Complaint Review: Martin Literary Management - Internet

Sharlene Martin, owner of Martin Literary management, a literary agency to which, until recently I was under contract, once again attempts to cover up her agency's negligence and dereliction of responsibilities with my manuscript. Ms Martin falsely asserts that three submissions were made to publishers, perhaps because the submissions were made on three different days. I have emails from Mr Wetzel, a literary agent in the employ of Martin Literary Management, who made these submissions, suggesting that each day of submission was a part of the first wave of submissions, made with the objective of finding a publisher for the manuscript.
This nonsense about my having published the contents of the manuscript on the internet in 2005 continues. Of course, the manuscript did not exist in 2005, but to expect the truth from Ms Martin seems to be a stretch. She now claims that I answered questions on avmaniacs.com, which is absolutely true - answers to questions asked before I ever began to write the story.
Ms Martin knows that litigation is on the horizon, and all the lies and misinformation she spreads does not for a moment cover up the simple fact of her agency's dereliction of responsibility in the handling of my manuscript.

This will be my last response to Mr. Costello.  I have no interest in debating this any further.  Mr. Costello's work was passed on by the following publishers (out of respect for privacy of the editors submitted so they too are not harrassed I am not listing their names but rather just the companies they work for).  A total of three rounds of submissions were done.

MARCH, 2012

William Morrow/Harper Collins

It Books/Harper Collins

Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's

Gotham /Penguin Putnam

Crown Archetype/Random House

Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster

Sourcebooks

Soft Skull

Weinstein Books

Kensington 

Grove Atlantic

DaCapo/Perseus

Bloomsbury



APRIL, 2012

Hyperion -

Touchstone/Simon and Schuster

MAY, 2012

Skyhorse 

WW Norton 

Overlook

 A total of submissions to 18 publishers--ALL PASSED. 

Most of the basis of the book and some of the most memorable anecodotes were first revealed when he came out of retirement to answer questions on a DVD forum in 2005 at  http://www.avmaniacs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9832&p=166297&viewfull=1#post166297 .

Mr. Costello's position in the porn film world clearly is not of interest to publishers despite Mr. Wetzel's willingness to work for over six months trying to effect a sale for him.

Solution:  self publish your book like thousands of other people do.  We did our best on his behalf.  End of discussion.

Sharlene Martin, the owner of Martin Literary Management, a literary agency to which I was until recently under contract, has responded to my grievances against her agency, with comtemptible misrepresentations and lies. Either she is attempting to put her finger in the d**e, in a futile effort to besmirch my position to adversely effect litigation that she surely knows is coming, or she is simply delusional.

 Her suggestion that parts of the manuscript, written by me, and until recently represented by her agency, were published on-line in 2005 is not only absolutely false, but ludicrous. The basis for the story, which has never been published on-line, was that in 2005 certain facts became known about my now-infamous connection to the adult film business, facts that would become the source for the story that was to evolve into the manuscript in question. In other words, until 2005, the connection of my name to the adult film industry was still a well kept secret. 

 Ms. Martin suggests that several rounds of submissions had been made by Andrew Wetzel, a literary agent in the employ of Martin Literary Management, who represented this book proposal, is also absolutely false. Mr Wetzel made one round of initial submissions to publishers in the Spring of 2012, to be followed if necessary, by the second round of submissions after Labor Day, when Publishing traditionally returns from Summer holiday. The second round of submissions never occured, due to Mr Wetzel's inexplicable absence, leaving my book project in limbo, where it remains, tragically unmaketable, due to the unprofessional behavior of Ms Martin and Mr Wetzel, and their dereliction of resposibilities in the marketing of this manuscript.

 Ms Martin further asserts that my behavior was erratic and confrontational toward Mr Wetzel. My answer to these preposterous and self-serving accusations is that, since Wr Wetzel, for some reason known only to himself, refused to speak over the telephone, that the entire communication between myself and Mr Wetzel, regarding Martin Literary Management's handling of this project was done by email. I have not erased a single email communication between myself and Mr Wetzel, and this body of communication, in its entirety, will be presented in arbitration between myself and Martin Literary Management, at the appropriate time. I would further suggest that Ms Martin's accusatory language in describing my honesty, integrity and behavior will not bode well for her position during legal proceedings.

As the President of Martin Literary Management, I am responding to this complaint from Mr. Shaun Costello.

Mr. Costello was offered literary representation by my agent, Andrew Wetzel, who has for personal reasons, taken a leave of absence from his agency work for an extended period of time.  Despite the fact that much of Mr. Costello's autobiographical vignettes were previously published online in 2005, Andrew offered representation thinking his "unmasking" would make a great memoir.  Shaun accepted despite the fact he had been represented by previous literary agents so he knew the risks and the odds of getting a publisher.

Andrew did several rounds of submissions of Mr. Costello's work and all were met with rejection despite revisions and editing of the work as a team.  Writing is highly subjective and although Andrew felt his time and effort was worth the gamble, publishers did not feel that way unfortunately.

The representation was terminated because of two reasons:  Mr. Costello's work was not being positively received in the mainstream publishing marketplace AND Andrew was taking an LOA from Martin Literary to deal with personal issues that would not allow him to continue representation of those clients he had signed.

Months of work had gone into helping Mr. Costello prepare his materials for submissions.  Andrew never received a penny for his time.  Mr.Costello's behavior was erratic and confrontational and although we would have loved to broker a book deal for him, it was not to be.  It is fair and reasonable for a literary agent to terminate an agreement when reasonable submissions have been made and unlilaterally passed on.

Mr. Costello's proposal had a fair shot in the marketplace but did not succeed. His contract states that either party may terminate the contract at any time. It does not allow for arbitration in this instance. He has not spent a single penny on our services, nor have we made a single penny from our agreement. 

His post on this website is just an attempt to stir up controversy and denigrate the name of an agency that championed his work in spite of his erratic behavior. I'm disappointed that it has resulted in this but I am not surprised.

For those of you who doubt the reputation of Martin Literary Management, I invite you to read the unsolicted testimonials from our clients over the past ten years at www.MartinLiteraryManagement.com