: 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,

To answer your stated question, one can protect one's work by "registering" it with Writers Guild of America for online.

But there is a fundamental reason why agents won't steal your work: Because it's too much work and that's not what agents do.

Agents can earn a lot of money for doing relatively little work, if they find the right (sellable) pieces. Consider, an agent can earn 15% of your royalties for writing a few letters and signing a few papers if s/he "connects." It takes only seven such deals to earn as much as you do for one of your novels or whatever. For a lot less time and effort than it took for you to produce it. Of course, the potential downside for the agent is a lot of wasted effort for the works that don't sell, as well as effort for getting to know the market.

No agent (that qualifies as such) would be interested in killing the "goose that lays the golden egg." They want you to write 10 (or 100) works that they can sell. And the same from all the other writers in their stable. If an agent tried to steal one person's work, all the rest of it "goes away."

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: 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,

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