Warnings
Disclaimer: Below are opinions and information given
to me by fellow authors. These opinions are solely
those of the author listed at the beginning of each
warning and do not reflect the feelings of this site's
owner unless expressly written at the beginning of
each warning.
Author Terri Ann Armstrong, shares the following:
The New York Literary Agency on Madison Avenue in New York City is a non-reputable Literary Agency. They had me get a critique under the ruse that it would benefit my manuscript and future manuscripts to have it done. While I believe I did benefit from the critique, I was charged $89.00 and then was told that despite the positive--and there were many--points about my manuscript, I should pay, yet again, to have my manuscript professionally edited. There were two options:
1. First was a "toe in the water" edit, which edited only the first 20ish pages of my book, giving me guidance on how to finish making my manuscript sales worthy.
2. The next was a full-edit at $.02/ word. With a manuscript of the suggested 90.000 words, would have cost me an astounding $1,800.00! You read it right, $1,800.00.
Who has that kind of money? I surely don't. Then I did some more checking, and with the help of fellow author, Pamela deLeon-Lewis found out that not only does a true literary agent not charge you one thin dime for anything pertaining to your book, the NYLA was one of the biggest scams out there today.
Even after learning about the possible costs, I still wondered if perhaps, I needed some "professional" help. The thing that cinched leaving for me was that when all was said and done, the NYLA told me that I should understand that they "more actively pursue" selling the manuscript that has a professional editor's name attached to it. My question is, why? Is my work not something they deemed worthy in the first place? Isn't that why they "chose" to represent me? If so, how can having a professional editor's name attached to it make my manuscript more marketable? There was a lie in there somewhere, and at that point, I didn't care; it was time to go and find another agent, a reputable one.
I leave the choice up to you. I just wanted to be sure that you all knew what I found out and that I cancelled my contract with them IMMEDIATELY! Good luck to you all.