Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2019: Week 45
Agent With Style was one of the biggest print zine publishers and zine agents in fandom. It was run by Mysti Frank, and was in business from 1986 to roughly 2015.
During the pre-internet era, Agent With Style was one of the biggest suppliers of fan fiction. Frank published her own zines, but as time went on, also became a large distributor and agent for others' zines, sometimes with their publisher's explicit permission, and sometimes without. Frank was voracious in her hunt for new material, as well as old material to reissue, and fans counted on her huge empire for their fic fix.
Frank sold zines through the website via the postal service and in person at conventions.
While many fans were happy with, and in some cases desperate, for what Agent With Style supplied, other fans were upset by many of Frank's practices of poor editing, shoddy business practices, and what many fans felt to be greed and dishonesty. Frank's business put media fans in a challenging spot; they wanted what she was selling but did not want to rock the boat that supplied the goods they craved.