Question about agent

Does anyone know anything about Michele Rooney? Literary agency by the same name. I googled, got little. I searched P & E and found her but listed as another agency, which was not recommended. Could it be that she left the not recommended agency and began her own? She seems to have no sales track on record that I can find. She loved my excerpt and emailed me to ask to see the full.

Advice for a "dying to send it to her" newbie?

Aim higher. No reason to go with someone whose only track record is not recommended. Don't know anything about her personally, but don't be afraid to query well known and prestigious agents. You'll be amazed at what good things can happen.

Sean Curtis, who is listed on WritersNet with a book printed through AuthorHouse, has had correspondence with her. Perhaps you could ask him if he has any insights.

--- Mya Bell

Contact me at cdeemer@yahoo.com and let's compare notes.

I now feel certain Michele Rooney is making a living collecting marketing fees. I met a writer who signed with her to rep several short stories. No agent does this, the market doesn't justify it. Stories from novelist clients, of course, but not stories from unknowns, unless in a collection (and rarely then). The only reason an agent would rep a story or a poem is to collect marketing fees. My advice, avoid her.

If you can get several hundred wannabe writers to pay you a small monthly marketing fee, say $40 ... well, you do the math.

Contracts signed with her have no escape clause, I've been told. It doesn't matter. Write to her and terminate the contract. She wouldn't dare take you to court because then her scam would be revealed.

Charles Deemer, published much, an old fart, 40 yrs in the biz.

Just wanted to say thanks publicly to you Charles for all your help. It is hard to know who to believe sometimes and it becomes far too easy to wallow in the accolades of someone with everything BUT your best interests in mind.

I appreciate your input on this greatly.

I know what you mean. My first contact with her was when she emailed me to praise me to high heaven about something of mine she'd read on the net. She wanted to be my agent. Have an agent for screenwriting, not for fiction and was about to look for the latter, so I checked her out. That's how I got here. Everybody loves to be called brilliant. To paraphrase the end of The Sun Also Rises, Wouldn't it be nice to think it were so?

Charles,

Michele Rooney does not seem legitimate. She sent me an e-mail after finding my name from a directory of writers and authors. Her e-mail seemed promising and convincing.

She asked me to share her info with others. I myself tried to use her services by sending her a copy of a self-published book to review since she said she will do so and tell me if there are any interests in buying my copyright.

I sent her a copy of my book. She never responded. I followed up with 3-4 e-mails; she never responded.

I believe that you should NOT and NO one should use her services if she is not professional enough to even respond.

In my appraisal, she is not legitimate and no one should use her.

Lettt

I had the same experience with Michele Rooney. I sent her three chapters of a proposed collection of essays and she e-mailed me a gushing reply asking for $125. I replied to her e-mail with questions about her track record and why she charged up-front fees. I e-mailed her two or three times and she never responded.

She lives near me, in suburban Detroit, so I looked up her phone number. She has voice mail. I left at least three messages on her voice mail. No answer.

Then---about six months later, she sent me another e-mail, as if she had just read my submissions, gushing about the same three chapters and asking for an up-front fee of $85.

I responded again, telling her what I think she's up to.

No answer.

Somebody should do something about her.

I as well was taken in by her scam. Someone like her needs to be "black-balled" in the writer's world.