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The New York Literary Agency is one of several new "agencies" under the umbrella of The Literary Agency Group Inc. The Literary Agency Group Inc. appears to be a spinoff of the infamous Stylus Literary Agency (until recently known as the ST Literary Agency), owned and operated by Robert Fletcher. Writer Beware has received scores of complaints about Stylus Literary/ST Literary, which charges fees, promotes its own paid editing services, and submits in a haphazard fashion to inappropriate publishers (when it submits at all). It uses a boiler room-style operation, with clients receiving substantially identical e-mails and responses.
Right now, the Literary Agency Group Inc. umbrella appears to embrace the following:
Writer Beware has documented that these agencies all operate in much the same way, using the same boiler-room-style approach as the original Stylus, with nearly identical intake materials and contracts. Right now, the main focus of the operation appears to be persuading writers to buy paid critique services (at a cost of between $50 and around $90) and editing services (anywhere from $99 to over $2,000) from a service that's described as a "sister" company but in fact appears to be under common ownership with the agencies (this is a conflict of interest: if an agency can make money by recommending critiques or editing, how can the writer trust that the recommendation is in his/her best interest?). There may also be other paid adjunct services, and it's possible that there are vanity publishers somewhere in the mix.
Neither Stylus Literary Agency/ST Literary Agency nor any of its spinoffs have any commercial book or script sales, as far as we're aware--despite their claims to the contrary.
There's a more detailed discussion of the whole scheme in the ST Literary Agency thread.
- Victoria
Right now, the Literary Agency Group Inc. umbrella appears to embrace the following:
- Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency)
- The Children's Literary Agency
- The Christian Literary Agency
- The New York Literary Agency
- Poets Literary Agency
- The Screenplay Agency
Writer Beware has documented that these agencies all operate in much the same way, using the same boiler-room-style approach as the original Stylus, with nearly identical intake materials and contracts. Right now, the main focus of the operation appears to be persuading writers to buy paid critique services (at a cost of between $50 and around $90) and editing services (anywhere from $99 to over $2,000) from a service that's described as a "sister" company but in fact appears to be under common ownership with the agencies (this is a conflict of interest: if an agency can make money by recommending critiques or editing, how can the writer trust that the recommendation is in his/her best interest?). There may also be other paid adjunct services, and it's possible that there are vanity publishers somewhere in the mix.
Neither Stylus Literary Agency/ST Literary Agency nor any of its spinoffs have any commercial book or script sales, as far as we're aware--despite their claims to the contrary.
There's a more detailed discussion of the whole scheme in the ST Literary Agency thread.
- Victoria
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