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Writers in the Sky Literary Agency (Mark Straley)
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Thanks, Victoria
I queried Mark Straley of WitSLA and he sent me a long submission form in which he listed an elaborate three-step ladder to get through to his client list. I sent him the first three chapters of my novel, the synopsis and a CV. Forget all paraphernalia, the guy was back in two days by the clock with a contract. The AWR remained and I promptly mailed the contract across to Victoria who has always been of tremendous help. She sent me back this thread in the Water Cooler and there I was, wiser by far. This post is not only to serve as a reminder to all those gullibles from my native land of India who I see on this thread but to thank Victoria for all her help. Way to go, V. Keep it up. Cheers.
Abhijit Dasgupta
Executive Editor
India Today
I queried Mark Straley of WitSLA and he sent me a long submission form in which he listed an elaborate three-step ladder to get through to his client list. I sent him the first three chapters of my novel, the synopsis and a CV. Forget all paraphernalia, the guy was back in two days by the clock with a contract. The AWR remained and I promptly mailed the contract across to Victoria who has always been of tremendous help. She sent me back this thread in the Water Cooler and there I was, wiser by far. This post is not only to serve as a reminder to all those gullibles from my native land of India who I see on this thread but to thank Victoria for all her help. Way to go, V. Keep it up. Cheers.
Abhijit Dasgupta
Executive Editor
India Today
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It's interesting to note that the one person "defending" Writers in the Sky LA in this thread, nikhilparekh, had three poetry books published by Lulu.com in May 2007. Too bad he hasn't returned to tell us what happened.
They're now trying to attend a regional convention and set up a "workshop" to meet writers.
I guess they're hoping the existing writers' workshop will make their selection task easier.
Not unreasonable, but clearly, they have little enough business if they can do that.
It's been a year. Are they "one of the giants in the business" yet? Have they made a sale yet?
I guess they're hoping the existing writers' workshop will make their selection task easier.
Not unreasonable, but clearly, they have little enough business if they can do that.
It's been a year. Are they "one of the giants in the business" yet? Have they made a sale yet?
Mark Straley (agent)
Watch out for Mark Straley at the Writers in the Sky Literary Agency. Not only has he been completely incommunicado for months, even his business partners can't find him. He's disconnected his home phone and has no e-mail. No one knows where he is. Several writers are stuck not knowing where their manuscripts were sent or what he did with them.
I know there have been warnings about him before, but this time things are really bad. I fired him yesterday.
Watch out for Mark Straley at the Writers in the Sky Literary Agency. Not only has he been completely incommunicado for months, even his business partners can't find him. He's disconnected his home phone and has no e-mail. No one knows where he is. Several writers are stuck not knowing where their manuscripts were sent or what he did with them.
I know there have been warnings about him before, but this time things are really bad. I fired him yesterday.
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Based on the earlier thread, I decided to visit their site. According to the web page info, it was last updated on 09 Nov 2007, (which is a lot more recent than mine, but I digress).
I noted they list eighteen authors on their web site associated with their agency. Since this thread began back in March, 2006, I decided to check and see how they were doing. I took their names from the
Writers in the Sky Authors page on their web site and began searching.
Now, my Google-fu skills may not be the best in the world, so if I have made any errors, I certainly hope someone will correct me. Also, I admit, Google is not the end-all and be-all of searching methods, but if you type my name (including my middle initial) and author into the Google engine, it returns 12 pages of hits and on the first page 6 of the 10 results are actually me. So, we'll use that as the control.
What were my results?
Of the eighteen authors listed, sixteen did not return any results on the first four pages in regard to any books. No mentions of a book on Amazon (on Google), no mentions of sales, nothing outside of their name listed at WitS. When I did put their names into Amazon, two came back as possibles, but they're reasonably common names, and the books listed were from 2001 and 2005 - well before WitS started up (01 March 2006).
One author's web site does list three books, of which one is available through B&N.com. However, when I pulled it up, the publisher listed is iUniverse.
The only other author who appears more than once is the Senior Editor for WitS, (which still seems a strange position at a "Literary Agency"). However the only mentions of him in the first 10 pages of Google are either mentions of him in association with WitS or a few hits from "A Guide to Literary Agents.com". Which I find unusual, since he states he has sold several short stories as his qualifications to work for WitS. Now, I do admit, it's tough to pick out individual authors in anthologies.
However, I typed in my name, author and "short story" and got three pages, with nine of the first ten hits being me. When I did the same for the Sr. Editor, I got four results, three from WitS and the Guide and one was an entry on Harlan Ellison's board.
*shrug*
Now, it's possible I've missed stuff, but based on these facts - in business for 22 months, 18 authors, no sales I can find - somehow, this agency doesn't seem to be functioning very well. So, either they're doing it as a part-time profession OR they're supporting the agency somehow.
Either way, I would not recommend anyone using them without some solid evidence they're getting their clients work.
If anyone can find something I've missed, please let me know and I'll be happy to update this entry.
I noted they list eighteen authors on their web site associated with their agency. Since this thread began back in March, 2006, I decided to check and see how they were doing. I took their names from the
Writers in the Sky Authors page on their web site and began searching.
Now, my Google-fu skills may not be the best in the world, so if I have made any errors, I certainly hope someone will correct me. Also, I admit, Google is not the end-all and be-all of searching methods, but if you type my name (including my middle initial) and author into the Google engine, it returns 12 pages of hits and on the first page 6 of the 10 results are actually me. So, we'll use that as the control.
What were my results?
Of the eighteen authors listed, sixteen did not return any results on the first four pages in regard to any books. No mentions of a book on Amazon (on Google), no mentions of sales, nothing outside of their name listed at WitS. When I did put their names into Amazon, two came back as possibles, but they're reasonably common names, and the books listed were from 2001 and 2005 - well before WitS started up (01 March 2006).
One author's web site does list three books, of which one is available through B&N.com. However, when I pulled it up, the publisher listed is iUniverse.
The only other author who appears more than once is the Senior Editor for WitS, (which still seems a strange position at a "Literary Agency"). However the only mentions of him in the first 10 pages of Google are either mentions of him in association with WitS or a few hits from "A Guide to Literary Agents.com". Which I find unusual, since he states he has sold several short stories as his qualifications to work for WitS. Now, I do admit, it's tough to pick out individual authors in anthologies.
However, I typed in my name, author and "short story" and got three pages, with nine of the first ten hits being me. When I did the same for the Sr. Editor, I got four results, three from WitS and the Guide and one was an entry on Harlan Ellison's board.
*shrug*
Now, it's possible I've missed stuff, but based on these facts - in business for 22 months, 18 authors, no sales I can find - somehow, this agency doesn't seem to be functioning very well. So, either they're doing it as a part-time profession OR they're supporting the agency somehow.
Either way, I would not recommend anyone using them without some solid evidence they're getting their clients work.
If anyone can find something I've missed, please let me know and I'll be happy to update this entry.
So, you don't expect them to be a major power in the industry within the year?
I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I've been supporting myself as a writer for 5 years now--8 novels, a dozen shorts, a hundred articles, and I can't find an agent to talk to me. I'm "not quite interesting enough," in the parlance of the form rejections I'm getting.
OTOH, I'm increasingly wondering what purpose an agent serves...
I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I've been supporting myself as a writer for 5 years now--8 novels, a dozen shorts, a hundred articles, and I can't find an agent to talk to me. I'm "not quite interesting enough," in the parlance of the form rejections I'm getting.
OTOH, I'm increasingly wondering what purpose an agent serves...
OBTW, I didn't see any sign of them at the regional convention in question. They weren't on any of the panels I was on, or in any of the function space I'm aware of, nor did they have a table.
Bastet, you should report him to Preditors & Editors if you haven't already.
http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm
http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm
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Mike, part of the problem is this. Legitimate agencies survive on sales. Otherwise there's no commissions coming in to support the agent(s). So, if no sales can be found, then writers should legitimately ask just what is WitS doing and how is it supporting itself?
I'd gladly report this to Victoria and the Preditors and Editors page, but I don't see how to do that. Can anyone give me contact info. Thanks.
Everyone who's associated with this outfit better jump ship now!
Lynn
Everyone who's associated with this outfit better jump ship now!
Lynn
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Writer Beware can be contacted at [email protected].
We've had a file on Writers In The Sky almost since their inception--they started out by spamming writers with WritersNet addresses.
- Victoria
We've had a file on Writers In The Sky almost since their inception--they started out by spamming writers with WritersNet addresses.
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No money was involved. It was just a waste of valuable time.
He talked a good game, I really have to say. I usually don't get suckered into things like this. He talked the talk but could not walk the walk.
He talked a good game, I really have to say. I usually don't get suckered into things like this. He talked the talk but could not walk the walk.
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Writers in the Sky's website is down, and Writer Beware is hearing from writers who can't get in touch with Mark Straley, either via email or phone (one writer reports that his phone number has been disconnected). So the agency appears to be defunct.
To clients of the agency who are wondering where their mss. got sent: I think it's probably safe to assume that they got sent nowhere, or, if they did get sent somewhere, that they weren't looked at. Amateur agents like Straley tend to use unprofessional submission methods (for instance, bundling several queries in a single envelope) and to be bad at targeting appropriate editors and publishers. Such submissions get little attention--or, if there are a lot of them, may simply be discarded or returned unopened.
So I think that you can simply write this agency off, and go forward as if you'd never been agented at all.
- Victoria
To clients of the agency who are wondering where their mss. got sent: I think it's probably safe to assume that they got sent nowhere, or, if they did get sent somewhere, that they weren't looked at. Amateur agents like Straley tend to use unprofessional submission methods (for instance, bundling several queries in a single envelope) and to be bad at targeting appropriate editors and publishers. Such submissions get little attention--or, if there are a lot of them, may simply be discarded or returned unopened.
So I think that you can simply write this agency off, and go forward as if you'd never been agented at all.
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In a case like this, where an author was involved with a scam/incompetent agent, should they ever mention this when dealing with a new agent? Something like, I believed I was being represented by G I Scamalot, but that fell through when I learned what he was--words to that effect?
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Sure, as lunch or cocktail party conversation once they get to know the new agent. And only if they want to. Otherwise, it's fine to turn it into a repressed memory.
The real problem, with incompetent agents, is figuring out whether they actually made submissions that might have been looked at. On the borderline between incompetent and marginal, that can be a tough determination to make--and it's important to make it, because if your crappy former agent was clueful enough to get an editor to send a rejection letter, your new agent will need to know about that so s/he won't duplicate the submission. Either way, to be on the safe side, it might not be a bad idea to change your title.
- Victoria
Hello. I'm new to this forum. Unfortunately, I know Mark Straley. He tried to convince me to sign on with Writers in the Sky. The web site is down. Mark is not answering calls, nor responding to e-mail. Another friend received the following e-mail from Gary, basically blaming Mark Straley for everything, and it was forwarded to me at my work e-mail, which is the e-mail used for this forum.
Hello to everyone in the Writers In The Sky Family,
Dreams.
They come in all shapes and sizes. Big to small; black & white to color; adventure to romance (or, for me, science fiction); multi-national corporations to mom & pop literary agencies. It’s about this latter dream that I’m writing to you today.
My dream was to be an editor working with great authors on many great manuscripts. Thank you for letting me live out that dream. It has been an honor and (mostly) a pleasure. I take great pride in the work we’ve done together to produce some outstanding books. I only wish I could have done more. But that will remain just a wish for the time being, because my dream has died.
Mark Straley has closed Writers In The Sky Literary Agency.
For some of you, this probably comes as no surprise. Mark has been dodging phone calls and emails for months, and recently stopped paying the fee for the company website. He made grandiose promises to everyone (in lieu of pay) to keep us working for him, but refused to put out any effort of his own. I have to admit I was naïve enough to believe his words, in spite of the evidence that he was deceiving me. So, for me, this news is a kick in the gut.
“I should have known,” I’ve been telling myself for the past few hours, since I learned that Mark closed the business without notice. The signs were there, I just didn’t want to believe them. Didn’t want them to be true. Unfortunately, they were.
Mark has always been a persuasive dreamer. That’s why I thought he would be good at being an agent. When you talk to him, he comes off as a likeable guy and a natural-born salesman. He has good ideas; he just doesn’t follow up on them. He sure sold me a bill of goods, as he did you and a lot of other good writers. Yes, I bought into the dream of starting up a literary agency, in the boondocks, with a group of people who had good intentions but little practical experience. When Mark asked me to take over the acquisitions and editing departments, I hesitated to do so. I knew it was a long shot to succeed, given what we had to work with. But I am a dreamer, too. I believed that, in spite of our limited resources, all we had to do to be successful was to produce quality manuscripts and the publishers would recognize our talent and buy our books. So I worked my butt off to provide those great manuscripts. Not every book we represented was great to begin with – many of them needed a lot of editing – but when we were done editing them, they were all publishable books. Every one. I’m proud of what we achieved artistically. But having a good product does not guarantee success in the competitive business of publishing. We’re proof of that. I regret only that I did not get my head out of the clouds sooner and provide you all with better direction.
I feel awful. I’ve let you down, and you deserve better. But no expression of regret, no matter how profound, makes up for the disappointment you and I are feeling right now. My only defense is that I was taken in, too. That, to me, sounds pretty lame, but I don’t know what else to tell you other than the truth.
Which is why I can’t continue on as an agent myself; I’m simply no good at bending the truth. I believe the only way to live is by telling the whole truth, warts and all, and I have spent my professional life turning down projects that were sub-standard as Art, even if they were “marketable,” instead choosing to spend my time working on projects I believed in, that I was passionate about, like yours. Unfortunately, the ability to spin the truth seems to be what it takes to be a good salesman, and it takes a good salesman to be a good agent. As Harry Mudd said (derogatorily) in a classic Star Trek episode, “You couldn’t sell fake patents to your own mother.” Like Spock, I can’t understand why anyone would try. And I refuse to waste any of your valuable time trying to do something I’m no good at.
I am an editor – a pretty good one, I think – even though posterity might never know that. My name may not go down alongside John Campbell or Harlan Ellison or [insert your favorite editor here], but I’ve decided it won’t be for lack of trying. I will continue to be an editor, in some fashion, in the future. What shape that future will take is still to be determined.
Speaking of which, if you know of an open job for a slightly used editor, I am now in the market and would appreciate any help. Also, I would be willing to serve as a reference for you, if you wish. In short, I am willing to assist in your future success in any way possible.
If you are interested in continuing a relationship with me as an editor, a reader, a fellow writer, anything other than an agent, I would love that. You’re a great writer and I still firmly believe that you will have a successful writing career. I’d love to be a small part of your success. But if you prefer to divorce me along with Mark and the rest of the WITS Family as a bad memory, I’ll understand. I don’t want to impose myself on anyone who doesn’t want me. So, if I don’t get a reply back from you after this email, you won’t hear from me again.
Needless to say, perhaps (but I’m saying it anyway to be safe), you are released from your contract with Writers In The Sky Literary Agency. I don’t know if Mark will be sending letters out to officially acknowledge this fact – I suspect he won’t, since he hasn’t done much of anything he promised to – but it is true, nonetheless.
Where you go from here is entirely up to you. I believe in you. I know your future books will be great, also. I wish you all the happiness and success you so scrupulously deserve.
Hello to everyone in the Writers In The Sky Family,
Dreams.
They come in all shapes and sizes. Big to small; black & white to color; adventure to romance (or, for me, science fiction); multi-national corporations to mom & pop literary agencies. It’s about this latter dream that I’m writing to you today.
My dream was to be an editor working with great authors on many great manuscripts. Thank you for letting me live out that dream. It has been an honor and (mostly) a pleasure. I take great pride in the work we’ve done together to produce some outstanding books. I only wish I could have done more. But that will remain just a wish for the time being, because my dream has died.
Mark Straley has closed Writers In The Sky Literary Agency.
For some of you, this probably comes as no surprise. Mark has been dodging phone calls and emails for months, and recently stopped paying the fee for the company website. He made grandiose promises to everyone (in lieu of pay) to keep us working for him, but refused to put out any effort of his own. I have to admit I was naïve enough to believe his words, in spite of the evidence that he was deceiving me. So, for me, this news is a kick in the gut.
“I should have known,” I’ve been telling myself for the past few hours, since I learned that Mark closed the business without notice. The signs were there, I just didn’t want to believe them. Didn’t want them to be true. Unfortunately, they were.
Mark has always been a persuasive dreamer. That’s why I thought he would be good at being an agent. When you talk to him, he comes off as a likeable guy and a natural-born salesman. He has good ideas; he just doesn’t follow up on them. He sure sold me a bill of goods, as he did you and a lot of other good writers. Yes, I bought into the dream of starting up a literary agency, in the boondocks, with a group of people who had good intentions but little practical experience. When Mark asked me to take over the acquisitions and editing departments, I hesitated to do so. I knew it was a long shot to succeed, given what we had to work with. But I am a dreamer, too. I believed that, in spite of our limited resources, all we had to do to be successful was to produce quality manuscripts and the publishers would recognize our talent and buy our books. So I worked my butt off to provide those great manuscripts. Not every book we represented was great to begin with – many of them needed a lot of editing – but when we were done editing them, they were all publishable books. Every one. I’m proud of what we achieved artistically. But having a good product does not guarantee success in the competitive business of publishing. We’re proof of that. I regret only that I did not get my head out of the clouds sooner and provide you all with better direction.
I feel awful. I’ve let you down, and you deserve better. But no expression of regret, no matter how profound, makes up for the disappointment you and I are feeling right now. My only defense is that I was taken in, too. That, to me, sounds pretty lame, but I don’t know what else to tell you other than the truth.
Which is why I can’t continue on as an agent myself; I’m simply no good at bending the truth. I believe the only way to live is by telling the whole truth, warts and all, and I have spent my professional life turning down projects that were sub-standard as Art, even if they were “marketable,” instead choosing to spend my time working on projects I believed in, that I was passionate about, like yours. Unfortunately, the ability to spin the truth seems to be what it takes to be a good salesman, and it takes a good salesman to be a good agent. As Harry Mudd said (derogatorily) in a classic Star Trek episode, “You couldn’t sell fake patents to your own mother.” Like Spock, I can’t understand why anyone would try. And I refuse to waste any of your valuable time trying to do something I’m no good at.
I am an editor – a pretty good one, I think – even though posterity might never know that. My name may not go down alongside John Campbell or Harlan Ellison or [insert your favorite editor here], but I’ve decided it won’t be for lack of trying. I will continue to be an editor, in some fashion, in the future. What shape that future will take is still to be determined.
Speaking of which, if you know of an open job for a slightly used editor, I am now in the market and would appreciate any help. Also, I would be willing to serve as a reference for you, if you wish. In short, I am willing to assist in your future success in any way possible.
If you are interested in continuing a relationship with me as an editor, a reader, a fellow writer, anything other than an agent, I would love that. You’re a great writer and I still firmly believe that you will have a successful writing career. I’d love to be a small part of your success. But if you prefer to divorce me along with Mark and the rest of the WITS Family as a bad memory, I’ll understand. I don’t want to impose myself on anyone who doesn’t want me. So, if I don’t get a reply back from you after this email, you won’t hear from me again.
Needless to say, perhaps (but I’m saying it anyway to be safe), you are released from your contract with Writers In The Sky Literary Agency. I don’t know if Mark will be sending letters out to officially acknowledge this fact – I suspect he won’t, since he hasn’t done much of anything he promised to – but it is true, nonetheless.
Where you go from here is entirely up to you. I believe in you. I know your future books will be great, also. I wish you all the happiness and success you so scrupulously deserve.
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And herein lies the problem with so many new agencies and publishers.
Most of the people who start new publishing companies or agencies are decent people with good intentions. However, those qualities cannot replace experience, knowledge, and a little thing called capital.
Most of the people who start new publishing companies or agencies are decent people with good intentions. However, those qualities cannot replace experience, knowledge, and a little thing called capital.
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My friend, that should have been a warning sign right there: Agencies don't have either acquisitions or editing departments.
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Ten bucks says Mark Straley will be back, up and running a new ... ahem ... operation in six months or less. These guys always do.
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I suggest that everyone go back and re-read the first page of this thread. See what we said then, why we said it, and compare our predictions with how things eventually turned out.
I'm not certain that Mark's a scammer. I think that he just didn't know what he was doing, didn't know that he didn't know what he was doing, and took a bunch of folks along with him who likewise didn't have a clue.
Remember how we keep saying that, from a writer's point of view, an enthusiastic incompetent is just as bad as a crook? Here's more proof.
I'm not certain that Mark's a scammer. I think that he just didn't know what he was doing, didn't know that he didn't know what he was doing, and took a bunch of folks along with him who likewise didn't have a clue.
Remember how we keep saying that, from a writer's point of view, an enthusiastic incompetent is just as bad as a crook? Here's more proof.