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Hold On To Your Wallet
VITAL information for any writing
newbie searching for an agent.
PLEASE read carefully. Moira Allen (www.writing-world.com)
and I teamed up to provide information to a trusting soul with an open wallet.
Ms. Allen's detailed response covers all the basics that you MUST know to
protect yourself from the scams rampant in the writing world (and now more
easily marketed via the Internet).
Dear Ms. Allen,
I am a first time, unpublished author. I wrote a fantasy fiction novel and sent
out quite a few query letters. Lynda Lotman gave me your name and told me to
e-mail you about my experiences so far in this venture. I am considering her to
edit my manuscript, but as I related my tale of agency shenanigans to her she
became increasingly alarmed and told me to contact you.
First of all, I have signed a six month contract with ___ of ___ Literary
Agency. She charged me $175 up front, but explained her reasoning and I felt,
if she fully represented me, the charge was justified. Lynda thinks I have made
a big mistake and that ___ will not properly represent my work. I'll chalk up
the $175 to hard earned experience, but my obligation to this agency is until
Sept. 13, 2002 and that concerns me the most.
Lynda also wanted me to tell you the experiences I have had so far, they are
full of red flags. I have had a total of five agents respond favorably to my
query letters. The first was ___ of ___ Agency. My query e-mail was responded
to within hours of being received and I was told to submit my manuscript
according to the guidelines posted on their website. To my chagrin, they wanted
$150 along with the submission, however, there was a 'no fee' option and that is
the one I chose. About two weeks later a secretary called me and said that ___
wanted to talk with me. She asked me to call back the next day at an appointed
time, which I did and we talked for an hour, on my dime. She told me the novel
was some of the best writing to come across her desk in a long time, but the
structure was killing her and she didn't like my protagonist being an
18-year-old girl. She was not interested in my reasoning, that two sequels were
planned in which quite a bit of time passes and the girl grows up. She had her
own ideas and wanted to 'consult' with me for a fee of $9500, after which I
would have a suitable manuscript to submit to other agents. She would not
guarantee representation! I was floored, to say the least. I told her I would
take a few of her editing suggestions and make the corrections myself. Three
days later my manuscript was returned to me with a terse letter telling me that
if I resubmitted the novel it would cost me $95.
Then I heard from __ of __ Literary Agency and __, a Canadian agent. __
requested the manuscript without a reading fee, I was thrilled. __ wanted $175
and the manuscript.
Then two weeks ago I received a card from __ asking me to send the entire
manuscript. I have not responded to them yet. Are they reputable? And two days
ago I got a phone call from __ at __ Agency. She said she would represent me,
but the manuscript needs work and if I got it edited, she would take it on,
however, she only had the first 10 pages and these were from before I did a
three week edit myself. She had an editing service in mind, which charges $6.50
per 250 words at a cost of $3,450. She even went so far as to give me their
website, however the website said they charged $6.00 per page at a cost of
$3,180. Is this agent reputable? I just received the sample edit back. I agree
with 90% of the changes, however __ wrote the cover letter to the fax! I
thought this editing service was not associated with her, I guess I was wrong.
Not wanting to be pushed into anything, I finally did some research on my own
and found that _____, ______, ______, and ______ are all poorly rated by
Agentresearch.com. (I could find
nothing constructive on ___). I further found Lynda Lotman and liked what I
read. I contacted her and have spoken with her on the phone. She will charge
me ___ cents per word to edit my manuscript at a cost of $ ____.
If ___ were really working for me, as an agent should, would a publisher be
willing to edit a manuscript or should I proceed with hiring someone? I do have
a potential editor who lives close to me. She is a retired English professor
who taught for 35 years. She said she would look at the manuscript and let me
know if she could help me. She doesn't need the money, is bored, and thought the
project sounded intriguing.
I've given you a blow-by-blow of my experiences since the end of Jan. Could you
help me with a little information on __ and if you have time, some information
on ___, ___ and ___. If nothing else, perhaps you could post a warning about
_____. First time authors are quite vulnerable and easy prey for literary
sharks.
Thank-you very much,
Dear Lisa,
Thanks for contacting me. As I told Lynda (and I'm sure she told you), I
don't have information on specific literary agents, and I'm not personally
involved in tracking disreputable or unethical agents--primarily because there
are already a number of excellent sites that have this information. In
fact, I came across such a list just today--and, indeed, most of the
names you listed were on the "warning" list. The only one I didn't see was ___
. It may be that she is legitimate -- or perhaps, as a Canadian agent, she
hasn't made it to too many warning sites as yet.
Since you've already discovered, and concluded, that most of these agents are,
in fact, not ethical, I don't think I need to address this point further. I
think the real question here is how one can avoid this type of mistake--and what
one can do to secure a legitimate agent.
The quick-and-dirty answer is: Be informed. I know that sounds terse, and it
isn't meant as such. However, if you are writing in a particular field (such as
fantasy), it's worth the time and effort to find out what resources are
available in that field. Perhaps the biggest resource available to science
fiction and fantasy writers is the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America),
which you can locate at http://www.sfwa.org
This site is also the location of the excellent "Writer Beware" site hosted by
fantasy writer Victoria Strauss (http://www.sfwa.org/beware).
Another good reference (which was hosted by sfwa but has moved to another
location) is "Preditors and Editors," which has a number of warning pages.
I highly recommend joining the SFWA as an associate member (or whatever it is
they call you if you're not published). I have such a membership myself; I'm not
a published sf/fantasy author yet, so I'm not eligible for full membership. But
this gives me their quarterly magazine, which has lots of good industry
information, and I think when signing up one could also buy a book they put out
for sf/fantasy writers that is absolutely PACKED with good info. This
organization focuses on the BUSINESS of sf/fantasy writing--publishers, agents,
conferences, etc.--rather than on "how to write."
Outside of that, there are of course dozens of excellent sites for writers of
all types and genres, and on all of them, you'll hear the same, all-important
line: MONEY FLOWS *TO* THE WRITER, NOT *FROM* THE WRITER. In legitimate
publishing ventures -- including dealings with agents -- money comes TO the
writer; the writer does not PAY money to others to achieve publication,
representation, etc. Keeping that one simple rule in mind will basically be all
you need to avoid shady agents in the future.
What is a shady agent? It is an agent who asks you to put up money, up front,
for ANY reason, to secure that agent's representation. Why is this shady?
Don't agents have expenses, after all? Isn't a reading fee "reasonable?" It's
shady because the JOB of an agent is to sell your work -- and to earn a
commission by doing so. If an agent doesn't feel that he or she can successfully
market your work to a publisher, a reputable agent just says "no." It's that
simple. If an agent says "give me money and I'll see," that agent is NOT acting
on YOUR behalf; she or he is simply using you to bring in revenue, whether or
not you are actually being SERVED by that agency. After all, what incentive does
an agent have to actually go out and try to sell your book to publishers --
when the agent can get the money straight from YOU? You know an agent is
working for you only when you know that the agent won't make a dime off of you
UNLESS that agent manages to sell your book and earn a commission.
Unfortunately, many "guides" to literary agents list both fee-charging and
non-fee-charging agents. This gives the former an impression of
respectability. And new authors, who are desperate to get published, find it
ever so much easier to get a "yes" from an agent who charges a fee -- so this
business keeps on thriving.
The "I will edit your book for a fee" or "I know someone who can edit your book
for a fee" is a HUGE scam, and has in fact resulted in a well-known lawsuit that
put the business called "Edit Ink" OUT of business. But some agents are still
working this scam. Again, there's an easy way to tell what's up: An agent is
NOT an editor. An agent may say that your book needs editing--but the
agent should not be involved in editing it herself. Now, some agents may
indeed know good editors, but if an agent gives you only ONE recommendation,
and/or implies that once the book has been edited (for a huge fee), she might
consider it for representation, run as fast as you can.
Unfortunately, to answer your other question, no, publishers do NOT edit your
book for you. If you are fortunate, and your book really catches an
editor's attention (meaning, in this case, an ACQUISITIONS editor working
for a publishing house), that editor may indeed work with you on developing the
book if she feels it needs more work. However, this is increasingly becoming a
thing of the past; publishers are less and less inclined to consider books
that need work. I'm not saying it can't happen; I'm just saying that you
should not rely on a publishing house editor to "edit" your book into shape.
There ARE reputable editors and book doctors out there, and Lynda Lotman is
certainly one of them. Unfortunately, this type of editing is expensive. If you
choose to use such a service, you must be aware that it is at YOUR cost, and
you should make this choice yourself, NOT because an agent tempts you with
representation if you accept a referral.
Before you go the route of book editing, I recommend participating in some
online critique and discussion groups, and getting some feedback from other
writers and readers of sf/fantasy on the quality of your book. I have
found online groups to be much more helpful than most "real-time" writing
groups, as they tend to have a larger number of actually published, professional
writers- and they have a higher level of diversity, since there are no
geographic boundaries on such groups. A critique group can help
you identify issues of possible plot problems, character problems, dialogue,
story flow, and of course, general grammar issues- and it won't cost you
anything. You WILL be expected to reciprocate by critiquing the work of others,
and you may often be asked to provide two or three critiques before you can post
your own work for review.
If you then choose to obtain editing, Lynda can give you a good idea of what is
"reasonable." To give you my limited knowledge, in the past I've charged $5 per
page for basic copy-editing and proofreading, and I've heard that this can
actually be a bit on the low side. (I've generally worked with nonfiction
material.) If you're looking for editing that covers not only issues of
grammar, punctuation, spelling, and to a certain extent, "flow," but also issues
of plot, character development, etc., you can quite possibly expect to pay
more. As I said, this IS an expensive option. If you choose it, be sure that
you are working with an editor who understands the type of material you are
writing--don't work with an editor who does "everything." Some editors charge
by the hour rather than the page--e.g., anywhere from $25 to $75 an hour--but I
myself have found that whether I charge by the hour or the page, the rate works
out to be almost the same.
As for protecting yourself in the future, the most important step you can take
is to simply check an agent's listing first to see whether a "reading fee" is
charged. If an agent is charging any sort of up-front fee, don't send a
query. And keep in mind that you CAN still contact some publishers without
an agent, so there is no harm in trying to market your book yourself AT THE SAME
TIME that you seek representation.
The final thing that you can do is remind yourself that this can be a slow,
difficult, frustrating process. Many authors NEVER sell their FIRST book. The
worst thing you can do to yourself is to allow yourself to feel so "desperate"
for publication that you'll "do anything" to achieve it. I don't know anything
about your book; it may be wonderful, or it may need lots of work. I do know
that it takes time and patience to break in. While you're shopping this book,
I'd recommend that you start work on the next book, rather than working
endlessly to repolish this one. (Sometimes, too much polishing and revision can
actually make a book worse rather than better; eventually, you can polish the
original spark right out of it.) Think of yourself, not as an author of A book
--but as an author of MANY books, of which this is just the first. You will
find, as you move forward, that your skill continues to increase--in fact,
you're likely to hit an epiphany (Ah ha!) moment when you realize that you've
crossed to a new level of writing--and that only happens when you just keep
writing and writing and writing. Ray Bradbury suggested that it happened around
the million word point, and I think that's a fairly reasonable estimate.
I'm not saying that you should give up hope on this book--again, I haven't seen
it. I'm saying that you can get into a bad situation if you pin ALL your hopes
and energies on getting THIS book published -- or if you're desperate to have it
published SOON. Accept the fact that it could take several years, and keep on
with your writing. It sounds to me as if you're a dedicated writer with the
gumption to stick to it until you succeed. I wish you the best of luck with it.
Best,
Moira Allen