Beware these Agencies

Not every agency is out to help you, but instead to line their own pockets with gold. There are scammers everywhere and people have been duped through not fault of their own. A scammer is just like that annoying used car salesman, out to get a dollar and you a lemon. However there may be diamonds in the rough in a used car lot, just as there are agencies that are real and true and don't charge you a cent. The only way a good agent gets their pockets lined with gold is if they sell your book to a publisher and the book gets published and sold. They'll take a small percentage of what you make, but they've done their job by helping you.

Paying an agent or agency up front, they might never sell your book and you're out that bit of money that you might have needed in an emergency.

Here's a list of twenty of the worst agencies to be weary of as according to the SFWA THUMBS DOWN AGENCY LIST. That doesn't mean however that there aren't good agents out there, but a good way to keep abreast of the good, the bad and the in-between would be a place like Bewares, Recommendations and Background Checks on Absolute Write Forum.

I know that I was once susceptible to scams, but my family members had an eye for weeding out the suspicious. So I'm always weary of something that goes against the grain. When a number of people, particularly those with far more industry experience than I or anyone I know are gathering together to warn each other and potential future victims of a conman or conwoman a red flag goes up. That is when I delve a bit further into the research and make my own assessment and usually I come out agreeing with those who were trying to be helpful and keep people from being conned.

I've been looking into agents and agencies for the revision of Zox that I'm currently working on, so I'm glad to have found this particular feedback. I'm hoping that others who might not have been aware of it yet, will now find it useful in their own search for an agency.

~ B. E. Cullen