Literary Agent Charging For Legal Fees?

[badhorsey]

I've been having discussions with an agency who are interested in trying to get my stuff in front of a publisher. They seem legitimate - they've got a decent roster of clients and writers. One of the things they mentioned was drawing up an agreement with their attorney / lawyer, which I'd have to meet the cost of.

This set alarm bells ringing instantly. I'm waiting to see what they say when they email next but I'd have thought that those sort of costs would be something they'd meet themselves? I'm new to this world so don't really know what the status quo is.

[woofgang]

I guess it depends on how keen they are to sign you up and what they think they can make from it....they maybe won't mind putting time in for nothing but cash outlay is a different matter.

[Hymie]

Are you sure that the literary agent is not just a front for a vanity publisher?

I would expect the agreement to be in a standard format (as used for all their clients), why would each client have to pay for this?

If you have a book manuscript ready to supply to prospective publishers/agents – I would recommend that you self-publish using a company such as Lulu.com.

The results are very professional and look just like a mass produced printed product. A single copy can be had for less than £10, although there is a lot of work required to format the text as required for print as a book in pdf form.

[Ken4155]

You say they've got a "decent roster of clients and writers." Why not try getting in touch with some of those people and ask if they had to meet any costs upfront?

[TonyV]

Or self publish?

[badhorsey]

Without going into too much detail (because I can't), self-publishing isn't an option - it's tied into a fairly major bit of IP. Everyone stands to make a fair bit from this, hence why I'm wondering about the suggestion. But I may have got the wrong end of the stick.