Re: Ken Atchity & AEI Entertainment?
AEI is a successful agency, with a sizeable track record and a number of well-known and bestselling clients.
It also runs an editing service, Writers Lifeline, Inc., to which rejected submissions are referred and through which new writers are encouraged to approach the agency. It describes Writers Lifeline as a "farm team developing new talent"; writers who use the service are promised "priority consideration" by AEI. It's claimed that 70% of AEI's sales derive from writers who've been "developed" through the service, but I don't see anything on the Writers Lifeline website to support this. High-profile AEI authors who are reportedly clients of Writers Lifeline include Steve Alten and Jesse Ventura--but you have to ask, why are these bestselling authors buying editing services from their own agency?
Writer Beware has also gotten complaints of outside book doctor referrals and nonstandard author-agent contract terms, including nonstandard royalties.
- Victoria