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.
Many moons ago, a certain stealth vanity publisher–let’s call it PublishAmerica–decided to take a swipe at the various watchdog groups and anti-scam activists who were telling the truth about its deceptive business practices. So it slapped up a rebuttal website designed to provide misinformation about the real publishing industry and the watchdogs, under the guiseRead More
Okay, folks, here, at long last, is the first part of my report on iUniverse’s advertisement re: giving shelf space to books from their “Publisher’s Choice” program in Barnes & Noble bookstores. In this post, I’m going to answer, first of all, the basic question that was posed about iUniverse’s “Premier Plus/Publisher’s Choice” program. (There’sRead More
Since Ann and I published the Twenty Worst Agents List, people have been asking us why we don’t also publish a Twenty (or Thirty or Forty) Best Agents List. As helpful as it is to know whom to avoid, they tell us, it’d also be useful to know whom to approach. There are several reasonsRead More
If you have had a problem with any of the following literary agencies or related companies, all of which are owned and operated by Robert Fletcher, please send me an email. My address is: anncrispin@aol.com The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following: -Children’s Literary Agency -Christian Literary Agency -New York Literary Agency -Poets LiteraryRead More
Okay, my friends, here’s my promised second post for today. I’m presuming that you’ve read Post #54, and that you’re ready to report a scam literary agency (or publisher). For the purposes of this post, I’m going to use the term “agent” but what I’m saying applies to any type of writing scam. Here areRead More
Hi, Folks: Back in Post # 29, I wrote the following message, and it’s still relevant today, so I am reposting it. I will also be adding a Part 2 Today, entitled: “How to Write to the Authorities About Having Been Scammed. THEN in the next post today, I’ll be making a very important announcement,Read More
