New Scam In Town--IILAA

Or, rather, it's an old scam in new clothing.

The Writer Beware website created a list of the "Twenty Worst Literary Agencies", which has been circulating among writers for months now in the hopes of preventing newbie writers from being victimized by predatory scam artists.

Well, with all of the emails and blog posts, whenever someone enters one of those twenty agency names into a search engine, a warning pops up. And, in true scam artist fashion, some of those so-called agents have misdirected people once again.

How? you ask.

They've established a new website: The International Independent Literary Agents Association (IILAA). Their website is www.iilaa.com.

One of IILAA's web pages is "Top Ten Literary Agents". Of the nine agents listed, six of them are on the "Twenty Worst Literary Agencies." Hmph.

Oh, and their website also includes a statement that a writer should expect to pay their agent a retainer fee upfront, in the same way one expects to pay an attorney's retainer fee. This is a load of bull hockey.

Legitimate agents make their money from a percentage (usually 15%) of the royalties and advances on deals they've arranged for their clients. A legitimate agent does not charge upfront fees of any kind.

Let me say that again. A LEGITIMATE AGENT DOES NOT CHARGE UPFRONT FEES OF ANY KIND. Anyone who says otherwise is only trying to scam you.

We need to protect each other. Spread the word about the International Independent Literary Agents Association so that the search engine results will show it as a scam website every time someone searches the name.

(Update 1:25 p.m. MST: Here's the link to Victoria Strauss's post about the International Independent Literary Agents Association: http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2006/10/victoria-strauss-iilaa-or-what-you-do.html

And also, check out Miss Snark's blog on the same subject.)

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Check out Part 4 of the Halloween story at the Amber Heat blog.




"Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home; I'm tired." ~Mae West