Writers Literary Agency / The Literary Agency Group / LAG /TLAG

Roger J Carlson said:

And another thing. If Poets' Literary Agency is an agency for poets, doesn't Children's Literary Agency imply they are an agency for children?

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Roger, do they even use the possessive apostrophe, much less use it correctly? I think you're giving them way too much credit.

Aconite said:

Roger, do they even use the possessive apostrophe, much less use it correctly? I think you're giving them way too much credit.

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I don't know if it's done correctly. Writer's Market and Writer's Digest use the singular possessive, but I don't know if that's correct either.

However, on this page of the Literary Agency Group, they list Poets' Literary Agency and Children's Literary Agency. Both are plural possessive. But their websites are actually named Poets Literary Agency (no possessive) and Children's Literary Agency (plural possessive).

So they really don't have any consistant naming structure.

victoriastrauss said:

(That's only seven; a good octopus needs eight.)

- Victoria

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Victoria: just give Bobby some time. He'll come through for us. That boy never disappoints. Unless you want something sold, then...

John

There's this gentleman on writers.net who, through that website and others, was warned off the New York literary agency:

http://www.writers.net/forum/read/10/146933/146933

I was thinking of Rapid Pub and his other company as the other two arms with LAG being the bloated body.

Anyway, I will start off with the one I announced yesterday.

Number of writers: 7
Amount saved by writers: $665.00 (actually, one writer said oodles)

We need TWO figures. One is the number of people who, thanks to AW, aren't taken by the Octopus. (Septapus?). The other number is a guesstimate of how much income a person represents for the octopus over say a year.

Multiply the two together to get how much AW has saved writers, and conversly, how much writers HAVEN'T paid to the Octopus.

Taken from one of the multitude:

I had a contract with St. Literary Agency, needless to say, they got me. First they took me for $80.00, I think they called it a POP page. Then they turned around and ask me for $145.00 to cover the cost of printing up ten manuscripts for sending out to publishers. After that, they charged me another $95.00 for ten more manuscripts, then turned around and ask for another $95.00. I said enough is enough. They turn around and tell me I can get out of the contract and when I say yes, they send me a email stating that the contact is now void...what's up with that? Three days back, I sent a query and a short synopsis to 'New York Literary Agency' and they want my script. lol I'm with you

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So.. a rough "initial" cost would be $80+$145+$95+95, or $415.

I've seen a few posts mentioning a range of up to $2000 though...

I signed on with NYLA without seeing any websites like this one. Their contract is on the up-and-up, but their escalating demands for fees make it clear what their real game is. They wanted $79 for a "critique", $99 for an "edit", and then -- are you ready for this? -- a "full edit" for $1750 (reduced from $1950!). Cough, cough. You bet I stopped before step #3. But let's talk about steps 1 and 2 for a minute, because it's not all bad.

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Soooo... That's a little bit more than $415. That must be for "extra special" people...

victoriastrauss said:

If you pay for the critique, you'll likely discover that it says your ms. could be improved with further editing. You'll probably then be advised by Ms. Georgina (who, depending on which agency she's responding for, is sometimes Georgina Orr) that "we are willing to take the time to work with you to bring the manuscript to a very polished point before we submit it...we have a sister company in our family that will prioritize your work and give you a discounted price. It's usually about $99 to get started." (This is an actual quote from one of Ms. Georgina's canned "you need more editing" letters.) If you have a full-length manuscript, $99 will probably cover just the first couple of chapters. A full "edit" could cost you as much as $2,000.

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A lot of variance in the amounts charged then. Plus there were some posts that people were encouraged to go with some vanity publishers who charged amounts such as $8000. Fletcher doesn't get that amount, but he might just get some commission on the sale...

Okay, given the above, let's have a rough figure of..... $1234. Yes, I pulled that number out of my.... hat.

The post above says AW saved 4 writers. Tally is: $4936 so far

Georgina Orr? The protagonist of LeGuin's Lathe of Heaven dreamed himself female and employed as a scam agent?

Freakish, truly.

Someone was saved from the Screenplay Agency by Warren Hsu Leonard's sting. It's comment number 5.
http://www.screenwritinglife.com/i-spy-pt-4-of-3-the-saga-comes-to-an-end

And another commenter there gave a great link:

http://www.google.com/contact/rate_advertiser.html

That's a place to tell Google about your experiences with people who advertise on Google Ads. Please, please, everyone, take a minute and tell Google why this company should be banned from advertising with them. Undoubtedly, those Google ads are how many new writers find this lousy company. That can be fixed...

Meanwhile, Vic, I heard from another saved writer about five days ago. The person was actually pretty grumpy about it, but turned down the "offer" from Children's Literary Agency after reading here.

Or at least recommend they be charged triple for the privilege of advertising.

I can't really think which thread to put this in, but I do feel the need to put it somewhere. I'm going to comment on The Clone Wars ... the recent wave of trolls and sockpuppets.

As "Georgina Orr" says, "Please allow me to give you our analysis of the situation and a suggestion about how to proceed."

Adjudged swindler Robert M. Fletcher of Boca Raton, Florida, runs The Literary Agency Group. He's graced us several times with his presence, either as himself (robertfletcher, 01/13/04; robertfletcher, 04/07/04; RobertF, 04/22/05 06:25 am; RobertF, 04/22/05 06:27 am) or as one of his alternate identities ("Georgina Orr," 06/23/05, 06/28/05; "Sherry Fine," 01/24/06 12:49 pm, 12:50 pm, 12:51 pm, 12:52 pm).

His partners Paul Anderson (ST Did Me Right, 02/27/04) and Peter Parente (MessageBoardAltView, 03/17/05) have also posted.

In each case, their appearance has provoked a comprehensive slapdown.

So he came up with a new tactic.

We've had a spate of trolls:

Isabellabrown (01/26/06) in The New York Literary Agency thread.
ADITDC (01/30/06) in The Literary Agency Group thread.
HorrorGirl (02/03/06) in the S.T. Literary Agency/Stylus Literary Agency thread.
Winter (02/08/06) in The Screenplay Agency thread.

Two used Yahoo.com email addresses to sign up, one used hotmail.com.

With only one exception (HorrorGirl's second post was elsewhere), none of them has posted anywhere except in the thread where they started. In every case, they joined AW and that same day posted their first post in defense of Robert Fletcher. Three of the four were posted in the same threads as where "Sherry Fine" posted "her" screed (the odd-one-out was the main Stylus Literary thread. No post from Sherry, but a series of posts from Robert Fletcher and Paul Anderson).

One of the newcomers, ADITDC, has been linked to a real person with a real book: Dario Castagno. But he went through such contortions on the board to avoid posting his real name that one has to wonder if he was under orders not to give it. (Unlike the other trolls, he also acted like a writer: He wanted to give his name, and his title, and talk about his book, and he signed up with his real email address rather than a web-based throwaway account.)

I wonder if, after "Sherry" posted "her" quadruple play (and this is pure speculation now), whether Bobby Fletcher, either as himself or, more likely under some other name (Sherry Fine, Georgina Orr, Robert West), wrote to some of his happy clients and asked them to come to specific URLs, to defend him. Two of the trolls denied ever having heard of Robert Fletcher.

I imagine that his letter said something like, "these threads are full of old rumors, brought up by jealous wannabee writers. None of them have ever published anything. They're all people we've turned down, or people we've fired, or people who have no idea how a literary agency works. Because they're all scary, creepy people who will stalk you and attack your work, you mustn't tell them your name. Go out there and shut these people up. It will help me sell your manuscript. Sincerely, Sherry Fine."

I think that's a reasonable explanation for what we've seen, and covers all the known facts.

How to proceed? I expect we'll have more Visits From St. Nicholas. (I'm frankly surprised that we didn't hear from one in the fourth thread Sherry hit, The Children's Literary Agency ... unless the post (01/26/06) referenced by Jenna here was it, with the person getting cold feet and writing a letter rather than posting to the open boards.) I'd recommend greeting them cordially, as real would-be writers, rather than assuming that they're Bobby Fletcher spoofing us with sockpuppets. Perhaps we can get some information out of them.

Literary Agency Group

Today, I cancelled my contract with New York Literary Agency. I did it both by email and registered mail, and was worried I might meet oppositioin but Robert West replied promptly and said the contract was terminated. I have to give him credit for that.

Janet Bellinger

janetbellinger said:

Today, I cancelled my contract with New York Literary Agency. I did it both by email and registered mail, and was worried I might meet oppositioin but Robert West replied promptly and said the contract was terminated. I have to give him credit for that.

Janet Bellinger

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I'm glad you got out Janet but Bobby doesn't deserve credit for realizing a well has gone dry. He's busy waggling his divining rod for new ones.

I just got solicitation from NY Literary. I've never heard of them, so I went in search of scams. What I found is this website with everything I needed to know about them. So, thanks to all who know about this so-called agency for all the information. It is truly appreciated

Just heard from Josvin in the Childrens Literary Thread. She was taken for $60 for a "professional critique" before she found the truth. She's going to post her work in SYW for a critique there. Add one complaint and another soul saved (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Necropolis said:

I just got solicitation from NY Literary. I've never heard of them....

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That's interesting. Did they just write to you out of the blue? You didn't contact them first?

James D. Macdonald said:

That's interesting. Did they just write to you out of the blue? You didn't contact them first?

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No, I didn't contact them first. But a while ago I contacted Dorance for more information (I'm sorry I ever did THAT...they won't leave me alone now ). I think I've read they're all one and the same. Lucky me

Cheers!

Roger J Carlson said:

Just heard from Josvin in the Childrens Literary Thread. She was taken for $60 for a "professional critique" before she found the truth.

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I realise that Josvin may not be comfortable with this, but would she consider making her 'professional critique' available, perhaps with the identifying points blacked out? I think the texts of these critiques are a useful resource, showing what, um, level of service NYLA provides. I'd love to see one of the Screenplay critiques, and compare it to the freebie critiques on these very boards.
Just a thought.
-Barbara

Necropolis said:

I think I've read they're all one and the same. Lucky me

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Whitmore and Dorrance are one and the same. So far as I'm aware Dorrance isn't connected to the ST Literary Agency or any of its incarnations. But if Dorrance is selling addresses to Bobby Fletcher, or Bobby Fletcher is buying them ... well, it's not exactly a new low for either of them.

what a tangled web!

Two more in the S.T. Literary Agency/Stylus Literary Agencythread. One complaint here. And one Thanks but No Thanks.

Suckered

I got duped over the weekend. Should've known better. Promptly followed up my five chapter submission to "Ms. Sherry Fine" - with a thanks but no thanks not 15 minutes later, after discovering these many posts. Not sure which makes me more angry: being stupid enough to fall for that crap or letting my hopes get up because an "agent" wanted to work with me.

First clue should've been: Why is this high powered agent sending me emails on a Saturday night?

working for Literary Agency Group

LAG has a job posted on Publishers Marketplace for a research assistant. I wonder if they are as reliable paying their employees as they are in actually helping their authors?