Scamming in Snowbird Land, or how I spent my Florida Vacation (Not Really…)

Hi, folks. I’m back, a bit tanned and rather rested. I actually did write while on vacation, whoohoo! Love my new notebook computer!

While I was traveling around Florida, zipping by towns on the interstates, or even traveling around in some towns, I couldn’t help remembering how many scam or questionable literary agencies have Florida addresses. Just now I went to my printout of the WB database and counted them up: 27 mentions of Florida in there.

Whoa! That’s a lot of crummy agents.

Note: There are some legit agents in Florida, let me say this right upfront. But I think they’re gravely outnumbered!

Of course some of the mentions of scuzzy agents in the WB database are of agencies that have changed their names, listing both the old and new names. So there actually aren’t 27 scuzzy agents hanging out and spinning their little webs in the Sunshine State. But if I were a writer looking for an agent these days, and I saw a Florida address for an agent I was thinking of querying, sure as shooting I would check that agent out thoroughly, track record and all, before sending off that query letter.

Appropriately, the fake Agent F, who now has a plethora (7 and counting last time I checked) lives and “works” out of the town with a Spanish name that means “Rat Mouth.”

I remember one time on a trip to Miami, I saw a dockside rat that was, I swear, the size of a tabby cat we had back home. But remember…all the rats in Florida aren’t on the Miami docks!

I’m glad to be back. Victoria did some great posts while I was gone, didn’t she?

-Ann C. Crispin