Beware of fake literacy agencies!

Have you created a masterpiece that you’re now finally ready to show off to the world? Are you looking for someone to represent you, someone who can help you get to the top? If you’ve answered yes to these questions, congratulations! And beware! YOU need to beware of fake literacy agencies that will scam you out of your manuscript, your money, your precious time, and your possible deal for a book that you could have gotten somewhere else. These are just some of the signs that you need to look out for when you’re choosing who’s going to represent you and your works. Though most agencies are worth their while, you still have to be on your toes and remember this: Constant vigilance!

1.          They want you to pay some kind of fee for editing, representation, expenses etc BEFORE they’re even considering doing something for you, or before they’ve gotten you published!

A good, honest agency will not make YOU pay for any illustrations for your books. That will be up to the publishing house to get pictures for the book. Remember that an agency never, I repeat: NEVER asks for money from their client before they’ve gotten any of your work sold and published at a publishing house. This is one of the most important rules of the industry. Never give away your money before they’ve sold your work to anyone. They also have a fixed percentage that they’re getting; no matter how much or little you sell. Let’s say it’s 10 %. This money is to cover the work that they’ve done for you. It’s a risky game for them, either they get money after a successful sale, or they lose money if no one wants the work. The works that they do sell, and that they get paid for, should cover all their costs.
Any agency who’ll claim otherwise is a fake, and you should be running away from them, they are the plague and they give the good guys a bad reputation! Hold on to your checkbook and your credit card. Remember that you should never be asked to pay anything out of your own pocket; the percentage should take care of that. The moment they start asking you for money; you know it’s time to find someone else.

2.          If you start asking reasonable questions about their sells, and won’t take no for an answer, they’ll cut you out.

If you’ve located this agency online and you don’t find any information on how many sales they’ve made and/or who their published authors are, that alone should act as a warning sign, a serious one. Let’s say you’ve submitted a work and they’ve accepted. You decide to take a closer look at their website and you find no names of clients etc. The only information that they give you is: for the sake of our clients’ privacy, we don’t have them listed on our websites, as there are too many weirdoes who’ stalk them; swamp them with calls, fan mails, etc. We’ll say that this so called agency is also asking you for money for a onetime fee, and they want you to pay for editing. They are, of course, expecting you to be easily fooled. Many new, unpublished authors can be naïve and think that they have to give to get. This is not the case. You don’t have to give them shit before they’ve sold your work, and actually gotten you published.
You send them an e-mail and ask them, politely, why they’re doing this, as there shouldn’t be any fees before a sale. The most likely thing that will happen next is this; you’ll get an e-mail back saying that they’ve already filled their quote for this season/year in your genre. That or something very similar to this, because once they realize that you’re not a donkey who’ll do their bidding, they dump you like garbage. They know that they can’t scam you for any money, and therefore you’re not want they’re looking for, and thus they let you go. 

3.          If you find them on the internet (which is very likely), you’ll find a lack of basic contact information on their websites.

The only way to contact them will most probably be by filling out their forms of submit. There will not be any addresses to their offices, no telephone numbers, no fax number and no e-mail addresses. There’ll hardly be a list of the staff who works there; at the most you’ll find a couple of names, the names of the bosses, or someone in a high position at the company. Somewhere in their text they’ll probably state that: in order for them not be swamped with phone calls, faxes, regular mail and e-mail, they’ll provide this information later, should you get to that point.
  Any self respecting and genuine agency will have all their contact information clearly displayed on the website, because they want you to enquire things and ask them questions. Maybe you’re a potential buyer of their books? How would you get into contact with a specific author, if not through their agents? Perhaps someone would be interested to translate a book into another language, publish it in a new country, book an author for a speech etc. How could this be possible without the basic numbers and addresses on a website?
  Would you trust a “friend” who you’d have no way of contacting? What kind of a friend would that be? It’s certainly not a friend that I’d like to have.

4.          Editorial services

They will tell you that your work is sellable, yes, but that you should seriously consider having it reviewed to make it better. One so called agency will send an almost standardized letter to each and everyone who submit on their website. They tell you that they will only represent and sell top class scripts, and to get that you need to edit some things in the manuscript. They’ll probably recommend a third party editor to help you with this, but don’t let yourself be fooled by this! If, in reality, this so called third party editor isn’t a branch of this agency, they’re shared the profit. This editing will cost you, and can cost you serious amounts of money. Often, the suggestions can be worse that you’ve already written, and they won’t get you any closer to an actual printing anyway. The agency won’t sell your script to anyone; they’re just in it to scam you out of your hard earned money.

5.          A reputable agency is concentration on selling the authors that they have, and beginners seem to be sand in their eyes – a distraction from their job.

A real agency will have a website that lists all their current clients and describe their books, with pictures of the covers, the authors and possible ways to get a hold of the books. A lot of space is dedicated to the authors and their books and their previous clients. If an agency is a scam, you’ll not find any lists of writers that they’ve published, or there’ll be lots of writing about the fact that they’ve got this and that many deals. But they’ll refuse to name the works that they represent, or even give you the names of their clients. I don’t know about you, but if I had an agency whose purpose is to sell books to publishing houses and then make as lot of profit out of them as possible, I would advertise them hugely on my website. I’d put in pictures and bios of the authors, along with lists and pictures of their present and previous works that I represent. I’d tell the world, and try to make people buy, so that I can get as much money as possible, and of course make as much publicity and money for the writer as I possibly can.
  The only reason an agency like this ever should exist is for the reason I’ve just mentioned; to represent an author and actually sell their works to real publishing houses. Not until I’ve made sure that this is achieved and the money is coming in, can I take my share of the money.

6.          Want to be published? Do your research at your local bookstore!

Go to your local bookstore and pick up a couple of books of the genre that you’re writing and turn them around. On the back is where you’ll find the name of the publishing house which has published that work. Look up their website online and see if you can perhaps send in a copy without being represented by an agency, and if you can’t send them a manuscript unless through an agent, write to them, or call them, and ask them if they’d recommend any agencies. Ask them which agencies their writers prefer.

7.          Do your research before you commit to anyone or anything at all!

It’s common sense to do your research prior to any major commitment! For example, when you’re buying a house, you don’t take the first one without even asking some basic questions about it. And you go out to the house and have a look at it too. You discuss with your partner, parents, friends etc, before you decide if you’re going to buy or not. Choosing an agency to send your manuscript is much the same, at least the process is. First you look around for possible agencies; you look at ads or look at forums to see who the ones everyone is talking about are. I can’t point this out to often; do your homework and check everything out. Remember that ONE negative comment can outweigh ten good comments.
  Check out what other people who’ve have any type of contact with a specific agency has to say. If you can, ask questions that you might have and see what they have to say. Most people will be very honest about their experience, both good and bad, so don’t hesitate to ask. Also, ask several people and not just one.  If you are unsure of anything or feel that there’s a lack of answers or information to satisfy your questions, ask the agency themselves. Provided, of course, that there are ways to communicate with them without having to submit any work. You’re not required to send them any work before you’ve had all your questions fully answered! Even then you’re not required by any laws to send them anything. The questions you’ve asked have simply been to see if a certain agency is what you’re looking for, and if it isn’t; thank them for the trouble of answering all of your enquiries and move along to the next.
  Check all the reliable lists you can find on which agencies are phonies, and which ones aren’t. See what other people recommend, and as I’ve probably said already, don’t be afraid of contacting the publishing houses themselves and ask them if they’d recommend anyone in particular. The worst answer that you can get is “no”.

         These are not all the warning signs, but they are some of the most important ones that you need to know about before you start your publishing adventure. Remember that most agencies are good guys, but there are some bad apples in the cart, that you need to be aware of. I hope that this have given you some ideas in the process of knowing how to identify a scam, or a bad apple, in this growing industry. Remember it’s an adventure, with new people to meet and new friends to make; it’s the chance to make a difference in someone else’s life. Who wouldn’t want the chance to change a life and to rise to new highs that you didn’t even know were possible? Who wouldn’t have the chance to affect thousands of people, yet might feel that they’re afraid.
Take the chance and leap! 
Carpe Diem!