Excerpts from Writers Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know Excerpts from the Writers Tricks of the Trade book | Page 12

MORGAN ST. JAMES
proficient at their craft and may never be at the stage where their
work warrants publication. The latter group usually has convinced
themselves that their baby will be a blockbuster. In fact, they might
be out shopping for the outfit to wear on The View at this very mo-
ment. Whatever the case, shady agents shower the hapless client
with compliments, all the while painting brilliant word pictures of
untold success. Who doesn’t love being told their work is wonder-
ful? These scam artists reel out the blarney as long as the writer
continues to shell out money.
A personal experience with a scam artist
Early in our fiction writing experience, my sister and I received an
acceptance letter from one such agent, who shall go nameless. A
$300 deposit, requested in advance, allegedly would cover printing
and submissions. After the thrill of knowing an agent wanted us, the
demand for front money niggled at us and eventually waved a giant
red flag. The agency was listed in multiple literary agents’ guides and
had seemed legitimate. However, when we checked Preditors and
Editors, no longer available online, we discovered numerous com-
plaints against them. Although they did not list clients and would
not divulge them when the information was requested, we did some
detective work and found two authors whose work had been tied up
for a few years. The only action they’d had relative to this agency
was writing more checks for “advances.” We decided to have some
fun.
We emailed them thanking them for the contract but let them know
we searched the internet and found various complaints. Here is
where we had the fun. In the next line we claimed we would still be
willing to have them represent us, but wanted them to reimburse
themselves from royalties in lieu of the requested $300 deposit.
Their answer arrived so fast it broke speed records.
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