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Edit Ink and Me--Going Undercover for
the New York State
Attorney General
by Lila Guzman
(reprinted by permission)
A writer friend just phoned to congratulate me
for helping the New York Attorney
General temporarily shut down Edit Ink. According to the January 19,
1998 Publisher's Weekly, New York State has sued Edit Ink for
fraud and has placed it under a temporary restraining order.
What was my part in this?
In the August 1997 Austin Writer, I read that the New York
Attorney
General
was investigating Edit Ink and wanted to hear from people who had
experience
with them. I wrote immediately. Two agents, one in Florida, one
in
California, had asked to see my manuscript. Agent X and Agent Y
said
they were impressed with my novel. It was so good and so close to
publication.
All it needed was professional editing. The agents said they
would
consider my manuscript if it received professional editing from Edit
Ink.
Two days earlier, I had received letters from Edit Ink saying that
Agent X and Agent Y had recommended me.
How's that for timing?
The two letters from Edit Ink were identical, except for the names of
the agents and the literary agencies recommending me.
I told Dennis Rosen, the Attorney General, all this in a letter.
Because
I have publishing credentials, the Attorney General asked if I would
send
out bogus manuscripts to agents of his choosing. He wanted the
manuscripts
to be "all messed up," as he put it, alternating twenty pages of
legitimate
text with twenty pages of gibberish. Starting on page 20, I put a
word
of Spanish, a word of English, a word of Spanish and so forth.
When
I grew tired of that, I let my fingers light on the keyboard and just
typed
away.
What I had was indeed "all messed up."
So I sent out five bogus manuscripts. I had not queried these
agents
first. In my cover letter, I was careful not to say that the
agents
had requested the complete novel. Instead, I thanked them for
"reviewing
my manuscript."
Agent #1 returned the manuscript with a form letter and a P.S. that
read "See pages 20-40." He had caught the "messed up" pages.
Agent #2 wrote, "We are favorably impressed with this story. Your
writing
seems rather good as well." Twenty pages of gibberish was "rather good
as
well?"
And then I heard from Agent #3. He liked the concept and was
impressed
with the story and my thorough editing job. However, I still
needed
the services of Edit Ink because I was so close to publication.
When I received the rejection from Agent #3, I called the Attorney
General
and read the letter over the telephone. When I reached the part
praising
my pristine editing, he laughed. The whole purpose of the bogus
manuscripts
was to prove that agents were not reading the manuscripts they
recommended
to Edit Ink. In fact, Edit Ink was paying the agents for
referrals.
What happened to the other two manuscripts I sent? They came back,
stamped "Moved, left no forwarding address."
Response time on most manuscripts was two weeks. In one case, a
manuscript returned in ten days.
Sending out bogus manuscripts proved an eye-opening experience for
me.
I was shocked that a literary agency would even accept an unsolicited
manuscript.
I expected each one to come back with a terse note upbraiding me for
not
following proper procedure. The Attorney General told me that his
office
interviewed a legitimate agent as part of their investigation.
That
agent said he would never accept an unsolicited manuscript. Query
letter,
synopsis, and first three chapters was the standard procedure for
approaching
a legitimate agent.
When I last spoke to the Attorney General in November 1997, he said he
was
moving forward with the suit against Edit Ink. I asked if I could
use
the experience for a non-fiction article. He gave me his blessing
and
said it would all be made public by then.
* * *
Lila Guzman is an award-winning fiction writer.
Her short stories have
appeared in Xoddity, Millennium Science Fiction and Fantasy, PIF,
and other publications. Her novels include a children's fantasy, Green
Slime and Jam, and historicals Lorenzo's Secret Mission
(Finalist, Book of the Year 2001, ForeWord Magazine) and Lorenzo's
Revolutionary Quest. Email her at lorenzo1776@yahoo.com
or visit her website (www.talk.to/Lila)
Copyright Lila Guzman
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