How Can I Tell If My Literary Agent Is Legitimate Or Not?

The best thing to do is to make sure that your agent is listed in the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.

A few things to look out for are:

Upfront fees - no author should have to pay a literary agent for representation. Literary agents take their percentage only when you are published - not before.

Fixed contracts (a time limit to your representation) - agents do not give fixed contracts, so if your agent has done this, then beware.

Grammatical errors in correspondance - if your letters or emails are littered with spelling mistakes then your agent isn't likely to be legitimate. A literary agent should be able to spell correctly, and their website should be free of typing errors.

Sales - make sure that your agent's existing clients actually exist! Look them up on the internet and check sales of their books. If you can't find any record of sales, then your agent is unlikely to be legitimate.

New writers - if your agent actively seeks new writers then beware - agents that aren't legitimate often seek inexperienced writers so they can take advantage of them.

Association of Authors Agents - if you agent is not a member of the Association of Authors' Agents then beware.