A Letter From Janette Anderson

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This letter, presented unedited and in its entirety, is from agent Janette Anderson, who is responding to comments I made in the post The Five Stars.

”’Ms. Anderson and Five Star also share the same logo and web-site. Any reasonable person would conclude there is an affiliation. But if I am mistaken, I will be glad to immediately correct any errors I have made. I will also be glad to post unedited any statement you or your client would like to make to clarify any errors or misinterpretations you believe I’ve made. I’ll post the statement as prominently as my original blog post.”’

Mr Goldberg:

As you are aware, as your own agent is WGA of good standing, its not just a  simple process of
signing a paper to become a WGA signatory. One has to be recommended and proposed by at least three reputable people in the business. Only after one year as a good agent and said proposal can one even think of becoming a signatory agent, and its an honor as far as I am concerned to be one and not to be dismissed with a mere flourish of the pen (or website in this case).

Firstly, my client never sent you an email. Secondly, before jumping to conclusions about ones
character and ones involvement with a publishing company, would it not be prudent to check it out first. I did indeed shop both Alex Cord’s book and Ben Costello’s book around to several companies before landing the deals with Five Star Publications. Of course a press release, as you point out, was released as
all were happy to be working together. That’s standard, as you should know. I have both contracts containing details of advances and the royalties sitting here on my desk.

I have never worked for Five Star Publications, maybe working along side them ( a very different
thing) helping to promote my clients work and get Mr. Costello several book signings, as a  good agent does..of which he now has many… and the logo that you point out happened to be on my headed notepaper in those colors, which I picked many years ago. I happen to have been a celebrity journalist for many many years before becoming an agent, and everything on my bio page is the
complete truth. Pictures don’t lie. I have at least five celebrity clients, maybe I should change it to Six or Seven Star………Five Star Publications did indeed do my fabulous looking website, which I paid mucho bucks for, as anyone getting a website up does.

I have no idea how you found out about the books…. Of course I am glad you did, because you will do
nothing but enjoy them.

The point to all this is:  simply never jump to any conclusions about anyone let alone put it in
print, so that next time no one’s attorney will contact you. An apology to me on your site would be the gentlemanly thing to do.

I hope indeed you will print this as you promised in it entirety.

Most Sincerely,

Janette Anderson

Janette Anderson
Talent Agency
9682 Via Torino
Burbank, Ca 91504
WGA signatory
818
768 3358
www.fivestarcelebrity.com
andersonagencyja@aol.com
emmadeetwo@aol.com
www.alexcord.net
www.50yearsofgunsmoke.com

"Dreams
have wings, dare to soar"

12 thoughts on “A Letter From Janette Anderson”

  1. That’s all fine and good, but perhaps one of you might want to change your logo, since they are EXACTLY the same, and considering, according to your website, Five Star Publications designed your website, you might wish to better distance yourself from any hint of impropriety. Perception is often truth, and since you have similar names and THE EXACT SAME LOGO AND THEY DESIGNED YOUR SITE, you might wish to alter that perception.

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  2. One other point: your website actually resolves to fivestarpublications.com/celebrity. So while you aren’t part of their company, your literary agency is hosted online by them, designed by them and has the same logo. And your clients publish with them.

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  3. Well, if she really were that closely associated with Five Star Publications, one would think that she might’ve made use of their editing and proofreading services, but she apparently didn’t.
    At least, I hope she didn’t, ’cause if she did, oy.

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  5. Busted. I don’t recall her on the WGA list so she must be recently annointed. Association with a vanity press won’t help shore up a reputation. Burbank agents tend to be not as successful as those on Wilshire. Mine went out of business and they were on the list.

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  6. I searched her name on Amazon, and came up with three books: “Once Upon an Angry Girl”, “Branson’s Country”, and “Drowning: Rhyme by Rhyme”. All appear to have been published by vanity presses. Since her bio only mentions that she is the published writer of two novels, there’s no way to know which two belong to her. I’m a little surprised that she takes time to mention that she is a published writer, but doesn’t bother to mention the titles of her work.

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  8. In my writing class we compared results of query letters to agents — The Janette Anderson Talent Agency sent the letters back in the SAE without even a note, nothing, nada, zilch — not even a formatted mere flourish of the pen.

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  9. Let’s see here…
    fivestarpublications.com is registered to:
    Radke, Linda info@fivestarsupport.com
    Five Star Publications, Inc.
    P.O. Box 6698
    Chandler, Arizona 85246-6698
    United States
    480-940-8182 Fax — 480-940-8787
    and fivestarcelebrity.com is, coincidentally, registered to:
    Radke, Linda info@fivestarpublications.com
    Five Star Publications, Inc.
    P.O. Box 6698
    Chandler, Arizona 85246-6698
    United States
    (480) 940-8182 Fax — (480) 940-8787
    Forgive me for thinking that there might be some relationship between the 2 parties… you know, other than the glaring similiarties between their names, websites, logos, etc.

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  11. I must admit, I cringe at the thought of Janette Anderson and her home talent agency. She is unprofessional and tactless. She has no talent as an agent, and is a “self-published” author. I warn anyone who has ever had a dream to beware of this dream-catcher.

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  12. Why on earth do you care? Has she burned you? What’s the point of all this? She’s not breaking the law.

    Reply

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