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I would like to think this was true, and I am sure that reputable agents do not charge money, but I imagine there are a lot of disreputable agents out there.
In a similar vein, never give equity (or god forbid, cash) to someone who claims they will help you fundraise.
They exist, but it's very well known in the publishing business that money flows to the author, not from the author. Any but the most naive or desperate of authors knows this, and an agent charging money is quickly known in the industry. It's true that with the advent of self-publishing and Kindle Direct there are a lot of new business models, most of which range from predatory to outright fraudulent, so you will find, for example, "hybrid" publishers that claim to be selective but act a sort of half-vanity press, half publicity agency.
But the established industry practice is that agents get a cut when they sell your book, and nothing before then. Any agent deviating from this is pretty much by definition not a reputable agent.
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Not really, no. Unless, again, you're talking about scammers. Anyone looking to publish is warned about agents asking for money to represent you, and publishers would be unlikely to work with such people. If by "disreputable agent", you're talking about someone who takes your money with zero chance of it leading to actual publication, then we're just splitting hairs over our definitions of scammer.
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