...and because I respect the work that the fine folks at Making Light, Writer Beware, Preditors and Editors do, I am linking to the 20 Worst Agents list.
It's a fine list. A lovely list. A list with more than 20 names on it, because some of the alleged agencies have changed names several times.
This is, of course, not to say that agents are to be avoided. Agents are necessary. Writers need them to find publishers for their work and publishers need them to send them new work of the correct sort (agents do other stuff too, such as explaining contracts to authors, holding authors' hands, and coaching the authors they represent on how to make their books more marketable.)
Anyone thinking that they might need an agent should probably read Everything You Wanted to Know About Agents, and On the Getting of Agents. Authors aspiring to hook up with an agent could also frequent Ask the Agent at Absolute Write, and Agent Obscura's Livejournal (actually, anyone interested in what a literary agent does should hang out there.)
So, "Baaaa" say I to scam artists, scam agents, and others who prey on the novice writer's burning desire to be read.
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