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.
Just a short blog post today to let you know a bit about how things have been going since I posted posts 54, 55 and 56, regarding getting scammed and asking people who have had problems with Robert Fletcher or any of his agencies to get in touch with me. I’ve gotten some very promisingRead More
For a number of years I’ve been getting questions about freelance editor Carol Givner. (If you open that link, be warned: Ms. Givner’s website is full of flashy, popup-y stuff.) Ms. Givner is a successful ebook author, though she doesn’t appear to have had much, if any, commercial publishing experience. Nevertheless, she charges professional ratesRead More
Because we can’t be serious all the time. 10. Your offer of representation comes via form letter (somehow, you never do get his phone number). 9. Whoever typed his contract didn’t use spel chek and can’t rite real gud neither. 8. You first heard of him when [pick one: you found his ad in theRead More
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
