Literary Agent Scam Alerts

Several AALA members have recently reported that clients have received emails from individuals purporting to be legitimate literary agents or impersonating a real agent at an established literary agency.

 

Upon close inspection, the email addresses from these pretenders are often off by one letter or number from the correct email address of the legitimate agent.  These phishing scams are soliciting fees for various publishing services and promise publishing contracts upon payment for the services.  The Authors Guild has also recently reported to AALA that they are hearing from writers who have been victims of this scam.

Unfortunately, this is not a new scam.  A number of our members have experienced being impersonated in this way.

More recently, a writer has reported receiving a message from an agent member of the AALA with a fake AALA email address (firstnamelastname@aalitagents.com). Our email addresses always end with @aalitagents.org, and AALA members DO NOT have email addresses associated with the AALA and would not use an AALA email address to contact an author. @aalitagents.org email addresses are used only by committees, staff, and officers, and only for AALA-associated work.

We urge authors to exercise caution with any unsolicited offers from literary agents and agencies. Always contact an agent or agency directly via the contact information on their website to verify authenticity before responding. Further, AALA members are prohibited via our Canon of Ethics from charging any reading fees for evaluating work for possible representation.

 

Additional Resources:

• Authors Guild’s Publishing Scam Alerts 
• Writer Beware’s Publishing/Marketing/Fake Literary Agency Scams List