Dear Angela,

Just found your website. I have been offered a 6 month or 1 year contract for a novel I wrote. The literary agency asks for front money. Can you please tell me if this is legitimate, or if I am being duped?

Many thanks.

We strongly advise authors to never, ever pay agents any up-front fees. The agent should sell the book to a publisher first and only then should they earn money, through a percentage of the advance and royalties. If they’re grabbing money from authors up front, what’s their incentive to pedal manuscripts to publishers?

Never sign with an agent that charges up-front fees. I always recommend using this site to find a non-fee-charging agent: https://www.aar-online.org/