BEWARE: Children's Literary Agency (WL Childrens Agency)

SignedContract said:

I recently signed the contract and THEN Googled after the waiting period was up. How do I fire them?

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I think that may depend on the contract you signed. I got sent two completely different ones after I complained about the first. Does it have an out clause? Have you paid any money yet?

Good people to get in touch with are mods Victoria Strauss and James Macdonald who may be able to advise you better than I.

Good luck!

Thank you. I will have to look into it and the contract.

You fire them by sending them a registered letter telling them that they no longer represent you in any way.

And you send copies of all your correspondence to the Florida Attorney General.

They're currently advertising using Google AdSense ads.

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Children's Book Agent
Growing Literary Agency. Child books only. Submit Online.
www.WLChildrensAgency.com

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Remember, any agent that runs AdSense ads is either clueless, or a scammer, or both. Stay well clear.

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And if you've had any contact with Robert Fletcher (under any of his names), get in touch with the Florida Attorney General.

What are some of his names?

Robert M. Fletcher a/k/a Robert Williams a/k/a Bob Williams a/k/a Robert West.

Who's his partner?

Leslie Williams a/k/a Leslie W. Mroz

What are the names of some of his scams?

Writer's Literary Agency Group, Writer's Literary Agency, Writer's Literary & Publishing Services, New York Literary Agency, Writer's Literary Children's Agency, The Children's Literary Agency, Children's Book Publishing Agency, Writer's Literary Poet's Agency, Poet's Literary Agency, Poetry Book Publishing Agency, The Christian Literary Agency, Writer's Literary Screenplay Agency, Screenplay Writers' Agency, The Screenplay Agency, The Literary Agency Group, f/k/a Rapidpublishing-screenwriter911, Inc., Stylus Literary Agency, S T Literary Agency, Inc. , Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company, Writers' Book Publishing Agency, Strategic Publishing Group, Strategic Book Publishing, Strategic Book Marketing, AEG Publishing Group, My Editor Is A Saint, Author's Edge, Sydra-Techniques, Global Book Agency, and Eloquent Books.

My experience

I had the same bad experience with Wl children's agency. I signed the contract and THEN did my homework. After reading all the negative stuff about this agency I emailed my so-called agent "HIL" and asked her about it. I get an e-mail back from her. The first line said "What do you think we're going to do, steal your book?" That's real professional. I knew I could cancel after 90 days, which I did. The e-mail address is in your contract. Just e-mail and say you want to cancel. I heard back from them by the end of the day saying, "Sorry it didn't work out!" and that everything of mine had been deleted. Everytime I e-mailed this lady I would get back the same exact e-mail. It was a long 90 days.
Then today I get an e-mail from Tht Mocknick agency saying he'd like to read my manuscript. The reading is free, but it will cost me $450 if they want to sign me. This time I did my homework. Gee guess who's on the worst 20 list.!
I am alot smarter and wiser!!

pjlove51 said:

The today I get an e-mail from Tht Mocknick agency saying he'd like to read my manuscript.

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Had you ever contacted the Mocknick Agency?

If not ... I wonder if Robert Fletcher/Robert Williams/Robert West sold your name to them.

By the way, there's no reason to believe that "Hil" even exists.

No I sent a query to him, but I'm doing my homework now. Since I kept getting the same e-mail everytime I'm sure she doesn't exsist

I am learning a lot about being careful

I received some good advice from a person when I asked a writing for children question on another website. Below is her advice word for word.

"The writer gets paid. Never EVER pay to get published.

Never EVER pay for an agent or "book doctor."

Some websites make it seem that's how it's done, but they are scams.

This is called YOG'S LAW: "Money always flows TOWARD the writer!"

Obey Yog's Law and you'll stay out of trouble with scammers and sharks who want you to pay to get published.

Join http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/

It is FREE and pro writers lurk there and run the place. You will find lots of help on writing there. You can post your work for feedback. They don't allow flame wars or trolls, the place is for writers wanting to improve their craft!

When your book is ready to go (finished, grammar and spell checked and beta read and polished) you go into a bookstore and look for titles similar to what you've written. Inside the front page will be the names and websites of publishers. (You won't find vanity press or POD or scam books there.)

Visit their websites and follow their guidelines to the letter.

Most will have a "Submission Guidelines".

If you see "Testimonials" RUN away, they're a vanity, pay-to-publish scam operation. No real publisher has "testimonials" on their site!

STAY AWAY FROM these "Publishers"

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/02/ha…

That's the top 20 "thumb's down" list. They're the worst. One calls itself a childrens publisher, but is run by a scammer out of Florida we all call "Bouncing Bobby." Every time he's busted he opens a "new" agency.

ABOVE ALL, STAY AWAY FROM PUBLISHAMERICA. They are the BIGGEST ripoff site of them all.

They say they're free and don't want your money, but that is a LIE. You end up buying overpriced copies of your own book! They eat childrens authors alive.

They will not put your book into a store--but lie and say that you are supposed to do that. Most PA writers submit their book, and whether it is good or horrible, it's quickly "accepted," (they take everything!) and then you never hear from the poor writer again. Your rights are tied up for seven years!

Just google "publish America" + "scam" and find all the writers who got ripped off by them. They are what is called a "print mill." you don't want anything to do with them. They ruin lives and careers.

They're a reverse vanity printer. They pressure you to buy overprice copies of your own book. (A real publisher gives you a boxful.) They have no distribution, so your book won't get into bookstores like they say. They only pay a stinking one dollar advance, too, all this while waving the flag and praising Jesus. PA is so bad they have their own forum on Absolute Write to warn people away!"

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/foru…

I hope this advice that was given to me helps you to. This person's advice is what led me to Absolutewrite.com.

Robert Fletcher's lawsuit against Writer Beware has been ruled frivolous. Fletcher has been ordered to pay all of Ann and Victoria's legal fees and expenses.

From the Court order:

Basically, Fletcher and LAG were running a fraud by charging fees for all services while falsely giving hope to the authors that Fletcher and LAG would find a publisher for their book.

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Wow, terrifying stuff. I was just about to send part of my manuscipt with illustrations to WL Children's Literary Agency but I stopped and said I'd better be sure.

They sent me a huge email expressing interest in my children's book which I wrote, illustrated and produced for my final major project. I had just attached the PDF and answered their questions when I found this site and a huge scam alert.

Promptly I cancelled the email... rats, and I was hoping there was going to be further interest haha

Thank you Absolute Write forum dwellers, thank you for saving me

Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against “Literary Company”

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office filed a lawsuit against a Boca Raton company that allegedly preyed on aspiring authors. According to the Attorney General’s lawsuit, Writer’s Literary Agency and owner Robert Fletcher used more than 20 websites and related companies to collect funds from potential authors, but misled victims about fees, costs, and promised results.

The Attorney General’s Economic Crimes Division received more than 175 complaints from around the world claiming Fletcher and his associates, who claimed to act as literary agents and publishers, allegedly collected money from victims anxious to see their work published. Potential writers paid anywhere from $89 for an initial critique to over $600 for various services including editing and marketing of a manuscript to publishers. Allegedly, Fletcher also told potential writers that fees were paid from book sales when in fact all costs of publishing were paid by the authors. According to the lawsuit, few books were ever sold as a result of the efforts of Fletcher’s companies.

Investigators determined Fletcher expanded into the field of publishing within the past year. Fletcher admitted to having no background as a literary agent and to using at least 10 aliases in his businesses.

The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief against Robert Fletcher and his associates, as well as his many businesses, prohibiting further business activities in the field of literary agencies or publishers. The Attorney General is also seeking full restitution on behalf of all victimized consumers, civil penalties of $10,000 for each violation of the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and reimbursement for fees and costs related to the investigation.

A copy of the lawsuit is available online at: http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-7VJLSY/$file/WritersLiteraryGuildComplaint.pdf

In short, if you are a victimized consumer, get in touch with the Florida Attorney General so you can get in line for that restitution. If you know someone who paid money to Fletcher (under any of his names or to any of his businesses) point them to the Florida Attorney General.

WL Children's Literary Agency

This just seemed too-good-to-be-true, but I really couldn't figure out why....So, I looked at the books this company had published, read a few pages (on Amazon.com) and one author's bio. Not good writing, even the bio wasn't well written. That was all the convincing I needed.

Wow...wish I had read this before I took time to answer the questions and send me a small portion of a story I wrote. High hopes fall far...thanks for the cushion! I will keep plugging along and go back to what I know was the best way in the first darned place....stuck in a library or bookstore pouring over the pages of the books to make sure I have it right....As for some of what I read..."Something for nothing" Seriously? My work is everything and I deserve something for my everything. Thanks for being here for the newbies.

Welcome to AW, LClaveau! It's good you found out now, rather than later. Stick around AW. A lot of great info and people.

My high school creative writing teacher had a run in with them a few months ago for a children's picture book. She refused to pay for an editor... (she's been a english teacher for 20 years) I highly doubt she'd need it for a picture book.

She's finally out of contract with them after I showed her the author beware site and this thread months ago.

She's not the most computer savvy so I gave her a list of agents and helpful sites..

I really hate people that scam on aspiring writers!

But I also have to say don't consider all Florida agencies bad. I know that the famous Knight agency has offices in FL and The Brown Agency handles romance and erotic in FL. (I spoke with the woman when I applied for an internship) Really nice and helpful, and very legit. I looked up plenty of her authors and they had legit sites and books on amazon etc.

got the same email 2 years ago from them.
paid $200 for a reviewer they said I had to have.
A 10 year old could have done better.
I was told I would have to change the story because children would try to do some of the things the children in the story did.
That is when I got the idea the reviewer didn't even read the story. Why you ask?
Because the story was about a dragon.
Don't know many dragon children.
in two years I got 2 emails.
1 telling me they were working hard on getting it published and the 2nd saying it had been put on hold, and I should publish it myself so they could then show publishers that I was published.
I told them to forget it since by that time the contract was ended.
just my experience.

Hi all,
A newbie on the boards who had the misfortune to run across WL CLA when trying to get my first novel published. Thanks to my trusting nature, I took these guys at face value. Thanks to my wife's suspicious nature she found this website and board!
Thankfully I didn't sign a contract so no harm done except to my pride! I feel so stupid, having plastered news of my 'success' on Facebook and via email. Was I just hopelessly naive? Of course! When someone says yes to a novel you've spent three years of your life writing, editing and polishing you see it as a vindication.
Now I have no idea what to do next. Every agent's site I go to says no unsolicited manuscripts so I hope you more experienced writers can understand my desperation and stupidity. What's my next step guys?

summerbayexile:
Every agent's site I go to says no unsolicited manuscripts so I hope you more experienced writers can understand my desperation and stupidity. What's my next step guys?

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Hi, summerbayexile, and welcome to AW.

When an agent says no unsolicited manuscripts, they usually require you to send a query letter. There's a forum here that can help you to polish yours so that it sells your book in the best way possible. Check out the agent's submission guidelines because some will also ask to see the first 5 pages of your manuscript.

MM

You have to start out with a query letter to the agents. Go to, Query tracker, 1000 agents, publishers marketplace,Agent Query,Author advance. Make sure to check Preditors and Editors to see if the agent is any good.
Good Luck. There's also the top 20 worst agents list too.

Hi Summerbayexile! Welcome to AW! When I first signed onto this sight I wandered around extremely confused for about two weeks . Once I got the hang of it, I began to understand the true value of the contributers. There are a lot of people on this site that offer valuable advice. I don't think you should feel foolish. We all want someone to appreciate our hard work and our vision. I never thought it was possible, but I found my agent through reading the reviews and information on this site. Its worth it to take a look around. OH! And props to your wife!

Hi everyone, I too have had contact with WL CLA. I'm sooo glad I accidentally found absolutewrite. I'd been searching the web for how to find an agent and they contacted me. Actually 3 different people contacted me. I noticed in their emails that they all had the same address even though there were 3 different company names. Then they started calling my cell phone wanting to represent me. I did some research and found all of you. Thank god I was listening to my 6th sense...I had a bad feeling...I was right.
But I'm not sure where to go from here. I've written and illustrated a childrens book and started a second. Everyone here says you need an agent. Help...don't know what to do!!

CLA

I'm taking the ride with childrens lit too. After nearly 7 months of waiting without speaking with anyone, they've recommended I try an AA program where I pay to have query letters sent to publishers. This after having paid $80 to have someone tell me nothing I needed to know. I'm proud of my work and know it has a place in the market, where do I go from here? Self publish?

Hi, LGP and welcome to AW.

I'm sorry that you got taken in by CLA. If you've paid any money to them, then you might want to contact the Florida Attorney General who is looking into bringing a civil case against Robert Fletcher (the man behind CLA and a host of other scam agencies).

LGP:
I'm proud of my work and know it has a place in the market, where do I go from here? Self publish?

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Don't self-publish.

The best thing you can do is to query and research legitimate agents for children's fiction. Check out the Bewares, Recommendations and Background Check Forum here as a starting point, but you can also look on Publishers Marketplace.

Do you research on agents you're thinking of querying (not because they're scams, but because different agents look for different things), hone your query letter (the Share Your Work Forum here has a place where you can post letters you want to check) and polish your manuscript until it's the best it can be (there are Forums here that can help you find betas for it if you want a second opinion).

Best of luck.

MM

Momento Mori said:

Hi, LGP and welcome to AW.

I'm sorry that you got taken in by CLA. If you've paid any money to them, then you might want to contact the Florida Attorney General who is looking into bringing a civil case against Robert Fletcher (the man behind CLA and a host of other scam agencies).



Don't self-publish.

The best thing you can do is to query and research legitimate agents for children's fiction. Check out the Bewares, Recommendations and Background Check Forum here as a starting point, but you can also look on Publishers Marketplace.

Do you research on agents you're thinking of querying (not because they're scams, but because different agents look for different things), hone your query letter (the Share Your Work Forum here has a place where you can post letters you want to check) and polish your manuscript until it's the best it can be (there are Forums here that can help you find betas for it if you want a second opinion).

Best of luck.

MM

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I made the mistake of querying both CLA and a Self-Pub. I was fortunate enough though to find AW. Embarrassing enough as it is to admit, I was not doing my homework before submitting.

I took it as a couple rookie mistakes that I was fortunate enough to learn in the minors.