There's an interesting essay about the Scott Meredith Literary Agency in
the current (June) issue of FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION.
The essay, "Tripping with the Alchemist," was written by Barry Malzberg.
Malzberg supported himself and his family by working as a fee reader at
SMLA for several years before his writing career began to flourish, and the
essay gives an inside look at the functioning of this extraordinary agency,
and of Scott Meredith, himself. A "fee reader," by the way, as explained
by Malzberg, was a person who read the manuscripts that came in with checks
attached, and for a small percentage of the fees, prepared "exhaustive"
reports on their shortcomings, which were then all signed by Scott Meredith.
The astonishing thing is the number of SMLA fee readers who later became
very successful writers.
Rex Anderson
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