Scott Meredith invented the reading fee. For a long, long time (and also under Klebanoff after Meredith's death), the agency had a whole division whose entire job was providing evaluations to hopeful authors for a fee, a service that they aggressively marketed with brochures and advertising. They were notorious for this, in fact. Authors were encouraged to approach the agency through the reading fee division, but were rarely passed on to the literary agency division, which actually had many well-known clients and made substantial sales.
As Jim says, Scott Meredith is the reason we have to stop in the middle of nice clear-cut statements like "All agencies that charge reading fees are scams," and ritually say "except Scott Meredith."
Not many of their fee-read authors crossed the gap to the other side of the agency. That's no wonder; most slush is bad.
Historically speaking, some good editors and agents have come out of Scott Meredith. The unfortunate corollary to this is that they're no longer there.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.