From the Science Fiction Writers' Association of America  
site / / / /  http://www.sfwa.org/beware/twentyworst.html

"Below, in alphabetical order, is a list of the currently active  
literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the largest  
number of complaints over the years, or which, based on documentation  
we've collected, we consider to pose the most significant hazard for  
writers. All have two or more of the following abusive practices:

1. Fee-charging--including reading fees, marketing or administrative  
fees, retainers, processing fees, and other forms of upfront or flat- 
rate charges that are made as a condition of representation.

2. Paid editing or publishing referrals--including placing clients  
with vanity publishers, promoting their own paid editing services to  
clients (a conflict of interest), sending clients/potential clients to  
an outside editing service that pays kickbacks for referrals. Several  
of these agencies are no more than fronts for editing services.

3. Conflicts of interest--several agencies are under common ownership  
with editing services or vanity publishers, which are recommended to  
clients without disclosing the connection.

4. No or minimal track records--many of these agencies have never made  
a single sale to a commercial publisher. None has a significant recent  
track record.

5. Nonstandard author-agent contract terms--including perpetual agency  
clauses, claiming commissions on clients’ future works even if the  
agency had no hand in selling them, billing clients for normal  
business overhead such as travel and entertainment.

6. Unprofessional practices--such as sending form letters or postcards  
with boxes for editors to check off and return to indicate interest,  
"bundled" queries (several queries in the same envelope), "blitz" or  
shotgun submissions (submissions to a dozen or more publishers  
simultaneously, often without careful targeting), “packaging” a  
submission with unnecessary extras such as author photos, cover  
mockups, or sample illustrations.

7. Misrepresentation of skill or experience--including representing  
themselves as competent to sell manuscripts despite poor or  
nonexistent track records, lying about sales, and claming placements  
with vanity publishers as legitimate commercial sales.

While the 20 agencies listed here account for the bulk of the  
complaints we receive, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Writer  
Beware has files on nearly 400 questionable agencies, and we learn  
about a new one every few weeks.

We'll updating the list from time to time, as questionable agencies  
sometimes change their names, or clone themselves Be sure to check  
back regularly.


	• The Abacus Group Literary Agency
	• Allred and Allred Literary Agents
	• Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
	• Benedict & Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency and R.  
Castro Literary Agency)
	• Sherwood Broome, Inc. (also d/b/a Stillwater Literary Agency, LLC)
	• Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of  
Washington, Inc.; also d/b/a Washington Agency and Washington Literary  
Agency)
	• Desert Rose Literary Agency
	• Arthur Fleming Associates
	• Finesse Literary Agency (also d/b/a/ Elite Finesse Literary Agency)
	• Brock Gannon Literary Agency
	• Harris Literary Agency
	• Martin-McLean Literary Associates
	• Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
	• B.K. Nelson, Inc.
	• The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
	• Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary  
Agency, Creative Concepts Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and May  
Writers' Group)
	• Southeast Literary Agency
	• Mark Sullivan Associates (also d/b/a New York Editors and Manhattan  
Literary)
	• West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary  
Services)
	• Writers' Literary Agency & Marketing Company (a.k.a. Writers'  
Literary Agency or WL Literary Agency), formerly The Literary Agency  
Group, which includes or has included the following:
-Christian Literary Agency
-New York Literary Agency
-Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra- 
Techniques)
-WL Children's Agency (formerly Children's Literary Agency)
-WL Poet's Agency (formerly Poet's Literary Agency)
-WL Screenplay Agency (formerly The Screenplay Agency)
-Writers' Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of  
the above-mentioned agencies)


Except for graphic, copyright © 2006-2008 Victoria Strauss and A.C.  
Crispin. May not be reproduced without permission."
On Feb 11, 2008, at 1:44 AM, Kathleen Much wrote:

> WL Children's Agency is new to me, so I can't comment specifically on
> the firm, but what you say rings alarm bells.

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