Let’s say you are an aspiring writer. Established publishers accept new books only if they are submitted by an agent. Meanwhile, agents don’t take any new writers under their wings unless they have a publishing record.

When you approach them with a book, because you are new, most agents might tell you that your book needs a lot of “polishing” and it just happens that they have the right editor to do that for you. Most likely, you will accept the suggestion and just go to the editor, because he was referred.

What you don’t know is that the editor is charging above the normal price, as he will have to pay the “finder’s fee” back to the agent. The same things happen in many other industries, not only the publishing one.

How to avoid: join forums or writer groups where you meet periodically and get to read each other’s work. Not only the readers are writers as well but you could also share and find out almost everything about the publishing business.