Writers Beware – Scams abound

Hey writers, have you ever played whack-a-mole?

Well, that’s a little sample of what the writing life can be like when dealing with scammers, con artists and all sorts of other low-life characters who have no respect for your abilities or dreams and only want to turn that to their own monetary benefit.

If you aren’t very careful you can spend thousands of dollars being lured on by empty promises, false representations and their fabulous expert (I use the term sarcastically) recommendations for which they in fact have no expertise at all. 

So at this writing I’m going to give you a few tips to protect yourself from the ‘evil meanies’ out there who aren’t for real, will gain you nothing, and plan to walk away with your hard-earned, scrimped dollars in their pockets.

First of all many of those who tread the dark side of publishing don’t simply go away once they’re unearthed and exposed to the light. No, not that easy or straight-forward. Hence the reference above to whack-a-mole. Many times they just circle back and open up shop under a new name with a fancy new website.

So keep your eyes open, I’ll tell you some of the things to look for and give you a couple of sites that can be of great help.

First of all beware any solicitation. Publishers and editors (with real publishing houses) aren’t into taking risks. They never approach unproven talent as they’re out to make money (yes, publishing is a BUSINESS). They aren’t evil, just practical. So, if you’re approached, send up the red flag and be super cautious. Only ones I know of who’ve been ‘approached’ are a handful of indie authors who’ve published, found success and then found themselves the center of attention of a publisher (or more than one). And that is VERY rare.

Vanity presses have been around forever. They’ll print as many books as you care to pay for (key words here are ‘you pay for’).  They kind of run in tandem with the newly termed ‘hybrid publisher’ (guess they don’t want to be called ‘vanity’ any more).

Now, they aren’t all ‘evil’. They serve a purpose, but that purpose isn’t to do much more than print a book, charge you for it and make their money. They offer many services to the author and they charge big time for them. In my book you’d be much better off to go the self-publishing route via Kindle or Smashwords or one of the other online publishers where you can have your book up and running in Ebook edition or in paperback via Create Space   through Amazon. There it costs you nothing to put the book up and available as a Print On Demand book once you’ve written, edited and come up with a killer cover. That leaves it with you, the writer, to find the initial resources (i.e. the writing, editing, artwork and promoting), but better than the killer prices the ‘vanity’ people charge.

Agents aren’t all ‘goodie twoshoes’ either. The legitimate ones make money by charging their clients a percentage of the sale to a publisher. But there are others out there who charge the writer for everything under the sun such as copies, marking, submitting your writing to publishers (hey that’s supposed to be why they get that percentage!), just reading the manuscript or a host of other ‘nickel and dime’ charges that can really run up.  Do your homework. Know who you’re submitting to and when you find one you can work with make sure you understand what they’re going to charge for and that you’re comfortable with it.

Finally I can give you a couple of good sites that have been around a while and keep an eye out for scams aimed at writers and help keep you abreast of some of the dark corners of the publishing world. They don’t pull any punches and are great resources when checking out an agent or publisher as well. Go visit and bookmark Writer Beware and Preditors And Editors. You’ll be glad you did.

Writers And Readers Websites Wednesday - Writing And Publishing

 

Writer? Then this site's for you. Publishing And Other Forms Of Insanity - aka, Published To Death. A blog run by Erica Varillo, it offers lots of resources and tips - and lets you know what she did wrong along the line. 

Articles, Links, resources you'll find it here. 

Reader? If you want a glimpse into the writers world and the world of publishing - come on in, you'll find it eye-opening and interesting.

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity

Publishing ... and Other Forms of Insanity

Writers Websites Wednesday - Adventures in Agentland

Photo by Chance Agrella

This is admittedly aimed much more at writers than readers, but I know it would have interest in readers who are thinking of pursuing the writing dream. 

It's Adventures In Agentland. It's run by Natalie Lokosil of the Bradford Literary Agency. A blog that answers a lot of practical questions about queries and submissions.

Self publishing, traditional publishing - it's all out there and if you're thinking of agents and publishing houses you'll find some helpful and interesting posts at Adventures in Agentland.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Writers Cafe

Yes, yes, I know, it's actually Thursday an I missed a post last week, but well, I was on vacation - away from computers and electronics.  A very good break to take now and again. 

So, for the  one day belated post this week I offer Writer's Cafe. It offers publisher information for submissions, free writing classes, agent info, writing contests, and more.  Wander around, check it out, see what you think. I believe you'll find some good stuff here.

Adventures in Writers Rejections

Adventure?! You say, almost shriek at me.  Where's the adventure?  It's frustrating, depressing, demoralizing.  

Rejection isn't anything but bad, bad, bad.

Well hold on there a minute, partner, I respond.  I disagree and I've been published and rejected many times so I do have a platform from which to spout forth my opinions.

You just have to look at it the right way. It's hard to swallow at times, the feedback you might get from a publisher, editor, agent...and remember, Editors are busy people and most of the time don't send any real response so if one of them did it could be because they see potential in your work, or because you're so out in left field they're trying to help you fix your mistakes. Either way, they're trying to be helpful. Stop a moment and appreciate that. Learn from it.

For example, if you do your homework before submitting you'll avoid such form letters  as, "too short", "too long", "we don't accept unagented material", "we don't accept simultaneous submissions", "this is outside our genre". I mean why waste your time and theirs by not following the instructions they provide for authors?

You can prevent a response such as "numerous grammatical errors" by proofing your work thoroughly or hiring someone to do it for you. If you're going to do it yourself you better find some online grammar help or take a few courses to polish up your skills. This isn't like the 'old days' when some famous author or another tossed a haphazard heap of paper on an editors desk and strolled off leaving them to fix all spelling, grammatical, etc. errors (if that ever even really happened at all). That's your job.  Do it and do it well.

If you get a response from an agent such as "we aren't accepting new clients at this time," it could mean a lot of things.  The agency could be overwhelmed with clients.  It might be restructuring, deciding anew on what genres to represent or even about to go bankrupt and fold (I was repped by an agency that went belly-up many years ago and it wasn't fun).  This kind of response doesn't mean much, especially about the quality of your work, just move on and try another agency.

A response such as "This type of story has been done to death," doesn't mean that particular publisher has done it to death, but rather they perceive the market to be saturated. Not much you can do about this but go back in and rewrite; find a new angle to your story; make it fresh.  Yes, you can do another vampire book, but find a whole new way to do it. Get away from the 'same 'ol, same 'ol'.

If you're a blogger or you tweet about your writing or anything else that gets you out there and builds you a following you'll impress a publisher or agent, especially if you're doing it well.  There are lots of small publishers out there who can't afford to promote new authors, so if you do the promotion, let them know in your query letter that you're set up and ready to move should they chose to publish your book. If your writing is good to begin with, this could be the nudge that moves your book to 'sold.'

Remember these days too, self publishing is an option.  It's still frowned on by traditional publishers, but little by little it's expanding, especially on the Ebook front. It may not be for you at all, but it's worth giving some thought to. But remember, should you chose this route, it doesn't excuse you from good grammar, good spelling and good writing. If you don't put out a good book people aren't going to come back. And a truly bad (in the sense of loaded with typos, misspellings, punctuation and grammar errors) will make your name stick in people's minds for all the wrong reasons. 

Whether submitting to publisher or agent or considering self publishing, a well-written, well edited piece of work is a must. No short-cuts. 

Now get out there and remember to enjoy the adventure.

The Hunt For Writers' Guidelines

You’re busy writing your heart out, but you know deep down that sooner or later you’re going to have to actually find a place to which you'll submit your writing. You may have bounced into a website or two, looked for guidelines and found nothing. Well I'm going to give you a few tips to help you find that information and do a professional submission that might actually get your work sold.  With my writing time so tight I sure do hate to waste it - bet you do to.

Fist of all here are some things you're going to need on your quest to find those guidelines:
    time
    determination
    logic
    possibly a few bucks
    research abilities

Yep, all of that, and did I mention patience?  Um, yeah, that kicks in when you realize how much time you're wasting (well not wasting, but certainly how much of it is flying by) when you undertake this project.

For starters yes, visit the website of a publisher you're interested in. Poke around a bit. They call their guidelines a variety of things. Sometimes they’re located under “Write for Us” or “Submissions”, or “Submit a Story”. These are the easy ones. If you don’t see an out and out link to guidelines, visit the ‘about us’ section and see what you can dig up there. That’s where I’ve frequently found the submission information link. There are times when you swear they want to make it like a treasure hunt. 

The digital age - one person's logic is another's "huh?". 

Beyond that basic first step it’s amazing the kind of wild goose hunt publishers seem intent on sending you upon just to locate their contact information. Now, some writers claim they’re testing us, trying to see if we’re lazy or not and if we actually locate their information then, wow!, we’re not lazy after all. Or, some say, the publishers are testing us, trying to find out if we’re persistent enough to uncover the guidelines and if we are then we can research assignments. I’m not sure I buy either one, but the fact remains, it can be a real headache to locate them.

Then there are those, I swear, that you’ll never find on your own. I’ve spend amazing amounts of time pouring over sites only to be defeated. Either they don't want to put their contact information and guidelines out there on the web or they have a very inept web designer.  Whichever..

So here’s another approach. You can subscribe to writer's market online It’s about $5.99/mo. last time I looked and it’s very handy, online, at-your-fingertips information. If you prefer the actual book you can peruse that at your library or purchase a copy. Amazon usually has it at a good discount. And if you get the Deluxe edition for 2012 you receive a year's free subscription to the online edition which would be worth $72 on it's own.  I'm not pushing it, but it would probably worth your while to plunk down that money and get your own copy.   But, if you're stone broke, the library certainly will have a copy.

Amazon also has the “American Directory of Writer’s Guidelines: More than 1600 Magainze Editors and Book Publishers Explain What they are Looking for From Freelancers” by Stephen Blake Mettee, etc. - I've used it but unfortunately the latest edition is 2006.  You might have to search for a newer edition, if there is one. Or you can check it out at your local library.  A lot of the info would still apply.

Those are the basics. Get out there and start tracking them down. But, as you poise ready to do this, remember:
 

Do this when you have time to spare, not when trying to beat a deadline. Pressure makes it all the more frustrating.

Bookmark your sources once you find them.

Read the guidelines carefully once you get them and follow them to the letter.

Happy hunting!

Writer Beware - Agent Scams

We writers are generally a trusting lot.  We want to believe the 'agents' out there are going to represent us, get a sale and we'll both profit. 

And, most of the time there's validity to that hope/belief.  Most agents are legit, trying to make a living, and get downright excited on  many levels when their clients succeed.

But, there are the bad apples in the lot, as there are in any industry, and it's a good idea to know what red flags to watch for. 

Here are a few I've experienced or known about:

A.. Think about it carefully if an agent solicits you.  I got stung by this once earlier in my career after a couple of books had been published.  I loved the fact he approached me to represent me, but didn't do my research thoroughly enough and got stung.  That guy turned out to be a jerk of monumental proportions.  There are times an agent may approach you and it could be a very good thing, but don't just jump.  Check out the situation thoroughly first. Then decide.

B  If the agent you've contacted tells you your work is wonderful, fabulous, you're going to get rich - right after he/she does the needed editing - at a price, run, don't walk, in the other direction.

C. The agent charges a fee to read your manuscript.  Nope, no way.  Don't do it.

D. If an agent offers a contract the day after you sent your manuscript for his/her consideration, back off.  Be realistic.  Anyone needs some time to read your work.  If the offer is too quick you can be sure it hasn't been read.  So why, then, would he/she want to represent you?  Think about it.

E. Now here's one that should give every writer pause.  If the agent you've contacted replies with a letter that's written poorly and has many spelling errors think again.  And if his/her favorite manner of communication is through a form letter and he/she can't be bothered to pick up the phone or jot you a quick Email in response to a question or an opportunity, then this probably isn't the agent for you.

F. If an agent comes up with excuses as to why he/she can't/won't tell you who else they represent, consider it a warning.

G.  If you have an agent who 'represents' you, but dodges phone calls, never talks to you and doesn't want to discuss your work and where it's being sent, this is a very bad sign.  Run.

With all these warnings you might be thinking, gads, who wants an agent?  But as I said above, there are many reputable and great agents.  Just do your homework. Check out the red flags. If you see any whether from your own checking or hearing from other writers, keep looking. A reputable agent will recognize you are his/her client and your success is their success.  Don't let an agent intimidate you because he/she knows the business and you don't.  If the relationship doesn't feel comfortable from the start - then don't start it.

Keep looking.

Here are a few references that might be of help to you:

Poets & Writerson Literary Agents  

Agent Query   

Association ofAuthors Representatives 

Use your twitter account - search #agents #agencies #LiteraryAgents and be creative and thik of more and see what you come up with.

Writers Websites Wednesday - Agent Query

They're right, Agent Query is a great place to find an agent, free database, great resource. But don't stop there.  Explore the site.  They offer resources, info about EPublishing, and more.  Take time to explore this highly recommended resource.