The New York Literary Agency: Warning

Good thing I looked!

I had a contract with St. Literary Agency, needless to say, they got me. First they took me for $80.00, I think they called it a POP page. Then they turned around and ask me for $145.00 to cover the cost of printing up ten manuscripts for sending out to publishers. After that, they charged me another $95.00 for ten more manuscripts, then turned around and ask for another $95.00. I said enough is enough. They turn around and tell me I can get out of the contract and when I say yes, they send me a email stating that the contact is now void...what's up with that? Three days back, I sent a query and a short synopsis to 'New York Literary Agency' and they want my script. lol I'm with you

Not POP -- OPP (Online Pitch Page). A totally useless thing.

Sorry about that ... but that's how Robert M. Fletcher gets his money. The odds are poor that any of those manuscripts you paid for were ever sent anywhere.


You might want to read through, and add your experiences to, the long ST Literary thread.

Here's the deal with Robert Fletcher and all his agencies: you'd have better luck selling your manuscript if your agent was a monkey at the zoo, provided you could teach that monkey to stick the manuscipt into an envelope and send it to a publisher.

For anyone wondering what a real literary agency does, see the entries in the Writer Beware Blog as well as Miss Snark, the literary agent.

Another blog from an agent's viewpoint is at http://pubrants.blogspot.com/.

Robert Fletcher still has no sales.

Only a fool would hire an agent who has no sales.

Roger J Carlson said:

I wouldn't hire a roofer that refused to 1) talk about his previous work, 2) give me names of previous clients, or 3) demonstrate that he knew ANYTHING about roofing.

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And had been convicted of fraudulent roofing. And hadn't ever done roofing before, or even apprenticed to a roofer. Or even made copies in a roofer's office. And who no roofing suppliers knew. And wasn't a member of any roofing organization, especially those with quality standards. And who charged in advance for nails, tar, and shingles--in addition to his fees.

A real agent has sold books you've heard of.

When you're looking for an agent, you shouldn't be asking "Is this guy bad enough to be crossed off my list?" You should be asking "Is this guy good enough to be added to my list?"

Having a bad agent is worse than having no agent.


For far more on agents, see:

http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005/01/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about.asp

http://www.sff.net/people/VictoriaStrauss/agentsearch.html

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/

http://www.sfwa.org/beware/

Apropos of nothing in particular, I should point out that Peter Rubie is indeed a legitimate agent. He's got his own agency, full of information, including a list of recent sales. All on the web; you don't even have to ask!

Peter Rubie also says: "One of the best indicators of a good agent is: Does the agent make a living solely on commissions from sales?" It's in his book, Writer's Market FAQs, on page 50. Good advice.

An agent's job is to be the author's public face. A publisher's job is to make things public.

There're no such things as stealth agents and secret sales.

DaveKuzminski said:

Isabella, how do you account for the need to have a specific agency dedicated to screenplays, poetry, children's, and Christian writing?

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I'm not Isabella Brown but I'll answer that, Dave.

Google Adwords only allows you one ad per URL. The multiple URLs allow multiple ads to show up on Google or Amazon when you search on, say, literary agency:






This stunt violates the intent of Google's stated advertising guidelines, but that's Bobby all over! Tirelessly looking for new ways to sell....

James D. Macdonald said:

but that's Bobby all over! Tirelessly looking for new ways to sell....

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If he put that much effort into selling manuscripts, he might make a sale and really take the wind out of our sails. Why would people choose to be crooked over doing a legal job well? I'll never understand that.

LloydBrown said:

I'll never understand that.

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Selling books is hard and low-paying. Conning authors is easy and lucrative.

I can see why Bobby took the route he did.

He really is trying to sell (for some values of the word "sell") books -- see, for example, those pathetic ads in Publishers Marketplace last fall begging for a vanity press to call him. It's just that he's so far out of the publishing loop that he really has no clue how to go about starting.

Nah, I think that's just a side benefit. I believe it was purposely done in order to catch the attention of writers with specific types of work so they'd identify with the agency as exactly what they needed. NYLA was designed to appeal to writers looking for an agency in New York. Otherwise, he could have given the agencies the names of streets or birds or whatever.

His big mistake in naming those agencies was to call one the Poets Literary Agency since the clear majority of poets generally self-publish to get their work out in books. That's the agency name that proves his whole group is a sham and a scam. Too bad Fletcher's already been tagged as Bouncin' Bobby since I see him as Sham the Scam and the Fakers.

I'd agree with you, Dave, if Bobby hadn't already used the same stunt in a slightly different form back when he was just ST Literary:

That's from ST Literary Agency -- Writer's Break or Just Crooked? Oddly enough, all the time Fletcher was doing this, he was also claiming that he didn't advertise. Strange!

It's clear that he is trying to double his exposure and that he's learned from his earlier attempts that the names have to be different and not redirect to the same site. I wonder how soon he'll include a non-disparagement clause in his contract? If he wants to make it unique beyond what PA did with theirs, he could even make it apply to any writing groups the writer belongs to.

From Miss Snark, the literary agent:
The question:

Exactly when can you ask an agent, or group of agents, what they have sold? If it's not posted on their website, and you haven't been able to ask anyone who knows them personally, then I honestly can't see how you'd ask until you've already sent them your manuscript.

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Her answer, in part: (see the whole post here):

1. Look at the website.
2. Google the agent's name
3. Invest $20 in a subscription to Publishers Marketplace (the BEST value in publishing today, bar none) and use the "search deals" feature. This is NOT available on the free service.
4. If all else fails, ask them. This is not privileged information. This is not a trade secret. Any agent that says you're a nitwit for asking IS a nitwit.
[...]
Query the world, but only SIGN with someone who will tell you what they've sold and when.

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Emphasis mine.

Oh, good. HorrorGirl--I mean Bobby--I mean Isabella's back.

isabellabrown said:

About those outdated books: Sure names and addresses change. But one thing remains - there are good and bad agents. How many books do you need to tell you that?

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You need to brush up on reading comprehension, babe, since that's what we've been saying.

The thing is, if you've had an experience with a bad agent, then get over it. And move on.

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Right. Because it would be bad for scammers and convicted criminals, like Bobby, if authors went around telling other authors about bad agents. Much better if authors just keep their mouths shut and slink off as if they've got something to be ashamed of for being scammed. Much better if more experienced authors leave newbies to the wolves. Those last two sentences are sarcasm, by the way, in case you don't pick up on that.

We needn't fear that threads related to Bobby and his scams will sink for long. Either a new victim comes along to bump it after doing a search, or one of the mods realizes it's been dormant too long and will give it a nudge.

CaoPaux's index is a sticky.

A Google search on the New York Literary Agency comes up with this thread as its top hit.

No need to feel it'll sink into obscurity.

Meanwhile, I'm bored with "Isabella." If Fletcher would post under his own name, or "Sherry" or "Georgina" were to come back, I'd be happy to chat with them. But a no-name troll? Please.

Aconite said:

The parent group is The Literary Agency Group, Inc.

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I wouldn't call The Literary Agency Group the "parent" company, seeing as they're less than a year old. The real parent is the ST Literary Agency (S.T., Stylus, Sydra Techniques).

The Literary Agency Group is just more mud in the water. They're there because it was getting too easy to Google on "ST Literary" + scam. You'd get stuff like this: http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?p=11339

How's about Ink and Colors International Literary and Illustrators Agency? Check out the marketing pitch on that page and compare it to the one at Stylus.

Aconite said:

For anyone coming in late, the New York Literary Agency is one of a group of agencies run by convicted criminal* Bobby Fletcher. The others are:...

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An excellent summary, Aconite.

Of course, the legalities aside, one has to wonder how being the president of a music...uh...trading website qualifies Fletcher to be a "literary agent".

One key to choosing a good agent is his or her background. You should look for agents who worked at a reputable publisher or another reputable agency. That's not a guarantee, of course, but agents that pop up with no previous experience are likely to be either incompetent or a fraud. Fletcher falls in the latter category.