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Kickbacks: Agents and Free-Lance Book Doctors
In 1995, 1996, and 1997, a free lance book doctor in upstate New York made, in editing fees, five and a half million dollars from 3,600 unpublished writers. The fact that this entrepreneur made so much money is not as shocking as how he made all this money. This former fee-charging literary agent, although he directly solicited editing clients through the Internet and ads in writer's magazines and in the New York Times Book Review, realized that the most effective way to acquire editing accounts was through publisher and literary agent referrals. In reality, however, legitimate publishers and literary agents don't refer writers to book doctors like him. That's why he created six or so phony publishing houses and at least as many fictitious literary agencies for the sole purpose of attracting manuscripts from unsuspecting writers.
The book doctor's straw publishing houses solicited manuscripts with ads in writer's magazines, publishing directories for aspiring writers, and by direct mail through subscription lists and other marketing sources. Writers who responded to these solicitations by submitting their manuscripts promptly received for letters from the “publishers” praising their work. These writers were told that although their manuscripts has tremendous commercial potential, they were not quite ready for publication. They needed line-by-line editing and the best book doctor in the business, the man for the job, was, unbeknownst to the writers, the owner of the fake publishers. Excited that they had found an interested publisher, and without an agent, thousands of writers fell for the trick by paying this book doctor hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their manuscripts up to snuff for the publisher. When the rewritten works were re-submitted to the paper publishers, they were all rejected. Some of the rejected authors were told that the market had changed in the interim while others were fed the line that the publisher no longer published in the author’s genre. The illusion was so real, most of these writers, even at this point, weren't aware that they had been had. It was the perfect scam.
The manuscript chasing book doctor used the same M.O. to acquire editing referrals from his phony literary agencies. It was easy, all he needed was a Mail Boxes, Etc. street address, a catchy sounding company name, a writer's magazine ad, and a fictitious agent/owner. Six or so of these phantom agencies attracted thousands of manuscripts resulting in hundreds of expensive but quickie editing jobs.
From August 1995 to October 1996, one of the book doctor's accomplices, a woman who purported to do business as a publisher “seeking new authors of book length manuscripts,” operating out of her home and a Mail Boxes, Etc. address, referred $88,095.50 in editing jobs to the book doctoring firm. In October of 1996 this literary operative, with another Mail Boxes, Etc. address, began doing business as a literary agent. Within a year her fictitious agency drummed up $54,526 in editing fee referrals. In 1997 this woman was operating another mail drop literary agency and receiving, from the book doctor, a $500 a month stipend to help with her office costs.
When the book doctor's editing clients re-submitted their re-written manuscripts to the literary agencies who had referred them, they were turned down for representation. The rejections, of course had nothing to so with the quality of the manuscripts. Because they really didn't exist, they weren't taking on clients. Getting a rejection letter from a legitimate agent is bad enough, being rejected by Mail Boxes, Etc. is even worse.
In addition to manuscript referrals from straw companies, the book doctor in New York used thirty or so literary agencies – fee-charging outfits that actually existed – to route manuscripts his way. In letters to these marginal agencies, the book doctor proposed the following:
Please allow us to show you how you can earn many additional thousands of dollars yearly from what is now undoubtedly the Mt. Everest of unsolicited queries and manuscripts you must take precious time to reject anyway.
By referring our experienced editorial services, we will gladly send you the industry standard referral fee of 15 percent of the fee we charge per double-spaced page. We offer three levels of service: a critique or overview of the manuscripts, a line-by-line editing, and a combination of the two. At an average manuscript length of 300 double-spaced pages, your fee will range anywhere from $135 to $225 for just one manuscript. No wonder many of the agents we now get referrals from average thousands of dollars a month and many thousands of dollars a year from us.
Receiving a referral fee is, of course, as common in the publishing industry as it is in any other business . . . .
To begin, all you need to do is send some personalized version of the enclosed letter (only a sample) marked “agent-to-writer letter” on your own letterhead. Then FAX us the name and the address of the person whom you’ve referred. In that way, we can send them our introductory letter and brochure.
The enclosed “agent-to-writer” letter, the letter the agent was supposed to send to the potential client being rejected read:
Thank you for your recent submission to our agency. Though there may be some commercial possibilities here, I feel that I cannot take your work on in its current form.
As an agent, I recognize the harsh realities of the publishing marketplace and what it takes to make it there. For many writers, a bit of help is in order in the form of expert editorial and critiquing support before a manuscript is submitted to either agents or editors. I am not in a position to be able to provide that advisement myself to anyone other than my signed clients. I am however, ready to review this project again if it should undergo developmental editing by a skilled professional.
Toward that end, I've sought out and found an especially competent team of book doctors that will be able to offer the guidance that can help you publish and edit your book for the marketplace. Once you incorporate those editorial changes to this piece, it will be much easier to market . . . .
Should you decide to go ahead and work with these developmental editors, I would be interested in reading the revised manuscript once you’ve incorporated their editorial changes . . . .
Following this letter to the rejected writer from the literary agent, the writer was hit with this letter directly from Edit Ink:
We've recently received word from (the referring agent) that you have been referred to us. We sent this letter out as soon as we received that message, so if you haven’t received their letter, it should be coming soon. Bear in mind that (the agent) gets somewhere around 200 submissions a month, of which he refers only a small number of those, the most promising, to us . . . .
The encouragement from an agent who the writer hopes will represent him some day, coupled with the flattering letter directly from the book doctor, is a one-two punch many writers simply can't resist. One author on disability who was supported by her son spent $1,600 for the editing services after receiving the agent's and the book doctor's letters. She paid this money because she and her family all concluded that “the encouragement was too hard to pass up.”
This woman, along with all the other flattered into coughing up the editing money, were rejected by the referring literary agents. Undaunted and still hopeful, many of these writers mailed their revised manuscripts off to other kickback agents who replied by sending them referral letters identical to the ones they had already received. At this point it dawned on them they had been fleeced. They felt like fools and many of them gave up on their books and their writing.
One of these marginal, kickback literary agents, a fee-charger who had been working out of her home for eleven years, referred $394,000 in editing jobs to this book doctor. Fifteen percent of this money, money taken out of the pocket of writers she declined to represent, went to her. The book doctor, in addition to kickbacks, paid this agent and several like her, a $200 monthly stipend to cover her added office expenses. She was also reimbursed for the ads she placed to solicit clients.
In 1997 this book doctor, a regular columnist for a national writer's magazine, placed an ad in Publishers Weekly that read:
500 ENDORSEMENT FEE
for published novelists or
non-fiction writers for long
established literary criticism service.
Send list of publishing credits
to (book doctor’s address)
In a letter to every active member of Mystery Writers of America, the book doctor offered the same $500 reward for any writer willing to attribute his or her success in getting published to this book doctor's service. There were no takers.
The Attorney General of New York, in January 1998, filed a civil action against the book doctor charging him with false advertising, deceptive business practices, and fraudulent and illegal conduct associated with his nationwide network of fake literary agencies and fictitious publishing houses. The Attorney General's Office also issued a temporary restraining order, closing the book doctor down, until they resolved the case. Several months later the authorities lifted the restraining order after the defendant agreed to reimburse thousands of his victims millions of dollars. To continue doing business, the defendant promised to inform future customers that he was paying a percentage of the editing job to the literary agent who had referred him to the writer.
As a result of the Attorney General's suit, writers would receive pitch letters from the book doctor that read:
We've recently received word from (the agent) that you have been referred to us. Like all agents, (the agent) is inundated with manuscripts, but only a select few have the market potential to be referred to us. (Italics mine.) (The agent) is aware that in the past, publishers often bought a promising book and then assigned an editor to help the author shape it for publication. Most publishers today insist on an edited book. That's where we come in . . . .
Although we pay referral fees to agents, there is no need for a great deal of advertising so we can pass that savings along . . . . (italics mine)
This off-handed remark, stuck in the third paragraph of a positive, flattering letter, is what passes for full disclosure under the terms of the settlement of the Attorney General's suit.
The book doctor referral scheme is a gold mine for marginal literary agents who can make up to $75,000 a year on kickbacks alone. Literary agents who ratchet up the cost of a writer-paid fee they know won't help anyone but themselves and the book doctor, are among the worst in the genteel racket.
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