Agenting ethics
Miss Snark is at her best not when fuming at writers (she’s great with that too) but when she’s fuming at other agents and pseudo-agents:
For $85 you can send your manuscript electronically to the Sobol folks. They say they’ve got the staff to have your manuscript read twice and commented on. (Miss Snark has no problem with this-for a differing view check out PubRants)
Then, if your manuscript is selected as a first round winner, it gets read by two more people (also no problem).
Then, if you make it to the final round, you must agree to be represented by the Sobol Literary Agency if you want to win the prize and be published.
That’s the problem.
AAR rules are VERY specific that charging people to read manuscripts is NOT ok for reputable agents. Sobol spokespeople say they have administrative costs. Yea, so what. I do too and I struggle along without charging people.
You can have a contest; you can have a literary agency. You cannot have both at the same time.
[...]
There are NO other contests—not Romance Writers, not the Hillerman, not the Kirkus, NONE, that require you to sign with an agency before winning.
And not just ANY agent; they want you to sign with an agent who has no sales, isn’t an AAR member, and has no understanding of how an agency actually works and what it does. In other words you have an “agent” who doesn’t value the role agents play in publishing.
