Writers' Literary Agency & Marketing Company

I suppose that at this point, I am on the fence. I am perhaps equally suspicious of the agency and those who claim it a scam.

I personally have no quarrel with paying for a genuine critique to improve my work to industry standard. What I am cautious of is getting an "ad hoc" critique or more fees down the road. I have no way to reconcile either pov.

Can anyone out there who has been published describe the normal process? In other words, the standard industry process on interaction with an author and agency, and how they sell manuscripts, in relation to editing and fees?

Dude, they're a scam. Why would you be suspicious of the people telling you that? What would they have to gain by badmouthing an innocent literary agency?

But hey, if you want to fork over money to get scammed after all the evidence has been presented then you deserve what you get.

Clearly, I am asking the questions. Anyone can say anything they want. I have not as yet seen any evidence. This is why I am asking the questions that I am asking.
If you feel the need to be rude in response to someone looking for advice, that answers your question right there.

I have not as yet seen any evidence.

So I take it you haven't actually been reading this thread.

If you feel the need to be rude in response to someone looking for advice, that answers your question right there.

That makes no sense at all. I'm starting to see why you're going with these guys...

<I>Can anyone out there who has been published describe the normal process? In other words, the standard industry process on interaction with an author and agency, and how they sell manuscripts, in relation to editing and fees?</I>

Sure. Here's my Amazon profile link to show my pub credits:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3L3AGDPVW68Z5/102-4524817-4263303

The standard industry process is:

1. An author queries an agent.

2. The agent, if interested, requests either a partial manuscript or the full manuscript (for the purpose of this, we'll presume a full manuscript was requested.)

3. The agent contacts the author either by email or phone to discuss what the agent believes is the potential for sale. If the agent and author are close geographically, the agent will sometimes want to meet the author in person. This conversation, if by phone or in person, is usually about an hour. The agent will discuss any flaws noticed in the manuscript, and what changes s/he feels would make the manuscript saleable. The agent will also discuss the specific lines/imprints at publishing houses that the agent feels the manuscript is best suited for (since, after all, they know the market better than the author.)

4. If the changes to the manuscript are critical, the agent will ask whether the author is willing to make the changes. If so, then the agent will likely offer representation.

5. Representation may either be memorialized in print through a written agreement, or will be by "handshake." Every agent is a little different. If in writing, it's often for JUST the one book, with a clause that it will be expanded to include later books upon agreement of the parties.

6. If the author chooses not to make the changes, the agent MAY decide to risk attempting to sell and offer representation, or decide NOT to risk it and wish the author well.

7. The agent will request that the author provide either a single printed copy of the manuscript to make copies from, or a disk/CD with the manuscript in MSWord form so copies can be made to send to publishers.

8. The agent will likely contact known editors by phone to let them know the manuscript is coming. The bigger the agent--the better the reception and the more likely the editor will hold out time to read the manuscript.

9. The agent sends out the manuscript and waits for an offer . . . if any.

10. Upon an offer being made, the agent will contact the author to discuss: a) the terms of the offer; b) what the agent believes they can get ON TOP of the offer; c) the downfall(s), if any, of the offer; d) whether the agent believes that other editors might bite on the same manuscript; e) his/her recommendation on whether to wait to hear more or accept the offer.

11. If the offer is accepted, the agent will negotiate with the publisher until a contract is received, will review the contract to ensure the terms agreed to are included, and forward the contract to the author for signature.

12. Upon signature by both parties, a check for the advance (if any) will be forwarded to the agent. The agent will remove their commission, plus any expenses incurred (there seldom are any expenses charged, unless the author requests a wire transfer or express mail), and mail the remainder to the author.

Now, note that not until step #12 does MONEY CHANGE HANDS. There are no paid edits. There are no expense fees. There are no recommendations that an editor be hired. Edits and copy fees are an expense of doing business for the agent. It's you and the agent--two parts of a whole, working toward publication. Not until money is received from a <B>third party</B> (e.g., the publisher) do they get paid.

Does that answer your question?

Thank You very much.
Your information does shed a new light on things.
I appreciate your taking the time to answer my question.

<i>William said: "Then I started finding a couple of complaints."</i>

William, if you have only found a couple of complaints about this agency, you haven't done your homework---at least not enough to navigate the agency scam minefield.

There are, literally, THOUSANDS of complaints about this agency, along with complaints about similar agencies that prey upon unwitting writers.

--- Mya Bell

<I>I suppose that at this point, I am on the fence. I am perhaps equally suspicious of the agency and those who claim it a scam. </i>

As I suggested, ask the agency itself for the titles/authors/publishers of five titles they've sold in the past year. Any real agency could answer that question easily. If these folks don't answer the question ... you have your answer.

<I>William, if you have only found a couple of complaints about this agency, you haven't done your homework---at least not enough to navigate the agency scam minefield.</i>

It's not quite like that. WL Writers Literary Agency recently changed their name (again -- everyone remember when they were Sydra Techniques, then ST Literary Agency, then Stylus Literary Agency?), presumably to make it difficult for folks to research them. That's part of why I started this thread, so that folks who were looking for <i>this</i> name would find it. Yes, the old-timers would know to Google on The Literary Agency Group. Newbies wouldn't know any of their old names.

Thank you so much for this information. I am a new writer trying to find an agent who will represent my work (and isnt a scam). I signed a contract with WL agency this evening and as soon as i read these comments i canceled the agreement. Right now i am alittle nervous that i had sent them my manuscript in the beginning.

-Reesa

Thanks all! I queried this "agency" and got my second positive reply! Of course the first was several months ago by one of their other "names."

Thank you all for the information here. Well, I paid for my critique, signed a \\\"contract\\\", submitted my manuscipt to this agency. On second thought, I began to do further research on them. I can overlook the payment. But I am concerned about my manuscript though I had previously published it and its registered in the copyright/patent office.

Can someone point me in the right direction please? This agency appeared to be real but now, I am so disappointed with what I have read.

For those who may not realise it, the agency have a facade association in the following outfits:

http://wlwritersagency.com/
http://www.theliteraryagencygroup.com/
http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/
http://www.americanenterprise.com/

If you do some detective \\\"FBI\\\" work, you will find that they are all interrelated.

Please advise me.

JOA
London UK

Hi Joe

I think you\'ll be ok as I don\'t think they actually read anything. I\'m rather surprised at myself that I too submitted a manuscript to their screenplay department. The reason I did so was because they stated that they didn\'t ask for money and my purpose in sending it to them was an interest in the US market. I have an agent in the UK and I was as interested to see their response as anything else. my suspicion was only aroused after I realised that they had asked me the same question twice. [How long had I been writing] Considering that I linked them to my IMDB page they should have known. So clearly they don\'t bother to read.

No agency should ever charge any money up front and would not in my opinion recommend any monies to be paid out to third parties for services that would normally be covered by the publishers / producers themselves.

Don\'t feel bad about it - and don\'t worry about your copyright.

Also Strategic Book Publishing, Eloquent Books, Author's Edge, AEG, and other names....

Still in business. Still a scam. Only now the fraudulent literary agency is funneling people into their vanity presses (without revealing that the press and the agency are owned by the same man, Robert Fletcher (aka Robert West aka Robert Williams, and around seventy other names).

Here's what a judge in the Massachusetts Superior Court recently wrote in a court order, requiring Fletcher to pay Ann and Victoria's legal expenses incurred defending against his frivolous lawsuit:

"Over time, Fletcher used over ten names for publishing operations under the umbrella of the AEG Publishing Group. Basically, Fletcher and LAG were running a fraud by charging fees for all services while falsely giving hope to the authors that Fletcher and LAG would find a publisher for their book. "

And now they're changing their name to Strategic Book Group. Still a vanity press. Still a scam agency. Still a place for any writer to avoid.

Remember Yog's Law: Money flows <I>toward</I> the author.

Well I've been suckered into sending my manuscript to them. I will wait with baited breathe to see if it all pans out like you have all warned on the many threads I have been reading.

Could anyone out there tell me what actually happens to the manuscripts that WLA takes in. Do they toss them or do they sell them via the back door without the Author knowing?

This is all very frustrating for new writers trying to get published.

Hey Lara;
Don't feel so bad.; I got suckered in too. I paid my 'critique fee' for basically a feel-good simple reply evaluating my synopsis of all things, although the respondee, (I can't remember her name) did say that she liked the way I dialogue and that I had wrote a 'masterful beginning'. Okay, gee thanks! Timing is a wonderful thing--immediately after my initial rush of excitment (and signing their contract) a good friend of mine forwarded me a few websites warning about these people--one of them being this one! I'm still in their process--why, I'm not sure, except for maybe pure stubbornness on my part, but am approaching it with open eyes. The critique person came back with a reommendation which basically said that the author could make the changes, so I did and apparently 'they' have placed me into this huge database thingy of theirs without any other overtures but I'm assuming that sooner or later they're gonna come back with a pitch so I'm just waiting for the 90 day clause in their contract to come up before I jump. As for them ripping off your manuscript, I'm rather new to this business but I think that it would be a pretty stupid thing for them to try. There's too much evidence that can go against them if you sued them. So far it seems that they are pretty much trying to stick to 'grey areas' to sucker people in. Something like manuscript stealing would be too blatent and did I mention stupid?
Bottom line: (At least to me,) I' out 90 bucks for a lesson--maybe not a bad price for a learning experience--the 'ex' was a heck of a lot more. Now, as Scotty once said: 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me'.
In the meantime: I've left my first two books 'Valkyrie' and 'Valkyrie - Operation Sceptre' with Lulu, so I'm still selling books up on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, etc, etc.
If you really want to 'get out there' and you're pretty confident that you've got a great book, you might want to go to www.lulu.com and give them a look over. I'm using them and it's working out okay, considering that you don't have an established pubishing house's marketing department behind you. I'm not going to pitch for them, if you want you go see for yourself.
Everyone else: Guys and Gals, I really want to thank y'all for being 'out there'. I can honestly say that if it wasn't for you, I'd still be sitting here with an ignorant and maybe idiotic grin (and maybe drooling a little) happily waiting for these guys to get back to me with that 'big publishing break' in tow! Lesson learned??? Do some research!!!! (And don't mix Coca Cola with a chewable vitamin 'C'tablet in a public place--but that was another story altogether!) Thanks all!!!

Question for everyone:

I'm now getting notices from these guys about a book show in China (and the usual yadiyadi-yah from someone supposedly named Andrea about deciding to go along and forking over some cash to be represented) now on a practical note: whether or not these guys are legit or not, is almost kinda moot here--I wouldn't go anyway because frankly, the bad guys in my first book is a futuristic version of a 'Pan Asian Federation' so I really can't see my book going over too well over there as good old China is smack dab in the middle of it, (I wonder what their sense of 'hah-hah' is like...?) however it does raise a question: How the heck do 'They' (meaning you know who...) handle it? Do they actually HAVE booths??? I mean, they're going on in their promotional email about how much floor area they're gonna take and if they need more, and they're talking about where they're gonna place their authors, etc, etc... so obviously they're gonna have some sort of physical presence. Okay, so who do they send and how do they pull it off??? You can't be virtual at a trade show!
Anybody have any ideas? Speculation? I'm new in this game.

Kim