On this lovely Halloween, a scary story…
Once upon a time, there was a scam literary agency named Hill&Hill. Like all scam literary agents, Hill charged a fee, though it was one of those “reasonable” fees. [Ed note: no agent fee is reasonable; they make their money by commission.] The agency signed up a lot of clients, and spent long hours working with the clients to prepare their manuscripts for submission. All clients received a copy of the submission package, with the glowing pitch letter, as well as a list of the houses the work was supposedly sent to.
As time passed, writers received word from the agency of houses that had, sadly, rejected the manuscript (Hill even forwarded their short rejection notes), as well as more in-depth information and notes from houses that were apparently still interested or were passing the work up along the chain of command. Hill even told some that a publisher had made “a verbal offer.” Occasionally, the agent himself even met his clients for lunch.
[Ed. Note: If someone told me about an agent behaving as described in the paragraph above, I'd say he was behaving exactly as he should.]
However, all was not what it seemed. However, this scam could only go on so long, and writers waiting for contracts from houses like Crown, Spyglass Entertainment, and others, realized that these promised contracts would never materialize. And then, abruptly, the agency shut its doors and claimed to have “frozen” all its accounts and pending contracts as it relocated to Spain.
Recently, an editor from the UK Harper Collins wrote a column on the fifth estate blog talking about the rush of letters from Hill’s former clients wondering where their forthcoming contracts are. As the editor dug deeper into the mystery, she discovered that these writers were told by their “agent” that in order to get their book deal, they’d have to fill out an elaborate author survey (click on the link to see it; it’s really quite unbelievable).
The comments section of the post was filled with more horror stories as Hill’s victims chose to speak up. My heart broke for them, which is why I am posting, yet again, on avoiding scam agents. I feel like such information needs to get out there so I’m strapping on my metaphorical sandwich board and handing out pamphlets.
People like different qualities in agents. Some want editors, or hand-holders, or neither. Some want to be told when they get a rejection, others hate the idea. But there are two absolutely non-negotiable terms:
1) Agents make their money on commission. They don’t have marketing/agent/retainer/what-have-you fees. Period.
2) Agents should have a record of sales. Even if they are new, they are likely to be working at a respectable agency who will be showing them the ropes or they have come from some other aspect of publishing or another agency, or they are announcing they are open for business in conjunction with their first sale. Yes, everyone has to have a first; I don’t deny that. But I’d only volunteer to be that person’s first if the agent was at an established agency with senior agent’s guiding the process, or similar exception. And if the agency is in business for a year or more and still shows no sales? Yeah. No sale.
I don’t want any writers taken in by this kind of scam. I’m on a lot of writer loops, and a member of RWA, and though there is so much good information out there, I am regularly shocked by people who convince themselves that this agent fee is different. As people are writing out their checks they are nodding at me and emphatically agreeing that no agent should charge fees. And I’m like, “Um, what’s that you’re doing?”
But we’re all very good at self-delusion. We’re also supremely adept at putting the blame somewhere else, as this comment on the Fifth Estate blog shows:
I too was a victim of Chris Hill. I do not excuse or forgive him. He was guilty but we were gullible! The publishing industry must accept some of the blame for this. While they are grabbing at big sales for trash written by celebrities and ghost-written autobiographies of juvenile stars the unknown imaginative or creative writers are completely ignored. Do publishers feel no responsibility for encouraging new writers? Where are the Bronte’s, the Jane Austens or the Dickens of today? Is someone going to say, they are all writing for Eastenders?
Of course, this argument is not unusual. I see it all the time, in all manner of arguments, blaming the industry for favoring all kinds of writing in lieu of all other kinds. “Why doesn’t the publishing industry/the readership get me?” the rejected writer asks. “Why are they so obsessed with potboilers/celebrity bios/sexy romances/chick lit/Oprah-style weepies? Why don’t they publish good books, the kind I write?” This argument is not valid. It’s not valid when it’s about some sort of imagined drop in fiction publishing in favor of (!!!) ghostwritten memoirs, and it’s not valid when it’s some MFA holder saying no one takes women writers seriously because some of us like comedy. It’s just not valid. Books shouldn’t be any one thing, and publishers publish what people will read. Read more of what you want, and perhaps they’ll see the market for it. It’s happened before (cf. erotic romance).
“Do publishers feel no responsibility for encouraging new writers?” In a word: no. They are thrilled to take them when good new writers come along (after all, new=cheap), but they don’t have any need to encourage them. They’re already there in droves.
And these money-making books, these celebrity bios and such, are an amazing way for publishers to be able to encourage good new writers. They keep the publisher in the black, so they can do the most encouraging thing of all: they can buy the books of new writers, new writers who are nto a sure bet, new writers who may not make any money but have a story that people will want. Publishers moonlight too. They do some work for money, and some work for love. So if you want the love, stop dissing the money. Different books have a place. Respect that.
And do not feel entitled by the industry, or expect to be spoonfed your how-tos, or assume that any of this is going to be fair. Publishing is tough, confusing, and nothing even remotely related to fair.
October 31st, 2006 at 10:14 am
Fantastic post, Diana. People need to take responsibility for their career. Great agents abound. If your writing is good enough and marketable, one of them will take you on.
October 31st, 2006 at 11:11 am
Right on, D!
October 31st, 2006 at 11:21 am
Pretty spooky stuff, Diana – you sure picked the right day for this post.
Have you blogged yet about vanity presses? They can be pretty scary, too. And what about the ebook market – is that at all useful for the would-be published writer?
At one time, ipublish.com looked like a possible alternative to mainstream publishing, but I think it was bought out (by a mainstream publisher) and closed down. Are there *any* non-mainstream possibilities that are not scams or rip-offs?
October 31st, 2006 at 11:46 am
On the topic of small presses, epresses, POD presses, supported self-publishing, self-publishing, and vanity presses, I think there are several readers of this blog who have a lot to say on the topic.
Alyssa Goodnight are you out there? Alyssa is my hero. She self-published her first novel and got it into the hands of a ton of booksellers, got it reviewed by all kinds of top notch reviewers (BOOKLIST, who called her “irresistable”).
Other regular blog readers, such as Jaci Burton, began in epublishing with the highly respectable outfit Ellora’s Cave; when EC branched out into print, Jaci was right at the forefront, and now she and I share an agent and a publisher. (Jaci, the little slu– er, writing machine –is also with Berkley).
As for the success of certain POD books, there’s always the story of Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles, and a dozen other dreams-come true detailed on the blog POD-y Mouth.
Other POD published authors feel free to weigh in here. Natalie? Cindy? I don’t know what’s natalie said officially on the topic, but if you go to Cindy’s website, she has a great article up there on her own path through several e and POD publishers nad now with the (great) independent press, Red Sage.
For small presses, there are a ton of highly respectable ones.
But I don’t think I know enought o be able to make a list of Dos and Donts if you want to go that route with your novel. I never had an interest in that — was pretty firmly set on selling to a big print publisher.
Here’s the slim sum total of my thoughts on the matter:
I think POD or self-publishing, especially of a novel, should be a last resort. You’ve tried all the conventional means of getting your book on teh shelf — gone through agents, and all publishers, big and small — and you really think that this story needs to be out there. And you need to research the heck out of it and figure out how to do it right, and you need to devote yourself to making as big a splash with it as possible, which is going to take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and probably a good amount of money.
For most epublishers and super-small presses, you’re probably best off if you are writing in some sort of niche market where the audience KNOWS to come to that publisher for that kind of book. Urban fiction is often self-pubbed, erotic fiction was until recently often pubbed by dedicated publishers such as Ellora’s Cave, homosexual romance and erotica is very commonly published by smaller presses devoted to that type of fiction. I tend to see that the people who are doing best in independent or electronic markets are offering something that the bigger publishers aren’t. But that’s just what I’ve observed, and it’s a generalization.
The problem with being POD or self-published, as POD-y Mouth often states, is that there’s a ton of crap out there, and it’s a type of crap that you don’t usually see in conventionally published books. Then, what’s left has the same ratio of normal crap-to-good-books that you see in the mainstream. (her motto is “finding needles, discarding hay.”) So first you have to convince them you’re not crap. I hear it’s an uphill battle.
But I’m not an expert. I’m sure someone else here knows a lot more about it than me, having actually self published or epublished or published with a small press… anyone?
October 31st, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Scam artists should have special penalties. Life in jail, I say. They abuse the innocent, and often the frail of mind and body. They prey of fear.