I received a message from an Agency I recently queried. They were asking for a $50 processing fee to read my book. Let me just get this out of the way: As a writer the goal is to get people to PAY YOU to READ YOUR BOOK. Never EVER pay an agent to read your book. Yes, agencies will charge a processing fee, but that is after they have accepted you as a client. This free is to reimburse them for printing costs, etc incurred by attempting to sell your work. 

Big Score Productions (I will not link them) has been listed as a trustworthy agency. I did a quick Google search on them since receiving this e-mail and found that these lists are retracting them. However, these additions are not out yet so STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THEM. 

Below is a completely transcript of their e-mail. 

Dear Writer

Thank you for your email submission to BigScore Productions.

Due to the thousands of submissions we receive each year, your submission (a complete proposal) will now only be reviewed if you pay a small $50 Processing Fee. This fee covers a reviewer’s time, credit card and handling fees. It is not a reading or editing fee, and does not guarantee representation. We are not doing this to make money. If we do not hear from you, your email will be unread and deleted.

Just as with almost all editors and agents today, BigScore does not have time to give careful consideration to unsolicited manuscripts. These have increased dramatically with the advent of the internet, the tightening of publishers’ lists, and the necessity of having to have an agent. Even many published writers are now faced with having to find representation to get their work seen.

It used to be that writers would have to spend some money to print, bind, and mail their proposals out. Now with the internet it costs nothing to send tens, if not hundreds, out at a time. Agents and publishers are swamped. I’ve heard it said that at any one time there are as many as two million book proposals floating around. The key, like in most things in life, is to get someone’s attention. 

We actively consider manuscripts that are referred to us by our own authors and the editors we work with. This always leaves us wondering what potential bestsellers we may be missing in the many unsolicited manuscripts we receive. So we decided the best option would be to give you the writer the chance to “know” your work is being looked at.

The BigScore submission review “will not” be a full manuscript critique. We will only respond with a short personal paragraph on why we want to further consider your work, at no additional cost to you, or why we are passing on your work. Please go to (link removed) and learn about our successes if you have not done so already.

BigScore is not interested in looking at poetry.

Here are a few of the many positive responses we have received from those who paid the BigScore Processing Fee:

Thank you for your $10,000 review of my work. Looks like I owe you $9,950. May the Good Lord bless and keep you. Tom

Thank you for your response; I appreciate any and all critiques, yours were quite incisive and to the point. Rachel

My point is that you took the time to read my sample chapters and then went beyond the call of duty to write me the greatest feedback I’ve yet to receive. You actually taught me some very important lessons that will help make my book a better product. Robert

To continue on with the $50 Processing Fee:

• Click the Pay Now button below.
• Sign in to your PayPal account or establish an account.
• Send payment.
• Once payment is received we will ask you to resend your work (your complete proposal, not just an email query).

 ***If for some reason the Pay Now button does not work correctly . . .

• Put “$50 Processing Fee” in the in the subject line of a new email, your “email address” and “name of your work” in the body of the email, and send to (email removed).
• You will then receive an invoice from PayPal requesting payment with a major credit card.
• Once payment is received we will ask you to resend your work (your complete proposal, not just an email query).

 David A. Robie, Agent

BigScore Productions