Normally, you don’t hear much about agents and scandal — they leave that up to the authors, but this week we have two stories. What are the odds? Hmm, now that we think about the number of agents out there, we suspect very high. That’ll teach us to do math.
Sarah’s got the scoop on what reads to be a rather bizarre case of an agent pocketing advances and disappearing into the wilds of the Pacific Palisades (those windy streets and cul-de-sacs will fool you every time). Looking into the agency in question, Sarah doesn’t find much to support their track record, concluding this story will grow:
Although according to the article, [Maureen] Lasher was once legit, there isn’t much evidence of this based on a simple Internet search. But corroboration comes in the form of Lexis-Nexis, which digs up an article about a panel Lasher was on with Michael Carlisle and Bonnie Nadel on finding an agent, given at UCLA in 2003. Going all the way back to 1986, in another LA Times article, Lasher and her husband, Michael, are quoted about how they begun their agency…
Normally our business advice to agents comes in the form of suggesting a halfway decent website. Today, we offer something more along the lines of financial advice: when one enters into a contract on behalf of the author and receives a comfortable advance, the publisher will eventually want a book. They might even contact the author directly. This is not a good thing if you haven’t been honest…oh, have we mentioned split checks this week? Here’s one author who would have benefitted greatly, had she known she was entering into an agreement with a publisher.
