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Article by Lily Iona MacKenzie

Author Bio:

Lily Iona MacKenzie has been teaching English at the University of San Francisco and other Bay area colleges for over 13 years. She also coaches individuals in business who want to improve their writing skills. She’s published personal essays, articles, poetry, travel pieces, and short fiction in numerous publications in the U.S. and Canada. She has completed three novels and three poetry collections that are seeking publishers. Keeping a dream journal, gardening, and dabbling in the visual arts (sculpting and painting) help feed her imagination. Website: home.pacbell.net/lsoucie. Email: lmackenzie@pacbell.net.

Writers Be(a)ware! by Lily Iona MacKenzie

We writers are vulnerable, working long hours in solitude for little or no pay. The possibility that someone eventually will recognize our talent and publish the finished product keeps many of us going. This hope - an amazingly powerful force - sustains us through self-doubt and rejections. However, this need to publish makes us particularly susceptible to scam artists.

Deceitful agents, book doctors (editors who claim they can help your work become publishable), and vanity presses prey on new and unpublished writers. They'll help you realize your dreams...for a few bucks.

Before I go any further, I want to say that many agents are honest, hard-working folks; they ethically represent their clients. We all know that since publishing houses have cut back on editors, good agents often wear two hats in order to sell books. Only the unscrupulous ones abuse their power over writers, and, frequently, in our desire for recognition, we collude with them. I confess. I'm one of those writers.

I had been seeking an agent to represent a novel and a memoir I've completed. While I had researched agents, and have Adam Begley's Literary Agents: A Writer's Guide (published in association with Poets & Writers, Inc.), I hadn't paid much attention to the warnings. I'd read about fee-charging agents, some of them legitimate, but I hadn't realized how easy it is to exploit writers. Nor did I fully understand how these dishonest agents operate or how prevalent they are.

Begley gave me my first inkling that the reader's fee "is an easy scam for quasi-literary charlatans" (56). He also made me aware of agencies that have two departments: one consists of commission agents, the other of readers who look at manuscripts for a fee. However, the commission agents seldom see or market works the readers receive. Even though I knew it was crazy to give money to an agent for reading or handling fees (or whatever euphemism they use), when I first started contacting agents, I was so excited to have one express interest in my work, I didn't pay much attention to the small print: she charged a "handling fee" (not a reading fee) of $35.00.

I was able to rationalize that she had many expenses-if it took $35.00 to get a good reading, it seemed worth the cost. Besides, she was a Canadian agent; I was born in Canada and it made sense to seek an agent there since my native country informs both my novel and memoir. However, Canadian agents do not have an Association of Authors' Representatives (AAR) and a code of ethics to guide them. Hence, the fee abuse can be greater there.

I only tried paying a fee once. It was enough. A reputable agent (usually members of AAR, though AAR has a few listed who charge fees) will not charge fees. As Kate Grilley, writer and editor of the Scam Alert, a web site, says, "If anyone tries to put a hand in your pocket, watch out." Dave Kuzminski of Preditors & Editors (another web location) says, "My feeling is that a reading fee is a sign stating that the agent isn't actually trying to sell to publishers. Someone charging $25 per reading could average over $50,000 a year without ever leaving home or attempting to seek a publisher for anyone." While there are reputable fee-charging agents who can be helpful in a writer's career because they are good editors, they are difficult to tease out. Unfortunately, the dishonest ones contaminate the profession.

After my one experience paying fees, I was cured. But I still was lured by an agent who specializes in representing unpublished writers, and I wasn't aware yet of book doctors and how they do their scamming.

Several Internet sites give extensive backgrounds on the agents they list. Often agents write lengthy blurbs describing their interests and the way they work with clients, or they have set up their own web sites. I was attracted to one agency in New York State that expressed interest in working with writers who hadn't published a book yet. The agent's friendly tone and enthusiasm made me think I'd finally found the ideal person to represent me and promote my career-a combination mother-figure who would inspire me and a sister I could confide in. The agent responded immediately to my query and said "Thank you for your recent interest in our agency. We're delighted to learn that you'd like us to review your work because we specialize in helping new writers get started in publishing." All my searching had paid off. I'd finally found the agent of my dreams. I didn't realize then that she was like the witch in Hansel and Gretel, sweetening me up for the kill.

When she asked for the whole manuscript, she confirmed my feeling that she was serious about my work. I was impressed. Most agents want only the first three chapters or 50 pages. (If an agent had asked William Faulkner for the first 50 pages of The Sound and the Fury, it might never have been published.)

After spending $30.00 for photocopying and postage, I sent off the manuscript; she received it December 21. A week later I received a form letter from her with these generic comments: "For the most part, I think your work is quite good, but I believe the writing itself must be stronger and sharper. In my professional judgment, you'd benefit from developmental editing-like most of our clients." She then recommended "Edit Ink," a book doctor that has been under investigation with the attorney general's office in Buffalo, New York. (I later learned that people who've been exploited by Edit Ink have written reams on the Internet about their experiences.)

The agent advised me to resubmit my work once I'd incorporated professional editing suggestions and she'd be glad to reconsider representing me. I was immediately suspicious. I couldn't believe she had read a manuscript of more than 300 pages during the Christmas holidays. While at that point I hadn't heard of Edit Ink or book doctor scams, I suspected a problem. I turned to the Internet for help, reporting what had happened to the directory where I'd found the agent's name. The person running that web site emailed me back, admitting that other writers had complained about the agency I'd contacted and suggesting I look up a couple of sites that specialize in literary scams. That feedback completed my education as a writer. Book doctors contact hundreds of agents, offering them a kickback if the agent refers clients. It can be a profitable source of income for both parties-all at the writer's expense.

Two days after I'd heard from the agent, a brochure arrived from Edit Ink. A day or two later, a man phoned me, asking if I'd received the brochure describing his editing services. I told him I wasn't interested in working with scam artists and hung up.

My Internet search turned up a list of agencies and publishers with questionable reputations (see attached list). The agent I had contacted was listed. I also stumbled onto a chat room where numerous discussions were posted from other writers who had been burned or wanted advice (Deja News).

I discovered that many people have paid editorial services like Edit Ink large sums of money (thousands of dollars) for help, convinced that their manuscripts would then be publishable. I also learned that some agents offer book contracts with vanity or subsidy publishers without explaining the costs involved.

After my research, I felt less upset about losing $30.00 for postage and photocopying; it could have been a more expensive lesson. The Internet itself has become part of the problem. It's easier to misrepresent yourself in that medium since anyone can publish there. The Internet design also promotes another kind of scam. There are display sites, websites that will display a synopsis or chapter or two from your book for a fee. The people who run these sites claim that agents and/or publishers visit these locations, looking for talent. It would be nice to think that editors and agents have time to search out writers. Usually they can't even handle the reams of paper that pass over their desks.

But the Internet also can be a terrific tool for a writer. It's easy to quickly check an agent or publisher's reputation, and it's helpful to turn to other writers who are having similar experiences. The Internet has given me back my power as a writer so I can discern when I'm being had.

Don't fall victim to a scam artist or let the desire to be published rule out good judgment. We become victims when we feel powerless, and writers do have power, especially in numbers. By collaborating and exchanging our stories, good and bad, by persisting and sorting through the slush pile of agents, we have a chance of finding one who will treat us with the respect and attention we deserve. I did.

***

I found the following pointers at the SFWA Warning Pages (Victoria Strauss maintains this site):

  • Agents should not charge any kind of fee, either before or after reading your manuscript. An agent's income should derive solely from commissions on the work s/he sells. A fee is a fee is a fee, whether it's called a submission fee, a processing fee, a reading fee, a critique fee, a marketing fee, a contract fee, a retainer, or anything else.
  • An agent should not charge you for the routine costs of doing business, such as local telephone calls, photocopying, postage, mileage, business trips, paper good, etc. Some agents have begun to camouflage their fees as "office expense" charges. This is not legitimate, though at times reputable agents pass on to their writers additional or unusual expenses associated with selling their book (copies purchased to send to affiliate agents overseas, long-distance telephone calls, or courier fees). These should never be charged up-front or as a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual sum. They should be levied as they occur (with itemized bills), or, preferably, accrued and taken out of the earnings for the book in question.
  • An agent should not refer you to any service for which you have to pay. Be suspicious if an agent tells you your manuscript needs editing and recommends a specific editing service. (Some agencies run an editing service under a different name so writers won't realize they're being set up.)
  • An agent should not refuse reasonable requests for information. It's your right to check an agent's client list, titles sold, and background. A red flag should go up if an agent tells you this information is confidential.
  • A disproportionate number of questionable agents work outside of New York and Los Angeles, though some are reputable.

USEFUL INTERNET RESOURCES:

Dubious Agent List:
rain-crow-publishing.com/market/dub_ag.html.

Dubious Publisher List:
rain-crow-publishing.com/market/dub_pub.html.

Preditors & Editors
www.sfwa.org/prededitors/ - (A guide to publishers and writing services for the serious writer.)

SFWA Warning Pages
www.sfwa.org/Beware/Warnings.html

The Short Order
www.thewindjammer.com/smfs/newsletter/html/scam_alert.html - (On-line newsletter of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Includes a scam alert column.)

Deja News (Database of Usenet newsgroups)
www.dejanews.com/ - (If you're uncertain about an agent, do a search here on his/her name to see if other writers have posted information.)

Association of Authors' Representatives
www.bookwire.com/AAR - (Publishes names of member agents.)

Federal Trade Commission
www.FTC.FOV/ - (Contact Greg Shapiro immediately to alert him of possible violations of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive trade practices.)

Nebraska Center for Writers
mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/litag.htm - (Lots of links an guidelines for writers.)

Recognizing Scams
www.writer.org/scamkit.htm

OTHER SOURCES:

The Fisher Report: A checklist of literary agents, a booklet compiled by Professor Jim Fisher of Edinboro University. Available for $10 by writing Professor Fisher at Edinboro University, Dept. of Political Science and Criminal Justice, Hendricks Hall, Edinboro, PA 16444, or by contacting Agent Research and Evaluation: Info@agentresearch.com. The Literary Marketplace. Has fewer fee-chargers than some other market guides.

Copyright Lily Iona MacKenzie 2001

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