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.
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
Like many bloggers, Ann and I have a site tracking tool that tells us where the people reading our blog are coming from. The other day, checking out links, I came across the blog of a writer who’d just visited us and was feeling very discouraged by our gleeful scam stories. “It seems,” this authorRead More
When Ann and I put the 20 Worst Agencies list online at Writer Beware, we didn’t think we’d have to be tinkering with it very much. Most of the agencies on the list have been around at least since 1998, when Writer Beware was founded. But in the world of questionable agents, a leopard canRead More
Once upon a time, when reading and evaluation fees were the commonest form of upfront fee, the amateur and disreputable agents who charged them justified them by claiming that it takes time to read a manuscript, and an agent shouldn’t be expected to do that for free. Where this argument falls apart: if a manuscriptRead More
