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THUMBS DOWN AGENCY LIST
Page updated: 1/28/10
THIS LIST MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION
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Below, in alphabetical order, is a list of the currently active literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the largest number of complaints over the years, or which, based on documentation we’ve collected, we consider to pose the most significant hazard for writers. All have two or more of the following abusive practices:
1. Fee-charging–including reading fees, marketing or administrative fees, retainers, processing fees, and other forms of upfront or flat-rate charges that are made as a condition of representation.
2. Paid editing or publishing referrals–including placing clients with vanity publishers, promoting their own paid editing services to clients (a conflict of interest), sending clients/potential clients to an outside editing service that pays kickbacks for referrals. Several of these agencies are no more than fronts for editing services.
3. Conflicts of interest–several agencies are under common ownership with editing services or vanity publishers, which are recommended to clients without disclosing the connection.
4. No or minimal track records–many of these agencies have never made a single sale to a commercial publisher. In Writer Beware’s opinion, none has a significant recent track record.
5. Nonstandard author-agent contract terms–including perpetual agency clauses, claiming commissions on clients’ future works even if the agency had no hand in selling them, billing clients for normal business overhead such as travel and entertainment.
6. Unprofessional practices–such as sending form letters or postcards with boxes for editors to check off and return to indicate interest, “bundled” queries (several queries in the same envelope), “blitz” or shotgun submissions (submissions to a dozen or more publishers simultaneously, often without careful targeting), “packaging” a submission with unnecessary extras such as author photos, cover mockups, or sample illustrations.
7. Misrepresentation of skill or experience–including representing themselves as competent to sell manuscripts despite poor or nonexistent track records, lying about sales, and claming placements with vanity publishers as legitimate commercial sales.
While the agencies listed here account for the bulk of the complaints we receive, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Writer Beware has files on hundreds of questionable agencies, and we learn about a new one every few weeks.
We do update the list from time to time, as questionable agencies sometimes change their names, clone themselves, or go out of business. Be sure to check back regularly.
- The Aaland Agency (the alter ego of the now-defunct Abacus Group Literary Agency)
- Allred and Allred Literary Agents
- Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
- Benedict & Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency and R. Castro Literary Agency)
- Sherwood Broome, Inc. (also d/b/a Stillwater Literary Agency, LLC)
- Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.; also d/b/a Washington Agency and Washington Literary Agency)
- Arthur Fleming Associates
- Finesse Literary Agency (also d/b/a/ Elite Finesse Literary Agency)
- Brock Gannon Literary Agency
- Harris Literary Agency
- Martin-McLean Literary Associates
- Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
- B.K. Nelson, Inc.
- The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
- Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency, Creative Concepts Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and May Writers’ Group)
- Southeast Literary Agency
- Mark Sullivan Associates (also d/b/a New York Editors, Manhattan Literary, and Pantheon Literary)
- West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)
- Writers’ Literary Agency (a.k.a. WL Literary Agency or WLA), formerly The Literary Agency Group, which currently includes the following:
-Children’s Book Publishing Agency
-WL Children’s Agency
-Poetry Book Publishing Agency
-WL Poet’s Agency
-Screenplay Writers’ Agency
-WL Screenplay Agency
-Writers’ Book Publishing Agency
-Global Book Agency
-AEG Publishing Group
-Strategic Book Group
-Eloquent Books (a “joint venture” publisher)
-Strategic Book Publishing (a vanity publisher)
-Strategic Book Marketing (a marketing company)
-Writers’ Literary & Publishing Services Company (an editing company)