Agent Warning

Agent Deidre Knight has been a victim of a weird sort of new crime: "agent identity theft."

She blogs about it today - but I will quote the gist of it here:

Apparently about three weeks ago someone claiming to be me sent a blanket email to roughly forty e-pub authors offering representation to anyone who was interested, ?guaranteeing? a sale in NYC and claiming to charge only 10%. This is VERY serious business. Any of you who frequent this blog can imagine my take
on this email?I believe some scam artist has decided to target writers and possibly charge fees or perhaps it?s someone wishing to discredit me.

Can you believe that? What is wrong with people? What makes them act like this and do things to hurt the reputations others have worked so hard to build? I have to wonder if it's some rejected writer who wanted to "get back at" Deidre for passing on their manuscript? If so - wow! I mean Deidre rejected me way back when--I think I retaliated by eating a pint of ice cream. (Take that - Rejecting Agent!!!! **grin**)

Anyway - just wanted to pass along the word--and to remind you all that a legitimate agent is never going to send out mass form emails asking to represent you. They get plenty of submissions already and don't need to seek them out. So if you get a letter like this from ANYONE - just toss it out. :)

Marianne