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Q&A How to figure out if an agent is "on the straight" or "shady"?

From my own experience to discover a black sheep: If you've found and agent, google him. Google harder! If you think, he is reputable, change your keywords and google again! No, not kidding. I ...

posted 14y ago by John Smithers‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T00:49:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/537
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar John Smithers‭ · 2019-12-08T00:49:34Z (almost 5 years ago)
From my own experience to discover a black sheep:

1. If you've found and agent, google him.
2. Google harder!
3. If you think, he is reputable, change your keywords and google again!

No, not kidding. I found an agent who was very promising. Professional homepage, listed all the things you look for (you have to pay no money, best publishers, etc.)

I googled him and found nothing. Nothing good, nothing bad. If you only seek for the established ones, the new guys never have a chance, so I thought I give it a try. But I always sleep one night, before making a final decision.

The next day his homepage was gone. Not accessible. So I googled again, this time harder. And then I found a forum discussion about this agent, demonstrating that he was a bad apple, with newspaper article and everything your cold heart wishes. So, yes, I'm serious about my three points above.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2010-11-25T19:23:51Z (almost 14 years ago)
Original score: 8