louisgodwin said:
She said if I wanted to term my contract I could, I just needed to send a notarized letter to that effect and she would refund my $200.
Notarized? Totally unnecessary. All you need to do is write the letter and send it registered.
She also gave me the names of the publishers to which she has queried: Bantam-Dell
Bantam-Dell is a division of Random House. It includes no less than thirteen different imprints, which publish everything from science fiction/fantasy to mystery to women's fiction to nonfiction. Your book is likely to be appropriate for only one or two or three of these imprints. A competent agent will target the most appropriate imprint, not address a submission to the division in hopes (presumably) that someone will allocate it properly.
Is your book for children or young adults? If not, Front Street (which publishes only children's and YA) isn't an appropriate publisher.
Is your book horror? If not, Leisure (which publishes horror) isn't appropriate.
Apart from the fact that this publisher is out of business, it never paid advances. Competent literary agents don't approach non-advance-paying publishers
Is your book women's fiction, romance, or romantic suspense? If not, Mira (which specializes in women's fiction) isn't appropriate.
New American Library, Regan, ROC
Roc (not ROC) publishes science fiction and fantasy. Is your book science fiction or fantasy? Also, Roc is an imprint of New American Library, which makes this a duplication.
Both Sable and James Rock & Co look to me like non-advance paying micro-publishers--again, no reason for a (competent) literary agent to approach them.
So if you've written a young adult horror romance fantasy novel, and you've decided that you don't care about advances or distribution, this would be an appropriate submission list. If your book is just one--or even none--of these genres, and if you want to be paid for your writing, not to mention reach a sizeable audience of readers, this submission list is...well, not so great.
This is classic incompetent-agent technique--send out a query letter (probably addressed to the wrong person or, just as bad, to "Dear Editor") to a haphazard list of poorly researched publishers. Again assuming the submissions went out, you probably won't even get a form response on many of them.
- Victoria