VICKI CLARK, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I wanted to write some additional information to help fellow writers out there avoid *******s like Vicki Clark.
Here are the tips that have helped me:
*If someone wants to represent you, do a thorough background check on them; that means doing an Internet search, writing the WGAw, contacting the Better Business Burea and posting notices online, etc.; and if possible, meet with the person; if your gut instinct says no, then don't sign on with the agent or manager; why suffer?
*If possible, visit the building in which your potential agent/manager has their office; at the time, when I signed on with Vicki Clark, I was living in the greater Seattle area, and couldn't easily go down to the greater Los Angeles area; and unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to visit her "offices" in Glendale, CA. (I eventually did; as the first poster said, she's a real-estate agent; she has an rinky-dink office in Glendale that her mother owns, and that Vicki Clark uses for free.)
*Regarding the above point: After I fired Vicki Clark in June, 2003, another agent contacted me; I went to Los Angeles and looked for his office; and oh, he had an office in a nice building in Beverly Hills all right...He had one of those small mail boxes in a UPS (formerly Mail Boxes, Etc.) Store. Needless to say, I passed on signing on with this jerk who claimed he worked in the "heart of Bevery Hills" in a "multi-room office".
*Never, EVER accept abuse from an agent or a manager; abuse comes in many forms; it can be verbal, and it can be in the agent's or manager's not doing the requisite work that a writer-agent/manager relationship requires. (More about this in a few moments, please.) Point is, if someone attempts to bully you, they are not your friend; and believe me, Vicki Clark IS a bully WHEN she thinks she can get away with it; and like all bullies, she's a coward; because of her lack of a backbone, she failed to go through with follow-up on two of my deals. (In other words, Vicki Clark likes to push beginning writers around, but if some producer snaps at her, she whimpers like a miniature poodle, wets the floor and hides under a sofa.)
*More about the above point: If your agent or manager does not have chutzpah (guts), don't go with them; wimps and wussies (like Vicki Clark) do not make it in Hollywood. Period. You need someone who's going to fight for you, not run away with their tail covering their genitals and the stripe down their back glowing bright yellow.
Vicki Clark did the following:
*She repeatedly failed to send out screenplays that potential producers and investors were waiting for. (I didn't discover these things until after the fact, that is, until after I got a call or e-mail from a producer or investor, wondering what in the hell was going on.)
*She bungled a comedy deal I was doing by telling the potential actress (a friend of Alice Cooper) that she, Vicki Clark, didn't know about the comedy screenplay I was writing at the time. (I had written Vicki Clark at least three times about this comedy screenplay, and had mentioned, at least three times, that I was going to contact this actress, whose manager, in turn, was going to contact her, Vicki Clark. Needless to say, the actress and her people have refused to have anything to do with me; in other words, Vicki Clark could have told the manager, Let me get with Bob about this and see what's going on; instead, she played the ignoramus who has her head shoved up her you know what and ruined something upon which I worked very hard.)
*She repeatedly lost my work and copies of my work.
People have asked, Why did you stay with her, then?
Why?
Because I was a newbie screenplay writer who believed that I "had" to have some form of representation in Hollywood, no matter how bad that representation was.
This I learned: Better to have no representation at all than to have crappy representation.
Don't be a victim, people! Remember: We are the music-makers/And we are the dreamers of dreams! It's our imaginations that Hollywood uses and exploits! Ultimately, we, as writers, have the say; we have the power!
Thanks again; please write me if you want further details!