Agent behaving badly

Just checked my hit counter and . . . sucky Sunday! I should be whoring my little loins off with a Technorati-laden post, but I don’t have the heart for it today. Instead, I would like to follow Beard’s lead and talk about the latest Barbara Bauer brouhaha.

Here’s the chronology. First, Writer Beware published their list of the twenty worst literary agents, which included Barbara Bauer. Why “the worst”? According to SFWA,

Below is a list of the 20 literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints over the past several years.

None of these agencies has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (book placements claimed by some of these agencies turn out to be “sales” to vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made–whether directly, by levying fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for editing or other adjunct services.

In other words, these agents charge fees and their clients get bupkes in return.

Next, Barbara Bauer, peeved at being included on the list, starts sending out cease-and-desist letters to bloggers reporting on the list, such as Making Light. For the most part, these folks ignored her. But then she took on Absolute Write.

By intimidating Absolute Write’s ISP, Barbara Bauer succeeded in putting Absolute Write offline for a few days. They’re back in action on a new server, as you can see if you click on the link above. Way to go Ms. Bauer — you’ve only managed to drum up even more Internet attention to your appearance on Writer Beware’s 20 Worst Agents List.

As of this writing, a Google search for Barbara Bauer yields her website in the number one position, Writer Beware’s 20 Worst Agents List in number two. Various related posts from Making Light also appear in the top ten. You know what to do, folks.

Here’s a suggestion from Making Light:

Want to strike a blow against scam agents? Link to the 20 Worst Agents list. While you’re at it, link to Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. You could even link to Everything you wanted to know about literary agents and On the getting of agents. But the 20 Worst Agents list—that’s the important one.

Also, I’m going to follow the lead of Making Light, Miss Snark, and many others in reproducing the Top 20 list on my blog:

• The Abacus Group Literary Agency
• Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to “book doctor” Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
• Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
• Benedict Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
• Sherwood Broome, Inc.
• Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
• Desert Rose Literary Agency
• Arthur Fleming Associates
• Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
• Brock Gannon Literary Agency
• Harris Literary Agency
• The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following:
  -Children’s Literary Agency
  -Christian Literary Agency
  -New York Literary Agency
  -Poets Literary Agency
  -The Screenplay Agency
  -Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)
  -Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
• Martin-McLean Literary Associates
• Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
• B.K. Nelson, Inc.
• The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
• Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency, Simply Nonfiction, and Michele Glance Rooney Literary Agency)
• Southeast Literary Agency
• Mark Sullivan Associates
• West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services)

There! Take that!

D.

Walnut, May 28, 2006. Category: Writer's Life.

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