The SFWA’s list of top twenty worst agents that they know of. That list is as follows:
Below is a list of the 20 literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints over the past several years.
None of these agencies has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (book placements claimed by some of these agencies turn out to be "sales" to vanity publishers).
All charge clients before a sale is made–whether directly, by levying fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for editing or other adjunct services.
Writer Beware recommends that writers avoid questionable literary agencies, and instead query agencies that have verifiable track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.
Note that while the 20 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 nearly 400 questionable agencies, and we learn about a new one every few weeks.
- The Abacus Group Literary Agency
- Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
- Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
- Benedict Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
- Sherwood Broome, Inc.
- Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
- Desert Rose Literary Agency
- Arthur Fleming Associates
- Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
- Brock Gannon Literary Agency
- Harris Literary Agency
- The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:
- Children’s Literary Agency
- Christian Literary Agency
- New York Literary Agency
- Poets Literary Agency
- The Screenplay Agency
- Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)
- Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
- Martin-McLean Literary Associates
- Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
- B.K. Nelson, Inc.
- The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
- Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency)
- Southeast Literary Agency
- Mark Sullivan Associates
- West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)
And it’s this list that Barbara Bauer doesn’t want on the internet. Too bad. Thanks to her actions, this list is being duplicated all over the place.
In reality, this is not about grinding Barbara Bauer’s name into the mud – this is about educating writers about what is proper and professional business practice in the industry, and what is illegal, dishonest, and downright scamming.
If you’re a writer, you should know that money always flows to the writer, not away from the writer. You shouldn’t pay an agent to be your agent. The agent gets paid when you do – from the publisher. They get a percentage of your earnings – that’s how it works in the legitimate agent/publisher world.
Agents who charge reading fees or who recommend an editing service or bookdoctoring service are not professional agents.
There may be some exceptions to the recommendation of hiring an editor, but that would be rare and usually in cases where the writing is almost but not quite good enough. In any case, if there is such a recommendation, it should never – that’s NEVER – be to an editing service that the agent owns or has an interest in.
If you don’t know whether the agent is legitimate, then go to the SFWA page and find out. Or, alternately, when AbsoluteWrite is back up, check the forum. There’s a lot of discussion about the various agencies and whatnot – in other words, lots and lots and lots of exceedingly useful information.
ETA: I’ve linked all the agencies above to the 20 Worst Agencies list because, in reality, all of them should be linked to the list on the internet. All of us who are anti-scammer should do this for all of the scammer agents, not just Barbara Bauer. She’s only one of twenty, and the entire lot need more exposure for what they are, not just her.
Similar Posts:
- The Top Twenty Worst Agents
- Even more sites talking about the AbsoluteWrite Takedown
- AbsoluteWrite the update
- Barbara Bauer issues literary awards
- Preditors & Editors
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