Author : Susan Scharfman
Masters of deception pervade every facet of our lives, so why not the
writing life? Time and again scams are perpetrated on writers whose
desire to get published overshadows caution. If you've been to Africa or
watch Animal Planet, you're aware that predators prey on the weak and
unsuspecting. We humans are no different.During a period
of left brain malfunction, I'd contacted
the New York Literary Agency. Although they were listed as not
recommended by "Preditors & Editors," a writers' watchdog website, I
wanted to believe some covetous rival had maliciously bad-mouthed
them. They have an impressive Madison Avenue, New York address, a
professional looking website and a reasonable, if not questionable,
spiel as to why they
operate differently from most agencies. The latter should have been my
red flag. But when you don't want to believe something, reason
becomes clouded by delusion.The Literary
Agency Group is an umbrella for six other agencies, apparently under
common ownership: Children's Literary Agency, Christian Literary
Agency, New
York Literary Agency, Poets Literary Agency, The Screenplay Agency,
and Stylus Literary Agency. If you run across any of these agencies,
keep running. They have no tangible address and no phone number.
Their Madison Avenue address is nothing but a mail drop. They are a
"Catch Me If You Can" outfit that operates out of airports and phone
booths. It's no wonder they deride such respected organizations as the
Association of Artists' Representatives (AAR), among others.My initial submission to The New York Literary Agency had been a
synopsis
of a manuscript. They fired back a reply faster than an automatic
response website. In a boilerplate apparently cranked
out to all writers, they assured me there would be no fees, and asked to
see the complete manuscript. The normal waiting period for a traditional
agent or publisher can be six weeks to six months. After I sent the
manuscript they responded
within a few days saying they would represent me, but with the caveat I
pay a "polishing" fee to a third party in order to make
the manuscript saleable.At that point the clouds dispersed
and I began self-flagellation with tree branches for having fallen for the
come-on. No self-respecting agent or traditional publisher charges fees
of any kind. This agency has since been denounced by countless
writers who have been conned by their unprincipled practices.Author Victoria Strauss presides over a website on fraudulent
literary agents and dishonest publishers and unethical upfront fees and
fake addresses and fake contests and everything you never wanted to
believe about con artists who take advantage of unwary writers.
Granted, Strauss is a successful author who would like you to buy her
books. But her Writer Beware website, http://www.sfwa.org/beware is
maintained on a voluntary basis by members of the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Writers of America. It contains considerable
documented evidence on literary fraud and how to avoid it. You'll also
learn a whole lot about the industry in general, including vanity
publishers, print-on-demand publishers and how they
differ.In the life and times of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edna Ferber,
John Steinbeck, Eugene O'Neill and the rest—someone took care of
business while the geniuses wrote. Today, unless you have the means,
there is no escaping to the left bank of the Seine, or the sand dunes of
the Hamptons to contact your muse. Publishing is a business and taking
care of business is the writer's job. Unless you are able to separate the
predators from the valid editors—well, writers beware.Susan Scharfman is a writer/editor at http://www.susanscharfman.com
Category : Writing-and-Speaking:Book-Marketing
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