: Re: How does a new writer keep from getting scooped? I'm looking for a literary agent. I've never published before. 1) What's to keep an agent from taking my manuscript and publishing it themselves,

@Connie138

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Answer: Because unscrupulous agents / publishers have better ways to make money from you.

Agents and publishers often overlap, the only difference really comes down to the printing of the manuscripts. Writing this relating to publishers rather than agents (as agents like this don't want to spend extra money for printing):

Because the unscrupulous publishers will instead charge you money in order to print the book, then write the contract in such a way that you might be waiting up to two years for your first income from any sales (which are likely to be in the first couple of weeks/months anyway).

Stealing can get them in court. You not realising how unfair a contract you sign is, is just a way for them to get more income.

There are thousands of people wanting their first book published, and they can make a steady income by publishing barely-edited manuscripts for money.

TL/DR: My brother fell for this relatively recently. With dyslexia his spelling can be bad, and the "editing" promised was literally just correcting red underlines in Word, no income for 18 months, and he had to pay several thousand pounds for them doing several hundred pounds worth of work and printing.

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