I raised the bones of contention with the editor who appears on a warning list. Interestingly, she responded very quickly. Here's a copy of my questions (black) and her answers (green) for your information and comment:
1) Allegedly has very little publishing success in USA (some success in China).
Please see my website under Sold Properties to view the works and the publishers.
This is a 50/50 answer for me. You should be able to check Publisher's Marketplace to verify sales, but conversely, not all agents post their every sale on there. So take that for what it's worth.
2) Allegedly asks writers to pay the cost of sending MS to publishers or pay a $250 fee to the agency.
Our contract clearly gives the author the option of either providing the copies to be submitted along with the necessary postage, or providing a check in the amount of $250 to cover these costs. I spend my time helping the author with copyediting and formatting as well as packaging the submissions; however, I cannot cover the cost of copies and postage since I submit to between 20 and 25 publishers.
BIG HUGE red flag here!! First of all, every agent spends their time helping their authors copyedit and format the MS. That's part of their job, it's not something special that this person is doing. Granted some spend more time doing this, some spend less, but inevitably, they all spend their time doing it. Second BIG HUGE red flag here - number of publishers. Your agent will submit to anywhere from 4 -10 editors on the 'first round' of pitching your manuscript. Then, if there are no takers, there will probably be some edits on your part and a 'second round.' Likewise, possibly all the way down to a third round. See where I am going with this? So maybe you will rack up a total of 20-25 publishers AFTER you have been through several rounds of submissions, but no way will it happen all at once. So why the need for $250 up front, all at once? Also, in my agent contract it states that if copies and postage are needed I'll be asked to approve the fee, and I won't be asked to pay it up front. (On a side note, I would think this is highly unusual because everyone uses email. Why can't the MS just be emailed to the publishers?)
3) Allegedly sends bulk submissions to publishers.
If I have a couple of similar works going to the same publishers, I will send them together rather then in separate packages.
Another red flag. This sounds like someone is just randomly sending out submission packages without properly targeting the submissions. How is your work going to be best represented if it's going out with five other mystery/vampire/cozy thriller novels? That sounds like a clash of interests to me. Also, are all those other people paying $250 for postage? If they are, don't they all deserve their own separate submission packages? They ARE paying for that, after all.
Comments?
