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.
“Everyone has to start somewhere.” This is the justification used by countless aspiring writers for signing with an agent who a) has no relevant professional credentials, b) has no track record of sales (sometimes after many years in business), c) has a website/contract/correspondence laced with mis-spellings and grammatical errors, or d) all of the above.Read More
Sometimes, I can’t think of anything to post about in this blog. It’s a distinctly anxious feeling, rather like the experience of the newspaper editor protagonist of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel, TRUTH, when he looks at the giant printing press, just squatting there waiting, waiting for content. “I must feed it,” he thinks, half inRead More
Like many authors, I sell some of my out-of-print books on Amazon through the Advantage program. Amazon takes a hefty percentage of each sale, but it lets me keep the books available. The other day I got an email from the Advantage folks, with the following subject line: “Join Amazon’s Talent Acquisition Program and getRead More
Okay, folks, here’s my next “Exploding Myth” post. Today the myth I’m torpedoing is probably the one most commonly passed around among aspiring authors. It basically goes something like this: “There’s no point submitting your book to a big publishing house, unless you are a celebrity, or your have an “in.” To get published byRead More
Today I saw yet another comment on a writers’ message board comparing the process of finding publication to a crapshoot. The odds are stacked against new writers. There are so many people trying to sell a book, and so few publishing slots, that you’ve got a better chance of getting struck by lightning than youRead More
A quick addendum to my previous post about “Why I Can’t Sell Your Book…” The first and foremost line of excuse for any scammer is usually the poor, oft-blamed, and benighted US Postal Service. My husband, a retired postal worker, and s.f. writer, reminded me that I left this one out. I’ve seen emails fromRead More
