The Daniel Craig Literary Group

Authors, especially Daniel Craig Literary Group authors! Daniel's only employee just e-mailed me, giving me insignt into the Deerings' son and his bogus operation which is now thankfully defunct. If you ever dealt with this gentleman, you'd better read what she has to say. Katie has given me permission to reprint the text of her e-mail here.

This past summer I was employed by the Daniel Craig Literary Group and The Deering Literary Agency. I inquired about an ad in the Lexington Herald Leader for employment with Sovereign Publications, and when I went for an interview, we decided that I could work for Daniel Deering since his business was in his home in Nicholasville and I lived nearby.

I became his secretary and was responsible for taking phone calls, printing contracts, and organizing the office in general. At the time, I was not familiar with the literary business, and most of what he was doing or had me doing seemed normal.

I was quite surprised to find hundreds of contracts that had expired while sitting in filing cabinets. It was obvious that these files had been created when the check for representation came in, but had then sat there with no action taken to pursue publishers for their work. A few times I lightly questioned the manner in which he ran his business, and was quickly given excuses or asked if I was a baby that couldn't stretch the truth a little. I told myself that I would not lie to the authors who would call and ask about their work.

The Deerings spent the majority of every week in West Virginia visiting Cathy Deering's family. I was then left to stay in their home and answer the phones and go through some of the mail. While I was there, only one project was given some amount of effort. This was a screenplay, I believe about the shroud that covered Jesus's body. We faxed a few film companies and when this wasn't working, I compiled a list of phone numbers for Daniel to call. While I was there he never did this, and the only project that they seemed interested in fell to the wayside.

Mainly my job was to send contracts to anyone who showed an interest in their business and also send samples of the authors' work to various publishers. The information that you received listing the publishers your work had been sent to was the type of list I would produce from a form letter and mail to the authors.

It was also my understanding while I was employed by the Deerings that Daniel was buying the Deering Literary Agency from his parents and had formed the Daniel Craig Literary Group because he wanted his own business. Most new clients were sent contracts from the DCLG so that he could build his clientele.

I left that job in early August of 1998 to leave for another year of college, and found out in March of 1999 that they had gone out of business. I had not been sent my W-2's and tried numerous times to e-mail them and call. Finally I decided to call Sovereign and heard their message that they had filed bankruptcy in September of 1998. This was slightly surprising to me, since I had left only a month before that, and everything seemed fine.

I have nothing to gain from telling you this information. Because of that I am concerned about any suit by the Deerings against me because I told you information or would tell you information in the future. I can tell you what I know, but be aware that I DO NOT want to be sued for telling you my observations and opinions. If I have already said something that could cause me trouble, please be kind enough to tell me and not let it be known that I know this information. I am a young college student and do not have the resources to defend myself if the Deerings become angry with me. You may contact me if you wish.

I wrote Katie back, thanking her for her honesty. This young lady came forward of her own volition becasue she knew something was wrong. We need more people like Katie. Read my follow-up questions and her responses.

I was employed by Daniel Deering from June 2, 1998 through August 6, 1998. I was Daniel's only employee. During that time I became aware that Daniel Deering was not running an honest business (in my personal opinion). Though I had never had any dealings with a business of this sort, I could tell that this was not how it was supposed to be done.

Did Charles Deering have a hip or hip replacements?
It was my understanding that Charles did have at least one hip replaced long before I came to work for them.

Did Dorothy Deering have a knee replacement?
I do not know. I believe she was on medication for something.

Where did you work for Daniel Deering?
I worked in Daniel and Cathy's home in Nicholasville at 120 Davis Drive in the Orchard subdivision. Both the Deering Literary Agency and the Daniel Craig Literary Group were run from this home.

Daniel Deering, in an article, claimed he didn't have much of a relationship with his parents any longer. They were on the outs. Was this true from what you saw?
In my opinion the relationship was not a bad one. They did not argue around me and Daniel never spoke badly of his father in front of me. I do think I remember him (Charles Deering) saying "I love you" to Daniel when he would leave Daniel's home. I do not think that Daniel liked Dorothy very much, but she was his stepmother.

In this same article, Daniel said he didn't charge authors up-front contract fees the way his parents did. Is this true? He claimed he ONLY charged editing fees--about $6-8 a page. Is this true?
Daniel did charge upfront contract fees. I printed the contracts and was told how much of a fee to include on that contract. He was paid before any work was to be done. He told authors and myself that these fees were used to pay for postage, phone calls, office supplies, paper for photocopies, my wages and his. He also told me (and this seemed legitimate at the time) that an author could not be published unless that author was represented by a paid agent.

While I worked there, he did not edit any work and did not pay anyone to do edits. He did pay someone to read manuscripts and write critiques of them.

How much did the average author have to pay to get a contract with Daniel Craig Literary Group?
Usually around $300 per manuscript. This might change if you had more than one manuscript and he would usually decide on a case by case basis. This fee was the same for the Deering Literary Agency and the Daniel Craig Literary Group.

How did Daniel generate publishing lists for authors seeking updates? How did you go about choosing which publishing houses would be listed?
My main duty was to send a copy of the author's synopsis and a form letter to various publishing houses. I would choose who to send the work to based on the genre of manuscript. We had a book that listed publishing houses by genre category. I would pick 8-10 publishers to send the synopsis to, and then send a list of those publishers to the author. I believe my portion of that work was done legitimately.

Only a few times did we get a positive response from a publisher wishing to see more of the manuscript. However I think this is the norm. What I think was dishonest was what often happened when an author would call and ask for an update. Usually Daniel would talk to them and he would list off a few publishers and tell the author that this publisher or that publisher was interested in their work. He would tell them that he was going to send another copy of the update to them and that he didn't know why the first copy had not gotten to them. Then when he got off the phone he would remember which publishers he had listed and wanted me now to send the synopsis to those publishers and then make an update. Sometimes, depending on the conversation, I would need to put a different date on the update so that it looked like the work had been sent out a long time ago. Obviously the only way an author has of knowing that his agent is working for him is that update and he has to believe that the update is accurate.

To your knowledge, did Daniel Craig Literary Group ever sell a manuscript to a legitimate publisher? What about a movie script?
The Daniel Craig Literary Group did not ever sell a manuscript or a movie script. This business was newly formed from new authors and old authors that renewed their contract.

As for the Deering Literary Agency, while it was under the management of Daniel Deering, I don't know, but I could probably correctly say no. Daniel did not work to publish any material while I was there. I was told that the Deering Literary Agency had published work in the past, but I saw no real proof of this. Once Daniel showed me a children's book that Dorothy had written and had published.

Did you ever see Charles and Dorothy Deering's home?
I never saw Charles and Dorothy's home (in Lexington), but I was told that it was nice and that they had a maid. One of the sons and his wife did live with them, but not Daniel. He and his family lived in Nicholasville.

Have you any idea where Charles and Dorothy Deering are today?
No.

Was there any deceit in naming the agency Daniel Craig Literary Group instead of Daniel Deering Literary Agency?
Now I would say that yes, that is probably true. Daniel didn't want a business directly associated with his parents.

What were you asked to tell authors when they called?
The biggest lie of all...their work was being shown to publishers aggressively. I gave them false hope.

How many clients did Daniel Craig Literary Group have?
This is hard to say because in this case an author became a client as soon as he/she sent in a check. Being a client did not mean that we were going to do what you thought we were. I think they had many more clients than they should have. With no personnel, there is no way that any authors could have been sold. I knew nothing about this business, yet I was left to do all the work that was done in that office. Do you think I could in any way have done the job that an agent is supposed to do? Daniel was the only one that was able to do the job of an agent, and he didn't do that while I was there.

Did Daniel Deering ever do much work in the office?
No. Sometimes he would talk to an angry author.

Did Daniel Deering have any type of working relationship with publishers/movie producers? Was he well-known in the industry?
No.

Describe, from start to finish, what would happen when an author first queried the agency.
First we received a query letter by mail or e-mail from an author. This usually included a synopsis of the work and a letter expressing an interest in information about the company. I would send information, usually just a form letter or if we had them, also a brochure. This letter told them to send a copy of their work for us to review.

Usually as soon as we received the manuscript, I would send a contract from either the Deering Literary Agency or the Daniel Craig Literary Group. The manuscript would be kept to the side until we received the returned contract and fee. Then I would make a file and store the manuscript.

Most of the summer I was there, I pulled each file and if it was still under contract (contracts lasted one year), I would make 8-10 copies of the author's synopsis and write a form letter to the publishers. This would be sent to 8-10 publishers with a postcard which they could return to us marking if they wanted to see more of the work.

Where and how did Daniel Deering advertise?
I do not know. They had started a web site, but it wasn't very useful to the average author.

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