Helping Hand Literary Service / Janet Kay and Associates

[angelahoy]

Email rec'd at WritersWeekly today:

I didn't know where to send this, so I apologize if this is the wrong place.
I had dealings with this agency as well, thank God that I had no money at
the time. I was living in an apartment, that I wasn't paying for and out of
work, being hopeful that some of my poetry could be used to make some money.
I did a general search for an agency, just as some of the others did, and
submitted my pieces. As the rest did, so did I, received a letter praising
my work, although it was almost a week later, so I had assumed that they did
read it. I was asked to send money in, for the initial contact process,
which made me question the company immediately, not to mention I was
scrounging for change just for a pack of cigarettes, and eating ramen
noodles, or nothing at all. I sent a letter explaining my situation and got
a reply that basically told me if I could not afford to put money up front,
that I wouldn't be published because that was the way things were done in
the publication world. Breaking any dream I had, I stopped writing at all
for close to 3 years. Now I have new faith in myself, and I am currently
working on a novel. Not to be published, but to satisfy that part of me.
With hope and luck I will be on newsstands and bookshelves within the year.
I would just like to thank you and your website for its' insight into
companies that try to prey on peoples dreams. Human nature has caused far
too many hopes and dreams to shatter like so many panes of glass. To quote
someone I don't remember, we are the only animal that kills for pleasure,
and its' own kind, for no other reason than the fact that we can.
Robert A. Carlile II

You can read more complaints about these firms at:
http://www.writersweekly.com/whispers_and_warnings/helping.html
and
http://www.writersweekly.com/whispers_and_warnings/janetkay.html