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Contracting and Marketing Fees
Because most book editors, professional writers, commission-based agents, the AAR, and virtually all writer's organizations frown on the up-front fee-charging, some agents try to disguise the fact that they charge reading fees. They hold themselves out to the public as “nonfee” agents. While they do not charge fees for reading manuscripts by potential clients, they require the writer to pay a fee when it comes time to sign the contract for representation. These are called “contract fees.” Whether it's paid sooner or later, a fee is a fee.
Other so-called “nonfee” agents, while not charging reading or contract fees, make their clients pay, up-front, for the costs of copying their manuscript. One agency, if the client chooses not to sent them thirty copies of the manuscript, charges $250 for the service. The client, rather than shell out five to six hundred dollars for thirty copies, sends in the $250. But who needs thirty copies of a manuscript? No agent, legitimate or otherwise, sends our thirty manuscripts at one time. Six copies of a manuscript is generally more than enough. The agency's thirty manuscript policy is nothing more than a ploy to get up-front money out of the client. Offered a contract like this, the writer should require, in writing, the return of all thirty copies of the manuscript or the $250 is the book doesn't sell.
It's amazing how ingenious and brazen some agents can be when it comes to extracting up-front money from writers. After paying reading fees, shelling out for expensive editing jobs, and then forking over more money to have their manuscripts re-evaluated upon a second submission, one would think that all of these writers would come to their senses and wise-up. Not so. For some, once drawn into this paranormal, parallel universe of literary fee-charging, the dream doesn't dissolve into a nightmare until the money runs out or the agent disappears.
Within the murky, little-known world of manuscript profiteering, up-front fees can be divided into three categories: pre-contract, post-contract, and money paid contemporaneous with representation. The latter, so-called “contract,” “representation.” or “sign-up” fees, range from $150 to $650 a year. Some agents bill their writers every six months while others charge an annual fee for every manuscript the client wants represented. A handful of agents charge clients, contemporaneous with the signing of the representation contract, a “consultation” fee. These type charges are either one lump payment or based on an hourly rate. One such agent who solicits business via the Internet tells potential clients that he normally charges a “consulting/marketing” fee of $1,000 but because this particular writer shows so much potential, the fee will be dropped to $375, money that will be refunded when the agent sells the manuscript.
Post-contract fees come in the form of “marketing,” “handling,” “circulation,” and “processing” charges. These fees cover, up-front, the agent's copying, mailing, and telephoning expenses, costs associated with submitting manuscripts to publishers. Commission-based agents bear these expenses as the normal cost of doing business. That's why legitimate agents only represent manuscripts they believe they can sell. Clients of one fee-charging agency are individually billed for each letter written on their behalf while clients for another firm, after a $500 contract fee, paid the agent $500 every time the agent traveled to New York or Los Angeles to pitch the clients' works. If the client didn’t make the $500 contribution to the agent's excursion, the agent didn't personally pitch this slacker's manuscript. In this agency clients essentially bid against each other for preferential treatment. The same is true with another agency which, at the cost of $350, prints eye-catching postcard like versions of what the cover of a client's book might look like if it gets published. These so-called marketing cards are supposed to attract publisher's to the clients' manuscripts and improve the chances that these writers will get published. Instead, these expensive little cards reveal to the publisher that this particular agency isn't for real, and worse, that its clients are suckers. These writers would be no worse off sending out their own manuscripts. They would also save a lot of time, money, and false hope.
A relatively new kind of post-contract fee is the agent sponsored publisher's showcase that features, on the agent's web site, a synopsis of the client's book with a couple of sample chapters and perhaps a thumb-nail biography of the author. The annual fee for this service normally runs between $500 and $800. One enterprising fee-charger, calling this “marketing tool” the “wave of the future,” charges $395 for just the synopsis; $695 for the synopsis and a five page outline or proposal; $895 for the above plus 15 pages of the first chapter and $1,395 for all of the above plus the author's biography.
Clients of showcase type offerings are told that major book editors, in search of fresh talent, regularly scan these web sites. That is not the case. In reality, only a handful of New York City book editors have heard of these agencies, and if they do know of such a firm, are not likely to visit its web site. A writer would be no less off stuffing his manuscript into a jug and tossing it into the Hudson River.
Marketing a client's manuscript takes a lot of time and effort. That is why legitimate, commission-based agents, can only handle a limited number of writers. Fee-based agents, on the other hand, because they make their money directly off the writer, cannot have too many clients. One fee-based agent located two thousand miles from New York City once bragged that she had 500 active clients, all of whom were paying $500 per manuscript per year to be represented. Many of these clients had been with this agent several years and were paying for two and three manuscripts. The agent had yet to sell a manuscript to a major publisher but was rolling in her clients' money. There was no way this agent could actually place her clients' manuscripts with legitimate publishers. That's why, instead of sending her clients' copies of publishers' letters rejecting their manuscripts, she simply mailed them a list of the publishers who had turned them down. This is common practice among agents who don't have the time or inclination to actually submit manuscripts to royalty paying publishers. This is where well-meaning ineptness turns into fraud. A few of these agents, when pressed for proof of performance, provide their clients with phony publisher rejection letters. This is where fraud turns into forgery.
In the genteel racket, the measure of success isn't how many manuscripts the agent has sold but how many clients the agent has signed up. In order to attract paying customers the fee-charging agent has no choice but to lie. The bigger and better the lying, the bigger and better the business.
An agency with no track record, no history of recent manuscript sales to legitimate publishers cannot stay in business unless they do one of three things: They can declare this information confidential, put together a recent sales list that is misleading, or simply make one up.
Agents who say they have made sales but won't reveal this information because it is confidential, are lying. Agents who refuse to reveal the names of their clients are hiding the fact they have not placed any manuscripts with publishers. One agent who keeps his client list secret writes:
It is our policy not to share our list of clients, primarily due to the confidentiality (sic) clause in our contract . . . . Many authors are under the wrong impression as to what an agent's success with projects indicates. Aspiring authors must keep in mind that success with others has no bearing on the potential success of your work. Each project must stand on its own.
Aware that potential clients might be suspicious of agencies that don't post recent sales, some agents put together misleading lists comprised of old sales, self-published books, books by local presses, and vanity publishers. Their more audacious counterparts don't fool around with the half-truths, they go right for the throat with the more impressive, albeit totally fictitious, list of authors, titles, and publishers. Agents who simply won't let the truth interfere with the success of their business become experts in the art of lying.
Since half-truths are easier to detect and less impressive than full-blown lies, agents who lie big and lie often make more money than the less deceptive, more timid agents. One agency known for the boldness of its lying, advertised literary affiliates in 27 countries “including book-starved Russia.” What this meant, exactly, wasn't clear, but it certainly sounded impressive. This same outfit claimed, in the mid-1990's, an annual sales total of 450 manuscripts. In reality it had been years since this mom and pop firm had sold a book to a royalty-paying publisher. During their ten-year history as literary agents they had perhaps sold four books to legitimate publishers, and these titles were sold years earlier to small presses. Had these agents been honest about their business, they would have gone out of business. What is amazing is how they got away with such outlandish lying for so long. How could this operation place 450 manuscripts in a single year? Why didn't more writers challenge this statistic?
Aspiring writers in search of an agent are often hooked by tantalizing ads in the back of writer’s magazines. One such ad, placed by a one-person operation in upstate New York, announced that the agency “is seeking new and experienced writers for publishers seeking many new genres. Without editing services, we can guarantee you a publishing contract.” This agent, without seeing the manuscript, could guarantee to get it published. The question is, published by whom, and how much would it cost the writer? The mere fact this person gets any business at all is both amazing and alarming. Guarantees go with computers, microwave ovens, and toasters, not publishing contracts.
These masters of deceit don't limit themselves to whoppers about manuscript sales. They award themselves English degrees, invent literary employment histories, and turn themselves into accomplished novelists, poets, and authors of children’s books. They appear, through their fictitious biographies, connected to the literary world. They know enough about publishing to make up backgrounds that will impress aspiring writers. Beyond that they are no closer to the publishing world than the owner of a print shop. These pretenders come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of like but have this in common: They are glib fist-talkers who can charm the pants off anyone. But the veneer is thin, scratch the surface and they turn into beasts and bullies. Pure and simple, they are hucksters. If they weren't peddling dreams to aspiring writers, they would be selling phony stocks and bonds from a boiler room phone bank. They are bad for publishing and bad news for aspiring writers who cross their paths.
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