Marketing Fee?

[Laura in Arizona]

Absolutely, do not give any agent money. In all the reading I've done, this seems to be the consensus. Even if he is legit, if he doesn't have the dough to send out your manuscript on his own (without your $95!) then he must not be making many sales...and you don't want that.

[Charles Martin]

I emailed the agent and asked if the $95 "fee" could be waived, or taken out of any future sales. I cited that I was unable to pay any such fee at this time.


Here's the response:

Dear Charles:

Please re-submit your manuscript at a future point when you are in a position to provide the marketing fee.

Agents who charge no fees to cover their expenses are often unwilling to assume the financial risk involved in presenting the work of an unpublished author to publishers. As a result, many first novels have significantly less chance of reaching the desk of publisher through an agent. By charging a
marketing fee, I am able to undertake the presentation of these first novels to publishers.

I have sold four first novels to major trade publishers. These sales may be verified by contacting the contracts department of each of those publishers and asking for the name of the agent of record.

[Mary M.]

I'll add my $95 worth of cynical thinking.

Could it be he needs your $95 to stage impressive lunches -- and not with publishers?!!!

[Tony_K]

Isn't the more important question "Is the agent part of a real agency that sells real manuscripts to real publishers that eventually appear on the shelves of real bookstores and are purchased by real book readers?" If the answer is no, the agent is just a charlatan, then there's no point in even querying. If the answer is yes, it's a real agent, then $95 may be a reasonable fee to cover photocopying and mailing three copies of your manuscript. Having spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours writing your work, you wouldn't want to blow a possible deal over $95. It's going to cost you at least that much to find another agent, who may well make a similar request (as was said, these kinds of charges are becoming more common).

I think the bottom line is whether it's a legitimate agency or not. He offered to give you the names of other first time novelists he's represented. Check into them.

[Charles Martin]

I've been advised by others that this agent (who I still feel uncomfortable naming) has a checkered past and I should avoid him like the doctor. Whether he's on the West Coast or not.

Still, you have a point and I guess it wouldn't be that much more work to contact some of the authors he mentiond and see what the say.

Beets the alternative.

[Tony_K]

OK, if he has indeed got a checkered past, that's a different matter. It's hard to follow these threads and figure out if an agent identified as a bum is the one in question! I stick by my contention, however, that one shouldn't discount an agent (otherwise honest) over photocopying and mailing fees.

[Gary Kessler]

Tony: You can be comforted by looking at it this way. As more and more of the high-selling agents take the burden of paying the submission costs of previously unpublished clients off of the shoulders of their successfully sold authors and change to having those getting the service pay for the service they are getting, you will have greater access to these agents if you are willing to pay itemized mailing fees before getting a contract. This because of all the folks sticking to their guns and not being willing to share any costs of submitting their material to publishers until the manuscript is sold.

It's a genuine dilemma. The proof that agents will make an effort to sell manuscripts is wrapped up in the risk they will accept, but increasingly agents' clients who have sold their books are unwilling to underwrite the submission expenses of those who haven't--in addition to effectively being forced to underwrite all those hours agents spend wading through that burgeoning pile of submissions.