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Wednesday, December 07, 2005
From a Reliable Source...
Score One for Our Side!
"Literary agent" Martha Ivery pleaded guilty on Monday to all charges of taking money from unpublished authors in a scam to get their work published. Read about it here.
Yikes! As if finding a good agent isn't hard enough. I feel sorry for the poor unpubs that don't have a group like PASIC from which to get feedback. I work for a company that deals internationally and I've seen just about every scam there is. These people who feed off of others by robbing them of their money and their hopes make me sick.
There should be a special level of hell for those who prey on others' dreams. I'm glad at least this one was stopped, but I know there are far too many others.
The part I loved best was when sci fi writer A.C. Crispin said that the woman had made death threats against them because of their comments at www.writerbeware.com.
That's why it's so important for writers to join RWA -- for the RWA approved agent listing. Not that the list is fail proof by any means, but at least I think RWA weeds out stuff like this. As a rule of thumb, writers should never give money to agents who want reading fees, or give them any money, unless it's for copying and shipping out manuscripts to editors.
Some of you might remember that there was another agent in the 90's doing this. I was one of her clients. I was unpubbed at the time and she never took my money, but apparently she was keeping money owed to some of her writers who did sell. I had just joined RWA and saw the announcement about her in my very first issue of the RWR. I shudder to think what might have happened if I hadn't joined RWA. Joining RWA was the best thing I ever did on so many levels! I can't say enough good about this organization.
6 comments:
Yikes! As if finding a good agent isn't hard enough. I feel sorry for the poor unpubs that don't have a group like PASIC from which to get feedback. I work for a company that deals internationally and I've seen just about every scam there is. These people who feed off of others by robbing them of their money and their hopes make me sick.
There should be a special level of hell for those who prey on others' dreams. I'm glad at least this one was stopped, but I know there are far too many others.
Great news, Faye. Thanks for the update.
The part I loved best was when sci fi writer A.C. Crispin said that the woman had made death threats against them because of their comments at www.writerbeware.com.
Unbelievable!!
That's why it's so important for writers to join RWA -- for the RWA approved agent listing. Not that the list is fail proof by any means, but at least I think RWA weeds out stuff like this. As a rule of thumb, writers should never give money to agents who want reading fees, or give them any money, unless it's for copying and shipping out manuscripts to editors.
Some of you might remember that there was another agent in the 90's doing this. I was one of her clients. I was unpubbed at the time and she never took my money, but apparently she was keeping money owed to some of her writers who did sell. I had just joined RWA and saw the announcement about her in my very first issue of the RWR. I shudder to think what might have happened if I hadn't joined RWA. Joining RWA was the best thing I ever did on so many levels! I can't say enough good about this organization.
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