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Here's the writer's questions (not quoted in full in order to protect the contributor's identity for furnishing this to P&E):
To: jill@stylusagency.com Subject: Re: Stylus Literary Agency : Manuscript Received Dear Ms. Jill Mast: There are a lot of negative comments about your business. I ask if you will, a reply to my concerns and what you know in reference to what is posted about you and your agency at Writers Beware (this is just for starters, there are other websites).
Here's their response:
First, let me thank you for 'seeking first to understand'. I apologize in advance for the length of this email but we want you to be able to make an informed decision about how to proceed. We are keenly aware of the negative message boards out there and frankly we are very concerned too. Please allow me to give you our analysis of the situation and a suggestion about how you might proceed. There appear to be three categories of people on those boards. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) The first category are the 'industry watchdogs'. These are people that derive some level of psychological benefits from 'exposing' fraud, scams, etc. WE HAVE CONTACTED THESE PEOPLE NUMEROUS TIMES AND OFFERED TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS ON A PUBLIC FORUM FOR THE BEST INTEREST OF THE INDUSTRY AND THE WRITERS. They have refused or ignored our requests. What does that tell you? It tells me that they aren't interested in the truth, it tells me that they are interested in more visitors to their website. Also, they have blocked our rebuttal posts and deleted our prior posts. In short, it's a very one-sided message board isn't it?Hmm, P&E is an industry watchdog, but we've never been contacted by Jill or anyone else with an offer to discuss this in a public forum. In fact, when we've shown up at some forums, the folks from her agency seem to disappear and quit posting. Also, P&E doesn't have the power to block or delete anyone's posts on any forum and have never invoked such a privilege even when P&E did operate a forum several years ago. We believe in free speech even for those we disagree with or don't recommend.
2) The second category are people that have worked with us, for whom we haven't been successful, and they are blameful, pointing fingers, etc. Basically just jumping on the bandwagon because they would rather feel 'took' than acknowledge that their work wasn't good enough to sell.Obviously, no one at P&E fits this category. None of our writers have ever asked Sydra-Tech or any of its evolutionary missing links to represent them.
3) The third category, for whom we feel the most sorry for, are authors such as yourself who stumble into this mess. Many of these authors just decide not to continue, and may lose the one real chance that they ever had to secure representation. Contacted any other agencies lately? How has the response level been? Wouldn't you give us just a few points for responsiveness?Well, if they're like the author who provided this information to P&E, we don't feel sorry for them at all since the author in question didn't decide, as Jill hints at him possibly doing, to quit writing. What he decided to do was keep their hands off his money and look elsewhere. If Jill was more truthful, she would have pointed out that other agents choose what they represent based upon their own preferences and tastes. They have to like the style of the authors they represent and not be bought off by the author's money because they know they'll make a very good living off the commissions they earn for actually selling those authors' manuscripts.
So, what to do?.... ------------------------ First, we challenge you to actually go through the message board and to find anything of substance. What we see is repeat, repeat, and each time something is repeated, it gets more and more outlandish. Our favorite, was that "we steal work and sell it to China". ugh.Oh, that's a good one, Jill. That presupposes that your agency can actually sell something to a legitimate publisher in any country.
Go through the boards and send me any SPECIFIC questions you have. (I'll actually save you some time, and answer some now because we've heard most of them... ) Q) You charge fees.. that sucks.. no one should charge a writer anything... you should get paid only if you sell something... and various flavors of this misconception. A) We really don't charge fees. We ask the writer to improve their work and a critique and editing (sometimes) is part of that process.Gee, could that be part of why P&E doesn't recommend your agency, Jill? That does pose a significant conflict of interest, you know since those agencies aren't independent which means, of course, that your do receive fees. Highly disguised fees.
And, we ask for mailing expenses if it happens.What? Jill, oh, Jill, you're supposed to send out mail to publishers with submissions inside. That's how you make sales.
The odds are so against new writers that we've learned that we can only invest our time with writers that are willing to pull their own weight.Yes, Jill, they all do that already. It's called writing the manuscript. They've done far more than you've done so far. Writers that aren't willing to pull their weight we call the "something for nothing" writer, who is regurgitating old mantras about how if an agent charges anything, they are bad. Guess what, if your last name was President Clinton, we'd waive our fees too.Gasp! Jill, you just admitted right here that you do charge fees! You lied to us all just a few sentences ago! Shame on you!
Q) You've never sold anything... the author sold it.. blah, blah A) We now have 4 deals. The most recent is with an UK publisher. (Note: because of the vitriolic people on these boards we don't post our deals because the instant we post a name, the really creepy and scary people that hate us start sending this crap to the posted name.Jill, that's called verification. P&E verifies sales for many agents. We have never sent any vitriol to any publishers. You just don't want the truth revealed about how little you actually did for those authors.
We've got the documents and if ever needed our lawyers can pull them out.)Prove it.
We assisted every author with the contract on those 4 deals. We actually have emails from the publisher complimenting us on the fair job we did for our author.That sounds really warm and fuzzy, but why don't you have compliments on all four? Better yet, tell P&E how your agencies have survived all these years on just four sales? Oh, yeah, it's those fees you claim you don't collect and then claim that you'd waive for former President Clinton. All that tells us is that he's the only exception to your fee collection policy. Isn't he lucky? Only thing is, P&E doesn't see him hurrying over to take advantage of your sweet offer.
Yes, in two of the deals the author found the relationship, two of them, we found the relationship. In all 4 deals we provided SIGNIFICANT value to the contract negotiation and the post-publishing supoort. The thing that is lost in all this is that very, very few literary agents have even one deal under their belt.That's because successful agents have more than one measly deal under their belts. They can't survive without sales like your agency can because they don't collect upfront fees. Also, we did a measurement in April and we had 68 open and active discussions with buyers about our authors' work. We expect a few more deals by the end of the year.That's another warm and fuzzy, but only actual sales count. You still have only four and we're being generous in letting all of those count since you didn't find two of those by your own admission.
You might also be interested to note that we also find really bad contracts for our authors and we recommend that they don't accept them.P&E would almost believe this except for the fact that it's known that your agency negotiated a royalty based on sale price. Are you just trying to actually claim that you don't send any of your clients to PublishAmerica? Furthermore, why would you find really bad contracts? Isn't that counter-productive and a waste of everyone's time and your client's money?
We've seen more contracts than anyone you know and we bring that expertise to our clients.Actually, you've seen very few, possibly only five or six. P&E's staff have probably seen far more. We would hope that you haven't sent your clients' work to someone like PublishAmerica more than once in order to boost your count. Q) You use Form Letters and you are impersonal... A) True or false, we have answered every email that you have ever sent us? I know the answer is true, and you know it too. To me, that's personal service. Yes, we use form letters for billing, acquistions, status reports, etc. Our lawyers like us to say it the same way, every time. Do you really want to hold that against us? By using every method possible to keep our admin costs down, we can spend our money selling for our authors, it's that simple.Actually, P&E doesn't care if your agency or any other agency uses form letters. It's a known fact that many do. Writers may not like them, but it's necessary when dealing with submissions that number in double or triple digits each month.
Q) The people who work at your company are scam artists, thieves, and have records... etc. A) This is the grapevine at it's worst. We aren't, we aren't and we don't. Have you ever heard of mis-identity, or identity theft. We have learned that it's impossible to curb this situation. Also, did you ever ask yourself why writers have used pen names since time began, and why agents are so hard to get to? It's because every agent that we know has been literally stalked by some crazy writer. We've had them drive by our house. creepy and wierd.Well, if you're afraid of crazy writers, then maybe you should enter some other line of work? Have you considered Ponzi schemes?
Q) If all this is so untrue, why haven't you done anything about it? A) We've tried, we're filing lawsuits against Victoria Strauss and a few other message board owners, but for the most part, anyone can say anything, so we have just learned to live with it, and to hope that the real authors, the ones we want as clients, can see through it as what it is.Gasp, P&E feels so left out! We haven't received any lawsuits from Sydra-Tech or any of its evolutionary deviates. What's with you? Other agencies and publishers have shown themselves quite capable of finding our address even though we don't post the mailing address on our web site. It's still available. Are you and your attorneys that incompetent?
So, in conclusion, if you want to spend your time looking for any real and substantive items on the boards, please do so and let us try to answer the question as best we can. Please let me repeat our business model. We want writers who are willing to help themselves. However, in the end, you must be the one that has to decide what you want to do. If you are unwilling to spend any money to improve your writing, then please go away.For once, Jill, P&E is in agreement with you. We want writers to go away from you and not spend their money on your services.
If you are willing to take a small chance with us, then give us a try.Jill's right. It's a small chance that you'll get published through them. It's a bigger chance that you'd lose money on their services.
Either way, we wish you the best in your writing career.Okay, Jill, we'll let you get away with this warm fuzzy remark.