Mocknick Productions Literary Agency. Inc

[anuran's angel]

I've recently received a positive reply (the first) from Dave Mocknick about my first novel. I did a little research about him on the internet when I found out he charges a contract fee of $450 and nothing's good. Everyone seems to say it's a scam. Anyone had any experiences with him? What should I do?

[Kith]

Money always flows to the author. Agents make their money by taking a percentage (typically 10-15%, I think?) once the book is sold to a publisher, not from you. So, although I haven't googled the guy and know nothing of the agency, I would say scam...

You might wanna check out the Absolute Write forum. They have a section on bewares and background checks.

[Tirellan]

Run away now.
Well known scammer.
Check out agentquery.com for listings of reputable agents

[Teresa Edgerton]

Reputable agents never charge a fee to represent your book. Never.

Agents who do charge a contract fee spend most of their time looking for more people to sign up -- because that's where the easy money is -- and little or none trying to actually sell the books. And because (no matter what they tell you) they'll generally sign anyone who will pony up the price, they have no credibility with publishers to trade on to get your book an early look.

So while I know nothing at all about this particular agency, that $450 fee speaks volumes, and nothing it says is good.

[Scarfy]

Yes, walk away.

I remember the first time I got one of those kinds of "offers". I was asked to send the entire manuscript, along with £60 to cover the cost of reading.

I just deleted the email and moved on.

[anuran's angel]

Thanks, you guys! Yeah, I did some more sleuthing on this guy and it seems he is a kind of fraud. I'm going to just ignore his e-mails.

[ponyup]

yes,,,thank you guys. i to received my first "send me your manuscipt" email from mr mocknick. in which he ask for $450 as a contrack fee. thanks for the heads up on the fellow. David