So here I am, 1:30 in the morning, thinking…

One of the things that irks me to no end is the amount of “helpful” places available on the internet which proclaim to help people get published. They occasionally squirrel away a few useful nuggets but charge for the really juicy stuff, if they even have that much. Once more, I will remind people who are trying to get their books published that there isn’t a respected agent out there who charges for any help until after they have sold your novel to a publishing house. The agent’s job is to sell your novel, not charging for  “editing” help. When I find sites which offer help for a fee, I tend to red flag them. I found one tonight.

WEbook seemed like a veritable gold mine when I first looked it up after being referred to it by another literary agency. You submit a small sample of your book and people (like you) rate it for free. You also get to rate other people’s work. It seemed, at first, that it was a pretty good communal writer’s group. Then I wandered over to their FAQ section and saw this:

• PageToFame is always free to readers.
• Writers of full-length books pay a one-time submission fee of $9.95, which takes them all the way from page one to the final round, if they make it that far! Writers of short works pay just $4.95 for a single round of rating.

Once again I am appalled at the lengths people will go to to screw over new authors. I mean, have they no shame? Is making a buck that important that they’ll screw with someone’s emotions over something they literally poured their soul into? Maybe I’m overreacting (I’m not) and taking this out of context (doubtful), but I believe that any agent which this website claims supports them should, if they belong, have their AAR membership yanked and burned.

On the plus side, WEbooks did have a nice list of agents and their websites. Here’s the link to that: http://www.webook.com/literary-agents/listAllAgents.aspx. Hopefully you won’t have to join or anything. Just keep the good people at Preditor’s & Editors in mind: if it’s too good to be true, chances are it probably is.

And watch out for scammers, please. They’ve been coming out of the woodwork since the economy tanked, eager to milk you of every dime you have with the promise of being “published”.