Has anyone ever heard of the Children's Literary Agency?

Question

Or had any dealings with them? How did it go for you? I need to know, please...

Answer 1

The Children's literary Agency is a subsidiary of a group of predatory and possibly fraudulent literary agents. The Writers Beware! and the SFWA web sites have them listed under warnings for writers. The SFWA posted this about them:

One of the the 20 literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints over the past several years is The Literary Agency Group, and its related literary agencies or companies, all of which are owned and operated by Robert Fletcher of Boca Raton, Florida. These are the following agencies and companies:

-Children's Literary Agency
-Christian Literary Agency
-New York Literary Agency
-Poets Literary Agency
-The Screenplay Agency
-Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)
-Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)

None of these agencies has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and virtually no documented and verified sales at all (book placements claimed by some of these agencies turn out to be "sales" to vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made--whether directly, by levying fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for editing or other adjunct services.

Writer Beware recommends that writers avoid these questionable literary agencies, and instead query agencies that have verifiable track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

You should go to http://www.sfwa.org/beware/ and look up these agencies.

Also, on the Writer Warnings Page, there is this note:

Writers who have had a problem with The Literary Agency Group or any of its related literary agencies or companies, are urged to contact Ann Crispin (Crispin at aol.com) or Writer Beware (beware at sfwa.org) for information that may be of assistance.

You should save your money and check out this info yourself. Don't sign any checks!