I wanted to add my experiences with Author Biz, on the agent side, so that writers may consider that if they are thinking of hiring her.
I received an email this week from Laurie, titled "an author I'd like to refer to you."
It did not conform to any of my submission guideliness (it was sent to my standard agency email, not my submissions email, and it did not contain a sample of the first five pages, as I request in all submissions.). Perhaps she was thinking it was a "short cut" to avoid the slush pile.
She informed me that "based on the sales" I've made, she thought I would want to see it. In other words, everything she knew of me and my interests was the exact same information available to any querying writer. I do not know her and had never had a personal connection prior to this email.
I informed her, "a referral only matters if I know the person and trust their tastes."
She told me that she simply promises authors to see if the agent is "open" to their submission. Which I find odd since anyone may visit my website and learn that I am open to submissions... which is the case with any agent who is open to submissions. Our websites literally say, "send your query to me and I will review it."
She also informed me she was providing the service becuase the author "didn't have time" for all the research of finding an agent, which of course is a terrible thing to say-- it tells the agent that they would have a hard time meeting deadlines, marketing their book, and a number of othertime-sucking things associated with being an author. I can't imagine that's how the author wished to be represented to an agent.
Lastly, based on material Laurie sends to authors, the author is told, "I work to get you to the right place and the front of the line. "
I feel bad for authors who pay $1500 and believe they really are at the front of the line, somehow. Perhaps she has stronger connections in other genres (she sold a handful of Non-Fiction books during her tenure as an agent, according to PMP, possibly many more that are not on PMP as I understand she was an agent for quite some time, and PMP is not that old), but in this case she reached out to me based on information an author could find easily with a single click on my website, she did not have any previously established connection to me, she presented it TO ME as a referral so I have to assume she tells authors that this is a referral, and somehow superior to a query, and she did not follow my submission guidelines.