Dear Momento Mori
The very fact that I have bothered to create a login id here shows that I can stand my own ground here. Thanks for your constant advice but please keep in mind that if I have started a company I would know what is legal and what is not.
Momento Mori is a solicitor. I think I'll trust her to say what is legal and what is not, especially when public records show that you do not in fact know.
If I have one registered company then I would have other one registered too.
Except you didn't, correct?
There's a thing called trading name.
There's a thing called the law, which dictates what you're allowed to use as a trading name.
I feel insulted by these comments when I have not been contacted for information by even one of these people who think they know so much about me. I am a person who is working hard to do something here, if there's a delay in filing my company accounts its my problem and I'm fully capable of dealing with it. Just because I own a few companies you have no rights to judge me.
So there was a delay in filing your accounts, then? But didn't you say above that there wasn't and you know what is legal and what is not, thus implying that you would never have violated those laws?
And actually, when you open a business, people have every right to judge its quality. Every right in the world. That's how business actually, you know, works: consumers make judgments and put their money or their work or whatever else behind those judgments.
If consumers did not have the right to make such judgments we wouldn't have a free market system. We would have a communistic one, and no one would need literary agencies or vanity presses because consumers would not be able to buy books.
Surely as a businesswoman you understand that?
I am a hard working, honest person and am trying to establish a business here. A business doesn't become big overnight and I am not a rich person, only investing my own hard earned tax paid savings and hard work to help like minded writers. My intentions are honest and I go out of my way to help authors who deserve to be heard.
No one has said you're a rich person. No one has said your intentions aren't honest. No one has said you're a bad person.
What we have said, and are saying, is that "agent" and/or "publisher" are NOT entry-level jobs, and publishing is a very complex business that takes time to learn. What we have said, and are saying, is that you know nothing about publishing, that your business(es) were/are not properly registered, that your website is confusing and vague, that your editing and written communication skills are subpar, and that you seem to have absolutely zero experience in publishing, which means signing with either your agency or publishing house is not a good idea for a writer who wishes to have a career or books in stores or even make pocket change from his or her books.
We
do actually know the industry, which means we are actually more qualified than you are to make those judgments.
Want to prove us wrong? It's very simple. Tell us your experience (your verifiable experience) in commercial publishing. Give us a list of verifiable sales to publishers who require agents to submit. Give us concrete facts.
I cannot tell you my whole story here but please before jumping all the guns you could've very easily contacted me and asked these questions given that you've obviously spent some time to research me.
Why can't you tell us your experience? That's the one and only thing that would change our minds.
We are under zero obligation to contact you. And we don't need to. Your website tells us everything we need to know, because again, we actually know what it
should say as opposed to what it
does say; we know what to look for; we know the players in the industry; we know the correct terms you failed to use.
These are the very first rules of any investigation that you should get your facts right before tarnishing someone's reputation. If I would've refused answers then you could've continued with your personal investigation/vendetta on me.
But you haven't actually given us any answers, just sort of vague declarations and accusations. What facts did we actually get wrong? Please do tell us. I'm sure we'd all be happy to know.
If you want us to stop saying you have no experience and there is no evidence you can sell books, it's very easy. Share your experience. Give us your credentials. And then we'll apologize and be done with it.
But the fact that you failed to do what any actual industry professional would have done and immediately given us those tells us what we already knew: you have none.
Also some facts for those who are interested, by the time this discussion started SR Literary Agency Ltd registered quite obviously as Smita Rajesh Literary Agency Ltd was already under dissolution. Even though I do not need to say this but just to underline, I have all the documents to prove this. The reason was very simple, as pointed out by someone here, it was also conflicting with my other interests and I had to make a decision which I did.
Okay, so you claimed the company was called SR Literary Agency Ltd., and referred to it publicly under that name and ONLY that name, but it was not actually called that or registered under that name? And we were supposed to know this how? Should Momento Mori have spent several hours checking random possibilities for what "SR" could have meant--Super Rad, Spider Rite, Silly Records, Sad Rickshaw, etc.--in hopes that "SR" might mean one of those? Should be all have just automatically known that the company name you claimed on your website was not the actual NAME?
Claiming it's our fault for not researching properly when you gave misinformation is like telling a child all their lives that the color "blue" is called "chair," and then blaming them for not figuring out that you were kidding.
So you closed the agency because one of the comments here made you realize it was a conflict of interest? I'm glad you realized it was a conflict, but again, if you actually had any experience in or knowledge of publishing you wouldn't have needed to be told that. You would have known already.
The reason why I bothered to reply in this forum was simple, the members were not only targeting the literary agency they were also targeting, my other companies and most importantly my own reputation by being personal and mean without bothering to get all their facts right.
No one is being personal. Show me one place where a personal comment is made about you, other than comments about your professional qualifications. Those are not "personal." They are
pertinent.
No one is being mean. We're sorry you don't like what we're saying, but it's not meanness. It's the desire to keep writers from being hurt and victimized. Again, this is not personal. I'm sure you're a fine person and you take food to the elderly and smile at babies and whatever else. But I don't care. because this isn't about whether or not you're a good person, it's about whether or not you are a publishing professional in whom authors should place their trust, and unfortunately, I'm afraid the answer is no.
Again, go ahead and prove me wrong.
