Another Update on a Scam Agency

I blogged about this not too long ago, but I figured I'd give it another post (a short one, fer sure!).

The Literary Agency changed its name to Writers' Literary Agency and Marketing Group. It's still owned by Boppin' Bobby Fletcher, who just tweaked some of the names of the "agencies" that belong to this group.

The details are here in this Writer Beware blog post.

Stay far, far away from these scamsters!

AIP, Again

Another link, this time an overall update to this on-going story, courtesy of Writer Beware.

The Shortcut Scam

Jeez, people will stoop to anything to get published, including leaving a bad credit card number and a disconnected phone line. The fraud is detailed here.

Sad Day

I usually don't talk about personal things on this blog, but after yesterday's events, I'm making an exception.

My husband voluntarily checked himself into the hospital yesterday.

The day started out well: He was listening to some soothing music while I got washed up. We went to the post office, then went off to the supermarket. The big deal was supposed to happen later in the day: Someone was supposed to come by from the county crisis clinic to discuss options with my husband.

Options as to what to do about his mental illness.

Someone was supposed to come by around 1:00/1:30pm. Normally, I don't turn on my cell phone, as it's used strictly as a phone ahead if I've run into traffic going home (and to work as well). Well, that bit me in the butt somewhat. I finally remembered to turn it on (as my husband smashed our home's cordless phone) at about 1:00pm.

For an hour, no one called. At two o'clock, my phone vibrated, but I couldn't remember how to answer it. I checked and saw the last phone call had been from the crisis center. Why hadn't anyone come by? Because they were working with a patient. All well and fine, and I was boneheaded in not turning on my cell earlier. But by this point, my husband was agitated; I mean, we were both nervous.

Couldn't they have sent out someone for just twenty minutes or something? I just don't understand how any entity can do this, esp. when they know my husband's recent events.

He'd already jumped into his car (which doesn't have a bumper, and he stuck the license plate on the front dash). I motioned for him to stop, which he did. I convinced him to bring his car around and that I would drive.

We drove off to our local bar. Things went fine for a little while. He had a mug of fairly low alcohol brew; I think he ordered another one. I was finishing up my mug and finishing off whatever the heck I'd ordered (nothing too heavy, as I wasn't that hungry). As the clock ticked toward 3:00/3:30pm, he became more and more withdrawn, berating me for various and sundry.

My stomach twisted.

My husband is usually a gregarious guy; trying to get him out of the bar is something else, as he talks and hugs all our friends before we leave. This time, he finished his beer, slapped the mug on the bar, put on his jacket, and said a quick "Goodbye" before dashing for the door. I dashed after him. I drove home, and he said he was just going to rest quietly upstairs, maybe take a nap.

I stayed downstairs, kicked off my sneakers, and settled in to read. After reading for a few minutes, I turned on the TV.

I heard him come downstairs. He had put on his dark blue jacket (think Gore-tex). His tone of voice sounded terrible, horrible. I jumped up and raced after him. Unfortunately, I was in my socks and there's a lot of gravel around. I ran back in and out the front door, wondering if he'd go toward the bridge.

I didn't see him after about two or three minutes. I called 9-1-1.

There's not much more to say here except that the State Police found him (thank God) and brought him to the local hospital's emergency room. He's now resting comfortably, peacefully in their behavioral unit. He was quite accepting of being there; no anger, no tears. He told me last night, as I waited for his paperwork to be finished, that he felt as if a burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

I told him I did, too.

Now I'll go on and deal with stuff here outside the hospital. There are a number of calls I'll have to make today, and a number of calls tomorrow. Life's going to be hell for a while. But I'll rest better knowing that he's being cared for.

How to Get Out of Your PA Contract

..."PA" being PublishAmerica, of course.

Go here to get some ideas, specifically, on arbitration. Why arbitration? Because I've read that the few times people have gone to arbitration with PA, PA has lost.

Want some other ideas, or do you feel you need someone to talk to who is in - or was in - a similar situation? (Everyone needs to talk to somebody some time...jeez, wasn't that a song?) Then try this thread at Absolute Write.

Don't give up - keep writing!

Scam Agency Changes Its Name - Again

Bouncin' Bobby Fletcher, late of that ol' series of scam agencies, The Literary Agency Group (comprised of Poet's Literary Agency, The Screenplay Agency, Christian Literary Agency, Children's Literary Agency, and the New York Literary Agency) decided to change the name of the umbrella group. New name (which he must've been up all night thinking about)? Writers Literary Agency.

Now, you might think, hey, look at all those different agencies under one roof! I can send my poem to the first one, my screenplay to the second one, my Christian fiction to the third one, and so on. Imagine, all them there agents/agencies under one roof! It sounds like a dream come true for those creative types who have a lot of different interests.

Too bad it ain't true.

Bobby Fletcher was fined for securities fraud in the state of Washington (USA). So, you might wonder, what the heck does he know about the publishing industry? Did he work for a legit literary agency (you know, one of those ones that actually places books with legit publishers who stock the shelves of your nearest bookstore)? No. Did he work as an editor at a legit publisher? No.

No experience in publishing. Not good. True, it could just be someone who has struggled to get their own novels in front of agents. Someone who's clueless. Still not someone with whom you want to deal. (And there are people who've set up themselves as agents with a sincere desire to help others get their books to publishers; without some sort of publishing experience, though, any sales achieved will be slim to none.)

In all the years The Literary Agency Group has been in business, have there been any sales? None that any of the watchdogs are aware of. Yet another not good.

So what's an agent to do if they can't make sales? (Legit agents work on commission, getting their 15% after the sale has been made to the publisher. Keep this in mind as you read the rest.) Of course! Offer other services, like critiquing, editing, you name it. For a fee, naturally. They have to keep themselves afloat, and they sure aren't doing it by selling mss. to publishers. So, extract a fee for a critique, extract a fee to send out letters, scattershot, to various publishers, etc.

This is exactly what The Literary Agency - oops, Writers Literary Agency - does. Avoid these scam artists at all costs. Always, always, always aim for the top. I know of several people who've secured top-knotch agents, and who've then received publishing contracts with big-time publishers (like Kensington, for example).

BTW, if you'd done your research, you'd know that the majority of poets do not have agents; sales are too small for any legit agent to rep poets (with very, very few exceptions). The Poet's Literary Agency? There to separate you from your money, and nothing else.

Want more details on this? Check out the Writer Beware blog.

Don't give up - keep writing!

Yet Another Entry the Same Week?

Why, it's prepos...prepos...amazing! ;-)

I stayed home yesterday because of the ice and snow show; what a horrible day. But I did do quite a bit of revising/editing. It was a tad harder than it should of been because I was having one of those brain drain episodes. ;-) I got over it pretty well, and renumbered the chapters yet again. Renumbering is pretty easy in the compact, free program I use, Ywriter. It's by a nice Aussie chap named Simon Haynes, who also writes (and has three pubbed novels to his name). He also has a bunch of other free programs which you might want to check out.

No, I don't get any remuneration (ooo, 5-star word!) from him. Just passing along stuff that I've found useful and might be useful to other writers. (Plus, you can carry around the program on any jump drive you might have, which is what I do; very useful for puttering around with your novel pursuits anywhere, even at work.)

So I've finished the first rewrite of Chapter 3 and am eagerly looking forward to doing the revision thing (and adding in the other POV, if needed) on Chapter 4. The other writerly thing I'll talk about, briefly, is the 13 Worst Publishers List over on the Writer Beware blog. Yup, PublishAmerica is on, as are others you might've seen on writers' boards on the Net (the ones that tell you to steer away from certain clueless or scammy publishers/authors).

Peruse it wisely, so you can hold on to your hard-earned dollars, pounds, pesos (you get the idea).

Don't give up - keep writing!

Back Again

After numerous problems with Blogger including trying (and failing) to sign in, plus being up to my butt in papers and typing at work, I'm finally writing another entry.

Yeah, I know. Excuses, excuses. But what the hell; it's easier to blame somebody or something else than to blame myself, heh heh.

The work on what was formerly known as Cats of Manhattan and is currently called Crossed Paths continues. Since deciding to include one of the other characters (Diego) as a viewpoint character, I feel the story's even better, as it's giving readers more of an idea of what's going on away from Jackie (which I feel is necessary). Diego is a former police officer (has been off the force for about six years) who has been pushed into starting up a "shadow" police force. This is a force that investigates/handles incidents that are out of the ordinary (read: magical/fantastical). Something about an agreement among the leading citizen of Union, NJ (where I grew up), the mayor, and the Chief of Police is making this possible...as long as Diego and his lieutenants don't mess up anything...and don't let the average, every day citizens of get wind of it.

Mwahahaha!

Anyway, I went back to the original opening for this, with her going over to the senior center to trap a feral cat. One thing I hadn't realized until I started this revision was the link between Jackie having a trap in her hands/trapping cats is that she feels trapped, too: Trapped in a boring job, trapped into dressing certain ways for certain people, trapped in an apartment she doesn't particularly like...that sort of thing. I'm hoping I'm a good enough writer that people will get that.

I also have a short story that I particularly like, currently called Good Luck Charm. I've stopped in the middle of it because I can take it in a couple of different directions and haven't decided which way I want it to go. (This is the one where the MC is a woman who arrives in 1934 or so New York, determined to become a Broadway singer/actress, to show her pack back home that werewolves can actually do things out in the wide world--with certain precautions, of course.) I've gotten to the point where her agent, despite wanting to put her on one of the vaudeville circuits (a great training ground for entertainers at that time), knows about a small musical having tryouts two or three streets over from Broadway. What will happen? Stay tuned...

Hopefully, I'll blog a bit more, time willing. And if Blogger behaves itself. ;-)

One last thing, for you writers out there who want to become published but refuse to do any dig-down-deep research: Writer Beware deconstructs a letter sent by PublishAmerica ::shudder:: to someone (a lady from south Jersey; you'd think PA would know better than to mess with a Jersey girl ;-)) to "cease and desist." In fact, a writer could do worse than do a search through the Writer Beware blog to find out more about PA and other scam outfits. (If PA came clean and said, "We are a vanity publisher," I'd have some respect for them. It's their deceit at calling themselves a "traditional publisher" that gets me; I have nothing but sympathy for the writers who are in their clutches, with their book(s) tied up for 7(!) years.)

Always do research before you send out your magnum opus; it can save you money and emotional pain.

Don't give up--keep writing!

Bio

I live in northwestern New Jersey with my husband and our gorgeous Alaskan Malamute, Sam.

I have always enjoyed reading fantasy novels and will continue to do so, whether it's in a paperback or on an eReader (like a Kindle).

My thought is once this drastically reworked WIP is done, I'll do the query, etc.  Yes, I'll go the traditional route.  For now.  But if I haven't received any bites from agents six months after sending out those queries, I'm going the self publishing route.

Because I'm not getting any younger.

And because I can.