Absolute Wrong

[ckd]

So there's this soi-disant literary agent (when you don't appear to have any sales, despite claiming to have been representing authors since 1984, I think you are probably not), Barbara Bauer. She's on Writer Beware's Twenty Worst Agencies list. So far, whatever; no different than the other 19, right?

Well, except for her multiple attempts to get sites closed down or her sending of legal threats for one! billion! dollars! for mentioning her name. Most recently, the Absolute Write discussion site disappeared rather suddenly, apparently due to their ISP rolling over for an abusive phone call that may have mentioned the DMCA.

There's a bunch of coverage around on this, including two posts from Miss Snark.

It's all about Barbara Bauer. Hmm, Google juice much?

Comments

Wow.

[newblksusan.livejournal.com]

I came across your entry while cruising through Tygerr's friends' list. Would you mind if I directed your post to another LJ friend, Moondragon, as she --- like me -- is trying to get her book published and is actively going about the business of trying to find an agent (I have agents who have expressed interest and are awaiting more samples of my work, which I'm still finishing up [in other words, I just don't want to send in ANYTHING!}.

but i'm happy that none of the agents or agencies I'm currently dealing with aren't respresented on this list, but I'm happy to know such a list exists.

The agent thing is such a tricky game. One of my classmates (I'm in the Creative Writing Program at the U. of Houston), critically acclaimed author Farnoosh Moshiri, told me how difficult it was for her get her first novel published without an agent so she insisted to me the importance of having one. . . but then I'm also aware of the horror stories of friends who have had any number of agents and, yes, "any number of agents" because sometimes they had an agent who, in essence, ignored them or didn't do much to shop around their work. ..

Sometimes I'm not sure what kind of industry/business I'm determined to crash into but all information helps! Thanks for offering some useful info! I can't say that I was expecting this kind of information by way going through Tygerr's friends' pages!