The official blog of Writer Beware® shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. Writer Beware® is sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
This is getting tiresome, but…the Twenty Worst Agencies List has been updated again. We’ve just discovered that Mark Sullivan Associates, also d/b/a New York Editors, has added another d/b/a: Manhattan Literary–apparently an editing/ghostwriting service, but which also claims to prospective clients that it matches writers up with agents. How do we know? The URL forRead More
Some of you may have seen this recent article in the Times online, in which journalist Danuta Kean discusses a couple of fee-charging agents in the UK. The first, Darin Jewell of the Inspira Group, charges £350 upfront for photocopying and postage. He has been around for a while; Writer Beware first began receiving advisoriesRead More
I’m back from vacation and embarking on the Herculean task of catching up with Writer Beware business, including this blog. Ann has also returned, but family matters will be keeping her busy for a little while, so I’ll be holding the fort here. My husband, Rob, and I spent our vacation with my brother KonradRead More
Hi, folks. I wanted to make another “writing tips” post, because we’ve been doing a whole string of scam posts. Victoria has been great, keeping up with the blog. I’ve been so busy lately, writing, working on two book projects (one is a proposal with a collaborator, that I’ll be finishing up today) and ofRead More
Writer Beware has added an Alert on Quiet Storm Publishing to its Alerts for Writers page. Quiet Storm and its owner, Clint Gaige, are the focus of complaints of publication delays, nonpayment of royalties, poor quality product, and nonresponsiveness to authors’ questions and concerns. Members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime are seekingRead More
An alert on The Robins Agency (Cris Robins) has been added to the Alerts for Writers page of Writer Beware. On May 15, 2006, a default judgment against Cris Robins of The Robins Agency was entered in Washington Superior Court for King County (case no. 06-2-16530-6SEA) for breach of contract, fraudulent business practice, and consumerRead More
