The official blog of Writer Beware® shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. Writer Beware® is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
Hi, folks. Been gone a while, due to illness in family. At any rate, this morning I got a call quite early from a Sergeant John Walker from the Texas police force (yes, I confess I was picturing Chuck Norris the whole time we were chatting!) to ask me if Writer Beware would post aRead More
A couple of posts back, Jill Elaine Hughes left an interesting comment: It might be interesting, Victoria, to get some respected editors to do a post on how they prioritize agented submissions based on the quality/reputation of the agent. I know that if you’re repped by Donald Maass or Ethan Ellenberg, you can get readRead More
Thanks in part to the delightful Miss Snark and the estimable Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Writer Beware’s 20 Worst Agents List has been proliferating across the Internet. We thank everyone who has re-posted the list–we’re thrilled it has gotten so much exposure. The more writers know about literary predators, the better. To date, however, the listRead More
Many of you may be familiar with the recent activities of Barbara Bauer, unlucky number four (in alphabetical order) on Writer Beware’s 20 Worst Agents list. Always swift with a cease-and-desist demand, and unhappy with her new notoriety as the 20 Worst List proliferates across the Internet, she’s taken to slamming people who post theRead More
Last time we checked in on the saga of Melanie Mills, a.k.a. Lisa Hackney, a.k.a. Elisabeth von Hullessem, now calling herself Raswitha Elisabeth Melanie Mills, this outrageously bizarre literary scammer and alleged mother-murder attempter had been extradited to the USA from Canada, and was sitting in an Arkansas jail awaiting sentencing on six charges of failure to appear (jumping bail back in 1999), first-degree battery (pinning her mother to a picnic table with a car), aggravated assault (ditto), and theft of property (embezzling part of her mother's estate and kiting bad checks).
On February 10, 2006, she pleaded guilty to all six charges, and was sentenced to two prison terms in the Arkansas Department of Correction, one of 15 years and one of 10 years, to run concurrently.
However, she won't do any jail time.
There’s a new literary agent in town, boys and girls. His name is Henry Santsaver, and his agency is called, rather generically, Literary Associates. Here’s his page on Publishers Marketplace. Here’s the agency’s website. Anyone’s who’s read my posts on the qualifications an agent needs or fake track records should be able to spot theRead More
