A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Literary Agents Legitimate and Questionable

 

(photo by Frank Perez)

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. They also provide useful (we hope) information for first-time published authors who perhaps are not getting as much feedback from their traditional publishers as they would like or need. (Some publishers are more proactive in this way than others.)

That latter phrase is important. Even published authors can be attacked by scammers, posing as book competitions, book reviewers, and literary agents. This blog post focuses those scammers posing literary agents. To separate the wheat from the chaff, there are some easy means:

Literary Agents

• are listed in the Literary Marketplace; yes, it is expensive, but many libraries will have a copy;
• generally do not contact authors; authors contact them for help in finding a publisher; 
• will produce a contract that will check out okay with an intellectual property rights lawyer; and
• do not ask for any upfront money or rights to your work but plan to get paid through a reasonable percentage (10% or less) of the royalties.

Scammers posing as literary agents

• are not listed in LMP but can sometimes be found on lists of scam artists, such as the Science Fiction Writers of America website;
• typically, contact authors after their first book comes out, offering to represent it to publishers (they apparently assume that they are contacting self-published authors who would love to have a traditional contract--of course, being able to deliver on the promise of acquiring the interest of a traditional is unlikely, but these scammers are not focused on promoting the author's book but siphoning off some of the author's money for their own pockets); when in doubt, ask for books they have placed, then do the research with the publisher and author; it should not be very difficult to identify the scam; 
• will not produce a contract that checks out okay with an intellectual property rights lawyer; and
• will ask for upfront money, unreasonable percentage of royalties, or rights to your work.

If the "checks" above do not answer your questions about any contacts you have had and you are a published author, go to your editor with your questions. If you are not comfortable doing that, take your questions to an intellectual property rights lawyers. 

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Educate yourself to protect your literary work and your pocketbook!

Never respond immediately to any unbelievably good offer than travels into your mailbox. If it is unbelievable, it is probably not for real. There is some hidden gotcha that you are missing. Run the offer past the tests above -- and check with a professional when in doubt. Don't lose your work or your ability to monetize it after you have already done the hard work to get it into press (whether through traditional publication or self-publication).

Read more posts about publishing HERE.