Ann recently did an interview with SciFi Wire on the Martha Ivery case and Writer Beware’s involvement in bringing Ivery to justice. The interview was very detailed and informative–unfortunately, SciFi Wire condensed it to a paragraph within a general article about the case. Maybe we can publish the interview here–I’m going to see about getting permission.
Victoria Strauss, co-founder of Writer Beware®, is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including her Way of Arata epic fantasy duology (The Burning Land and The Awakened City), and a pair of historical novels for teens, Passion Blue and Color Song. She has written hundreds of book reviews for publications such as SF Site, and her articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
She received the 2009 SFWA® Service Award for her work with Writer Beware®, and in 2012 was honored with an Independent Book Blogger Award for the Writer Beware® blog. She’s webmistress of the Writer Beware® website, which she also created, and maintains the Writer Beware® database, blog, and Facebook page.
Actually, Jim Fisher, a former FBI agent and former Professor of Criminology at Edinboro University in PA, has done a book on a scam very similar to Martha’s. Jim Fisher’s book is titled “Ten Percent of Nothing: The Literary Agent from Hell.”
You can find it on Amazon or order it off the publisher’s website, I think. It was done by an academic press whose name escapes me at the moment.
It’s a really good book, and anyone who wants to understand writing scams and scammers ought to give it a read.
-Ann C. Crispin
Have either of you considered writing a book about Martha?