DARIN JEWELL IS NOT happy. In fact the proprietor of the Inspira Literary Agency is angry. “I’m not able to help. I am too busy,” he barks down the phone. “I don’t even believe you are from The Times.”

I point out that in the time he has been arguing with me he could have answered my question and he puts down the phone. The question that created such irritation — what do his clients get for a £350 upfront fee when he agrees to represent them? Literary agents traditionally take on clients free, earning their fees from a cut of the advance and royalties earned from publishers.

In the time it takes to google my name, Jewell calls back, oozing charm and eager to explain his fees. The fee covers photocopying manuscripts and posting them to up to 15 publishers. At £23.30 a shot, that sounds steep.

Jewell is not to be provoked. Many happy clients are listed on his website (www.theinspiragroup.com), he says. “If clients are dissatisfied, I will gladly reimburse them,” he adds. “I know I’m swimming upstream asking authors to pay anything.”

But no explanation was forthcoming from John Hancock for the £97 “reading fee” that he charges would-be clients. Hancock has been writing to unpublished authors, saying that he is seeking “27 new authors in search of a publisher”. The letter claims that the recipient has been “personally recommended . . . as someone seeking a publisher”.

His offer sounds reasonable, especially when he spells out the situation for most unknowns. “Unless you are a household name, have appeared on a reality TV show or — and this is the important one — have an agent — then you have virtually no chance of attracting a publisher,” he writes. “Please also include a cheque for £97,” he asks. Two reasons are given: “Firstly, because I intend reading all manuscripts personally and I value my time enormously;” and “I only want to deal with authors who are truly serious about publication and this is a way of weeding out those who are not wholly committed. Frankly, if you are not prepared to invest £97 in your work then we have no prospect of a long term relationship.”

If an e-mail to Geoff Nelder, an unpublished author is anything to go by, Hancock is cagey about the sources of his tip-offs. “I responded to John Hancock by e-mail declining his offer because my work is already represented by a literary agency,” Nelder says. “But I was concerned how his agency knew my details including my home address, which is not in the public domain even though my e-mail is.” He was not enlightened. An e-mailed reply read: “Dear Ms (sic) Nelder, thank you for your e-mail. You were recommended to Mr Hancock as someone who was seeking a publisher for their work and who had a viable manuscript by a publishing house whom you approached. We dealt (sic) with a number of publishers in this way and did not keep a record of the publishing house. Yours sincerely Henry.”

No publisher I spoke to had heard of Hancock and, when I called, his London office said that he was travelling. “Henry” was also unavailable.

According to Clare Alexander, president of the Association of Authors’ Agents, there is an increasing number of complaints about agents demanding upfront fees.

“Traditionally agents earn their money by taking a percentage of authors’ earnings,” she says. Where is the incentive to push a manuscript to editors when nine out of 10 are rejected? “It means you take on a manuscript because you believe in it and think it will sell, not because you have been paid to read it,” she adds. “No member of the association would charge a reading fee.”

One reason for the rise in complaints is that demand for agents vastly outstrips supply. “Too many people want to be published,” Alexander says. This leaves would-be authors open to exploitation. “It is very easy for people to set themselves up as an agent and charge a fee without doing much in return. Authors should check an agents name on our website before signing up.”

The Society of Authors said that it had also seen a sharp rise in complaints. “Our advice is always that mainstream agents do not charge upfront fees,” Kate Pool, its deputy general secretary, says.

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