Editors (a website the TED staff knows well, but with which some writers are apparently unfamiliar) produced information on NYLA, categorizing them as “Strongly not recommended.” And while that was enough for us to advise Christian to run—not walk—away from his new-found representation, it also sparked a curiosity at TED headquarters. Who are these NYLA agents, what’s their track record—are they selling any books to publishers? Why does Preditors & Editors issue a strong advisory against them?

By the time another of our prospective clients, Ketti McCormick, called a few days later with similar questions about the Children’s Literary Agency (CLA), a firm that seemed eager to sign her—and who, as it turns out, is a division of the same parent company as NYLA, namely The Literary Agency Group (LAG)—the research for this article was well under way.

A LEGACY OF LITERARY SCAMS

As a reputable independent editing firm, The Editorial Department had felt the sting of the backlash unleashed by the unethical practices of Edit Ink back in the 1990s, so we were aware that scandal exists in the field. But aside from ensuring that we frequent the major online resources to perform agent background checks (as part of our Agent Matchmaking Program), we had no reason to step foot onto the shady side of the publishing street, so we hadn’t learned about LAG, or its affiliates NYLA or CLA until our clients started tripping over their landmines.

Since two writers affiliated with TED had done so within the space of a week, we decided it was time to stand tall next to the watchdogs that have been dedicated to tracking publishing scams for the past decade or so, and raise our voices with the choir of integrity. And with little more I can personally do as a writer except shine the spotlight a little brighter upon the darker recesses of the industry, I’m hoping this article accomplishes just that.

MEET THE WATCHDOGS

Fortunately for writers, as the numbers of unethical, ineffective, and exploitative publishing-related businesses have increased, so too have the numbers of industry watchdog entities. The leaders of these organizations were all spurred into radicalization for similar reasons: They’d either been exploited themselves, or they knew another writer who was.

If you’re an aspiring and unpublished author who’s struggling to learn the lay of the publishing landscape, it behooves you to familiarize yourself with the lists below so you don’t waste precious time or money (or both) traveling on the dark side of the road to publication—it will never lead you where you really want to go.

Allow me to introduce you to “the scam-hunting posse,” as I’ve come to think of them, along with their watchdog and resource sites. (You’ll want to bookmark these sites on your browser for future reference.)

Heading the list is Jim Fisher, a Vanderbilt University Law School graduate and former FBI agent who can perhaps be credited as the forefather of the literary scam-hunting movement. His ground-breaking study of bogus literary agents, book doctors, and vanity publishers, The Fisher Report, ultimately led to the FBI investigation and subsequent arrest of Dorothy Deering. If you haven’t done so already, you can read the thrilling story of Dorothy’s decade-long reign as an illegitimate publishing maven in Jim’s book: Ten Percent of Nothing. (Which I personally read twice straight through and highly recommend. Not only is it a page-turner and incredibly well written, it will give you insight into how sleazy and unscrupulous some of these shady operators are. You’ll be shocked, amazed, and hopefully, wiser for the read.)

Next comes Dave Kuzminski, editor of the aforementioned Preditors & Editors, who threw his hat in the scam-busting ring about ten years ago, nearly by accident. “I was operating a forum for writers, and they kept asking me for tips about good publishers, agents, magazines...and where do I find this or that? So I started a one-page resource that had about 30 entries.” Today, Dave’s website is one of the best-known online writers’ resources, particularly lauded for its warnings and recommendations feature.

Victoria Strauss & A.C. Crispin also play an enormous role in the scam-hunting business with their website Writer Beware. Victoria’s professional affiliations include The Author's Guild, Novelists Inc, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, where she is Vice-Chair of the Writing Scams Committee. She dedicates a great deal of time to waging a vigorous campaign against the literary schemes and scams that prey on writers.

James MacDonald’s claim to fame, aside from being a full-time writer since 1988, is as the mastermind behind the Atlanta Nights PublishAmerica sting, an ingenius plan. James got involved in investigating scams when another author called him to relay his own story of having to mortgage his house to get his book published with Commonwealth Publications. Today, James is active on a number of writers’ forums such as Absolute Write’s Bewares and Background Check in which he is a moderator along with Victoria Strauss, and he recently took it upon himself to conduct an in-person investigation of the NYC headquarters location of LAG (which he found to be just a maildrop.) His boiled-down advice to new writers: “There are only two places in publishing that money can come from: the readers or the writers. If it’s not coming from the readers, it’s coming from the wrong place.”

Teresa Nielsen Hayden, an editor for Tor Books, has reveled in her role as a scam hunter for years. She runs an excellent writers’ blog called Making Light in which the topic is often literary scams. “Writers are so very, very easily crushed. If you tell them that they’re worthless, a lot of them will just fold up and not fight back afterwards. That’s one of the good things about online discussion forums, they provide a safe place for writers to tell each other, ‘Hey, it’s not your fault.’”

Isis Riley does her part in sweeping the publishing streets clean by maintaining a free comprehensive searchable database of agents at AgentQuery.com. Now a published author, Isis started the venture when she got frustrated trying to find a good online resource for literary agents after she’d written her first book. Now she polices her own site, ensuring that only legitimate agencies appear in her 800+ agencies database.

Bill Martin also offers a free search service on his website Agent Research & Evaluation Verification Service. (The site also offers numerous paid services to help you narrow down your agent search, and Bill assures me that no scammers get through his solid screening process.)  AR&E will search their database for sales an agent has made, and alert you if there have been any complaints.

MEET THE AGENTS

Now that you’re acquainted with the watchdogs, here’s a list of the latest “worst agents” who are currently in operation. If any of these agents are on your submission hit list, or if you are contacted by any of them regarding representation, we urge you to reconsider. This list contains the agents about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advistories/complaints during the past several years.

None of these agents has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (many sales claimed by these agents turn out to be vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made, whether directly, by charging fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for "editing services." Writer Beware suggests that writers searching for agents avoid questionable agents, and instead query agents who have actual track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agencies List

And since our intrepid client Christian Bertoni somehow managed to stumble across a third agent with a questionable reputation after he’d done business with NYLA and sent his synopsis to Mocknick, I’d personally like to add a “caution” entry about agent Nancy Ellis-Bell. Here’s the scoop on her (reprinted with permission from the authorsguild.orgwebsite):

New Judgment Against Agent Nancy Ellis; Information Sought

Text of June 2, 2005, e-mail to members:

Last October, we alerted members that literary agent Nancy Ellis (also known as Nancy Ellis-Bell), formerly an agent in Litwest Group, had settled a suit brought against her by Authors Guild member Raymond Barnett. Mr. Barnett's suit alleged that Ellis had failed to remit to him any of a $7,500 advance payment she'd received from Tarcher/Penguin on his behalf in December 2003.

We have now learned of a new judgment against Ellis, filed on April 26 in Mendocino County, California, for the wrongful retention of $19,000 of one of her client's funds. In addition, several other current and former clients of Ellis have recently contacted us claiming that she has withheld advance and royalty payments owed to them.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SOUGHT: These are, of course, quite serious charges, and we've assigned an in-house lawyer to review all aspects of this matter. If you've been a client of Nancy Ellis and have not yet contacted us, we urge you to do so. Please e-mail us at staff@authorsguild.org or phone (212) 563-5904 and ask for Michael Gross.

We will keep you informed on this matter.

The Authors Guild is the nation's largest and oldest society of published authors and the leading writers' advocate for fair compensation, effective copyright protection, and free expression.

HOW TO STAY ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET

There’s loads of good free online advice on how to avoid signing with a less-than-kosher agency—if you know where to look for it. Below are a few of the best articles I’ve found on the subject with links to the sites in which they originally appeared.

Twenty Tips From Jim Fisher

Beware of agents who:

1. offer you a contract for representation shortly after receiving your manuscript. This suggests that the agent, particularly if a fee is involved, is more interested in your money than your work. Ask questions to determine if the agent is familiar with your manuscript. Remember, real agents, when accepting a manuscript, don’t use form letters.
2. solicit your manuscript for representation out of the blue. Some agents get your name from copyright registration files. This kind of manuscript-chasing is not the way real agents obtain clients. Again, beware of the form letter.
3. refuse to disclose whom they represent and what books they have recently sold. Why would an agent want to keep this type of information a secret? Maybe they have no sales to report.
4. offer wild but general praise for your manuscript. Agents who are fast-buck artists don’t have time to read manuscripts. Ones who charge big reading fees won’t look at your work until you’ve paid them to read the manuscripts. Even if you have paid a reading fee, that doesn’t mean that the agent has read your work. These agents are entrepreneurs who pay others to read and evaluate the manuscripts that come to them. Take praise from fee-charges with a grain of salt.
5. brag about how successful they have been as literary representatives. Truly big-time agents do not boast to unpublished authors; it’s the other way around. The aspiring writer must impress the agent. When it comes to fee-charging agents, do not believe everything you read or hear – especially when it comes from the agent.
6. issue fancy, expensive brochures advertising their agency. The agent might be selling you a costly service that will not help you find a publisher. Do not forget why you wanted an agent in the first place. You don’t need a friend, you don’t need a coach or a cheerleader – you need a royalty-paying publisher. Don’t buy what you don’t need. Remember, a costly agent who can’t find you a publisher is worse than no agent.
7. are difficult to reach personally by telephone. Agents hiding behind answering machines and services might be avoiding former clients. Some fee-charging agents, once they realize they can’t get any more money out of you, vanish into the night, Don’t be a pest, but don’t be afraid to talk to your agent when you need to.
8. write poorly. Some of the fee-chargers, even ones who sell editing services, are borderline illiterate. Run from any agent who can’t spell, write a solid sentence or use proper grammar. If writers would quit paying these people fees, they might go back to selling used cars.
9. are hazy about their professional backgrounds. Most successful, commission-based agents were either writers, editors or publishers. Beware of former real estate agents operating fee-based literary agencies out of Bluegrass, Kentucky.
10. change their business trade names and/or business addresses frequently. Some fee-based agencies have had five addresses in the past ten years. What are they running from? If the agent you’re considering has been around awhile, check old publishing directories to see if they had ants in their business pants.
11. advertise for fee-paying clients on-line, in newspapers, and in magazines aimed at aspiring writers. Some of these agents are in the reading fee business rather than in the business of selling manuscripts. Notice that many of these firms, rather than bearing the names of literary agents, have catchy trade names.
12. place their clients regularly with subsidy publishers. Such agents might be taking kickbacks from these vanity publishers. Some of these agents are nothing more than branch sales offices for these publishers. This is a conflict of interest and should be outlawed. Remember, one does not need an agent to get subsidy-published. Also remember this – in the literary world, the publisher pays you, it’s not the other way around.
13. own or have a financial interest beyond mere kickbacks in a subsidy (vanity) publishing company. This includes publishers that require authors to purchase a number of their own books. If you seriously want to have a career as a commercial author, stay away from any kind of subsidy publisher. It’s a bad deal.
14. make what seem, on their face, outlandish claims of success. Some agents who have never sold a manuscript have claimed to represent Stephen King, Agatha Christie, and Shakespeare all in the same year. One such agent claimed kinship to a famous publishing empire, while another said she was Rosie O’Donnell’s half-sister. Neither statement was true. A couple of agents, when under attack by a number of clients who had caught onto their lies and demanded their money back, suddenly became seriously ill, only to quickly recover when the pressure was off.
15. have no record of sales with Bill Martin’s Agent Research and Evaluation (AR&E) database. If Bill Martin (http://www.agentresearch.com) has never heard of the agent you are considering, think twice before signing a contract, especially if the agent wants up-front money.
16. seem more interested in line-editing your manuscript than submitting it to a publisher. Book doctoring is big business, often at $3 to $5 per page – substantially less than a professional copyeditor would charge for extensive revision. Do you want a book doctor or a publisher? Who can edit your book better than you? Is the agent you are considering really a book doctor in disguise?
17. are not located in or near the East or West Coast publishing centers. New York City is the hub of the publishing world. Most successful commission-based literary agents have offices in the New York area. Close proximity to editors is vital in the agent business. Other publishing centers include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC. Although modern communications, including the fax machine and the Internet, have made having an office actually in one of these locations less necessary, an agent from outside these areas still needs to take regular trips for face-to-face contact with acquiring editors.
18. were not part of the writing/editing industry before becoming agents. Don’t be afraid to ask agents to outline their professional credentials for the job. If they clam up or become indignant, look for another one. This is especially true for fee-charging agents.
19. use form letters to correspond with you. This is a sign that the agent is not actually giving your manuscript individual attention. Some of the worst agents package up several manuscripts and with a single form cover letter, drop them over the publisher’s transom. This is just going through the motions. If this is the case, you are better off writing a good pitch letter and sending the manuscript yourself.
20. are rude, disrespectful or downright hostile. Some of the fee-chargers, once they get their money, don’t want anything more to do with you. An agent who has no respect for you as a writer is not going to be a good salesperson for your work. Look for an agent who truly enjoys working with new writers.

And from our good friend, Dave Kuzminski, editor of Preditors & Editors, comes these guidelines:

Some General Rules for Spotting a Scam Literary Agency

• Openly advertises for writers in print or online publications or both.
• Claims that it has new methodology for gaining access or acceptance with book publishers, but never explains why other successful agencies aren't utilizing it.
• Does not list any sales or refuses to divulge the titles of sales for confidentiality reasons.
• The only sales it lists are for vanity or subsidy publishers or the sales it lists were made by the author before the author signed with the agent, often years before representation.
• Sales it claims to have made cannot be found listed in any reference lists of books that were printed by the supposed publisher.
• Sales it made were mostly to a publishing house wholly or partially owned by the agency.
• Requires an upfront payment for administration or for a web display or for later postage and copying.
• Online forum postings never include anyone who was rejected.
• Online forum criticism is frequently responded to by a defender of that agency.
• Representation is usually granted in less than a month or even less than a week.
• Representation acceptances are usually worded identically.
• The agency name has changed, but the same personnel still work at the same address and there was no conflict with another agency with the same or a similar name and no merger to warrant a change.
• The agency never provides original comments from publishers that manuscripts were allegedly submitted to.
• The agency never provides original invoices or receipts for postage or copying expenses it claims were made on behalf of the author.
• The agency suggests that it will grant representation if the manuscript is first given professional editing. Frequently, it will suggest who should do the editing or offer to make its own in-house editing service available for a discount price.
• The agency threatens to blacklist its authors within the industry should they mention leaving.

P&E recommends that writers keep in mind that these rules are based upon the known behavior of scams, but that some legitimate businesses occasionally skirt on some of these rules in their own normal activities. Writers should keep in mind that most scams will follow or break more than a few of the rules we recommend for spotting them. Legitimate businesses rarely break more than two.

And, last but not least, here’s one of my favorites—Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s somewhat humorous take on the truth about agents. This really brings it all home to me:

On the Getting of Agents

ABOUT THE LITERARY AGENCY GROUP

In the introduction of this article, I mentioned that two of our clients had crossed paths with LAG (in the guise of two of its affiliates NYLA and CLA) and that I was spurred into investigating the company in-depth after conversing with the clients. If you’re wondering where my investigation led, allow me to enlighten you. (None of this was difficult to find, by the way, which just goes to show that doing a little homework up front before responding to an advertisement, can go a long way toward keeping you on the road to legitimate publication.)

All of the watchdogs I spoke to while researching this article had heard of Robert Fletcher, the president of LAG, which as it turns out, is actually a ring of seven separate agencies—or as Victoria Strauss calls it “the seven-headed hydra.”

A Google background search on Robert Fletcher turned up this documentation. Excerpt: “In late 2001, a cease and desist order was issued against ByteAudio.com, Inc., its President, Robert M. Fletcher, and two other officers, Frank M. Dolney and Fred C. Kriss, charging them with offering and selling unregistered securities in Washington via the Internet. The orders seek fines totaling $50,000 in addition to imposing injunctive relief and ordering restitution. A default order has been entered against Fletcher ordering him to pay the $50,000 fine and restitution to Washington investors. See orders SDO-021-01 and SDO-063-01.” To read more about this charge, see the document in its entirety at: http://www.dfi.wa.gov/sd/pdf/internetfraudnr.pdf

This was the same year, according to Victoria Strauss, that Fletcher bought out the literary agency that eventually became LAG.  “Of all of the people that we are currently tracking, he is the one about whom we receive the most complaints,” Strauss says, “and at this point, they number in the hundreds. By comparison, the average file has between 20 and 30 complaints.

To the knowledge of Writer Beware, he has made no commercial sales of books. He claims to have sold a book to Globe Pequot Press—a travel book by an Italian writer— but we have information that the book was bought from the writer directly.”

To read what Robert Fletcher (the president of what was then ST Literary, formerly Sydra, and is now Literary Agency Group) had to say for himself in January 2004, follow this thread and scroll down to post #13, titled: “President of ST Literary /Sydra Offers a Few Thoughts”: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=529

Following another tip from Strauss, I turned up this Publishersmarketplace.com advertisement submitted by “Robert West,” a “contact” for The Literary Agency Group. Here’s the direct link to the ad, which also appears below in its entirety: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/cgi-bin/displayRights.pl?rights_no=3405

5 Manuscripts Our Literary Agency Will Pay You $2500 Each to Publish   7 Nov 05

Author:  Physician, Professor, Veterinarian...   Description:  Joint Venture Publisher

Wanted: =========================== Our 'out-of-the-box' thinking literary agency is willing to assist you with printing costs or publicity costs up to $2500* per book to publish and promote our authors' work.

What? Huh? A Literary Agency pays $2500? To a publisher? Did I just read that correctly? ==================================== A literary agent wants to partner with a publisher and pay money on the author's behalf?!?. .. wait a minute.. ... what is this? it's not self-publishing..it's not vanity either.. what is this?

Ok, here's the deal, by putting my money where it counts, SELLING BOOKS, the publisher wins, the author wins, and my agency wins. I call it 'priming the pump', it's a simple concept really, and I wonder why no one has thought of it before. Put yourself in my agent shoes for a minute. I could pay an employee-agent $5,000 per month to sling manuscripts at the publishing community with only sporadic results, AND the negotiation is adversarial. However, if I can put that same money behind a book that I believe in, well, that creates a serious win-win-win for the author, the publisher, and our agency.

And, I Guarantee the Quality and Commercial Viability. I believe in these books and authors. ================================================ I'm guaranteeing it with my money, aren't I? Every book that I would support has been formally edited and is ready to go. Take a look at these sample bios and books.

* * * * * . The author is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh, and of Canada, and a Member of the American Societies of Hematology, Clinical Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the International Society for Cellular Therapy. For the year 2004-5 he was a scientific advisor to the Cancer Vaccine Consortium. He was a past recipient of the Elmore Research Scholarship of the University of Cambridge. * * *

* * * * The author was born in Baltimore, Maryland and is a Professor at a major university. She is an author and editor of 16 books and 12 proceedings and monographs. She has written 50 chapters and 100 papers, and given more than 150 presentations nationwide. She has graduate degrees in Music, Science, and Education. She and her husband are now living in the British Virgin Islands, where her time is spent sailing and writing. She has published scientific articles and written more than a hundred concert reviews as a freelance music critic. * * *

* * * * * The author is a retired veterinarian living in Bethlehem, South Africa. He was in rural private practice in various towns before settling down in Bethlehem where he practiced for 35 years. For ten years or more he had a monthly column in “Veterinary News”. He also was the script-writer for the SuperSport TV series The ABC of Golf. * * *

* * * * * The author has sold 4,000 of his motivational and self-help books through seminars and tradeshows abroad. The author is actively promoting his work in the UK and is looking for a partner to expand his work into the US. He will support sales with extensive travel and personal promotion. * * *

* * * * * This author has a definitive book on the people and history of Poland. According to the 2000 Census there are at least 10 million Polish-Americans in the US. We are test marketing to Polish-American clubs as we speak.

My Goal is to Do 12 Books In This Program Next Year: ============================================= I would like to do one a month, first come first serve. I will do up two deals with any one publisher in twelve months. I'm also building relationships with innovative publishers as a sub-goal and if this is my price of entry, so be it. I believe that if I seed 12 great books, at least one will go all the way, so I am extremely committed to the program.

The Offer is Not Limited To Just These 5 Books, What's your sweetspot? ======================================== Our Agency has "depth off the bench" in quality authors for every subject matter imaginable. I believe I can supply books of this caliber in every genre. If you have a niche, let me know and I believe I can quickly fill it under this program. Just let me know what kind of book you would LOVE TO SEE and if I have it, we can do a deal. I'll pay the freight .

What I am NOT Looking For: ============================ Clearly this is not open to any self- or vanity publisher. You must be able to demonstrate that you have a decent sized organization, and have been in business more than 2 years. The more success you've had the better. You should clearly know your vertical niche. I am looking for mid-sized publishers but will consider small, aggressive publishers as well. There's no risk in letting me know your shopping list and if I can fill it and reduce your cost of acquisition, that's another win-win for you.

THE NEXT STEP: =============================== Please email me and let me know what kind of manuscript you'd LOVE TO SEE, or let me know if any of the above are of interest to you. I also have a list of another couple of dozen candidates that I am compiling now. Send me your company's background as well. Within 2-3 emails I'm sure that we can determine if we have the basis to work together. At a minimum we'll have some fun brainstorming possibilities and exploring a new industry model.

Best regards, Robert West The Literary Agency Group, Inc. robertw@theliteraryagencygroup.com

* There is no catch. If we can do a real deal, I will pay up to $2500 to your company on my author's behalf. I have 3 of these in early stages as we speak, and I'm only doing 12 next year, so only 9 are left. If you think you are remotely interested please drop me an email and let me know what you might be looking for. Let us work for you and reduce your risk and cost of acquisition.

Rights available:  All   Rights already sold:  None   Contact:  Robert West

The Literary Agency Group

rw@theliteraryagencygroup.com

phone: 888-808-6195

fax: 888-808-6194

275 Madison Ave, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10016

Item number:  3405

After following the paper trail of background info on Robert Fletcher and his companies, and reading the company’s client correspondence and websites (all 7 of them), I’ve concluded that the Literary Agency Group (and its affiliates) WILL NOT lead you or any of our clients down the road to legitimate publication. I highly recommend that you look elsewhere for representation.

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

Now that we’ve defined and outlined the problem, the die-hard idealistic journalist in me begs the question: Is there a solution to all of this—a way to run the less-than-ethical literary agents out of town on a rail? What about some form of licensing or industry policing? Wouldn’t that help?

Jim Fisher doesn’t think so. “Agent licensing might help, but it (scam agenting) would still go on as a black market. The only real solution is for aspiring writers to wise up and to handle rejection the right way. When your manuscript is rejected by a real agent or publisher, correct it. And if you can’t do that, get out of writing. Writing is just one of those vocations where you’re on your own. There are people doing right now what Dorothy Deering did.  If you’re unpublished and unknown, getting an unknown agent does not make for a good team. The more unknown you are, the bigger the agent you need.”

And as to the likelihood of new scam literary agencies continuing to spring up and flourish, Jim adds: “Setting up a scam literary agency is a goldmine. There are thousands of manuscripts coming on the market every day; it never dries up. If I were a scammer, I would never take on a client. I would simply live off reading fees, get a letterhead, a bank account, a mailbox, and I’m in business—making 60 to 70 thousand dollars a year. Then, every two years, I change my business name, get a new NYC mailbox, and carry on. My advice is for aspiring writers to wise up, or else they’ll become a cottage industry for borderline con artists.