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 back from a few days in New York City, staying with my mom. We had a great time–did some shopping (is anyone else out there addicted to Peter Fox shoes? Just call me Imelda), saw a movie (Brokeback Mountain–very subtle and artful, beautifully acted, heartbreaking at the end, but overall rather slow), saw anRead More
Okay, folks, time for the last post in my “What REAL Agents Do” series. Today’s topic will be a brief overview of the subsidiary rights agents handle. A caveat: I am not an agent. I am not a literary or IP attorney. I’m basing these posts on what I’ve observed and experienced during the pastRead More
Manuscript display websites promise to showcase your writing to agents and editors in electronic form. Instead of printing out and snail mailing your cover letter, synopsis, and first three chapters, you can display them online in a venue that agents and editors can easily visit. Some display sites are free, but many charge membership fees,Read More
Here’s post number three in my series on “What do REAL agents do?” In this post I’ll answer the question posed in the comment section, plus cover some miscellaneous tasks most agents do: First of all, the question: What happens to a writer’s book(s) if his/her agent dies or retires? First, we have to makeRead More
The recent flurry of news about supposed teen novelist J.T. LeRoy and the probable hoax of his/her identity has got me thinking. No, not about the long and fascinating history of literary hoaxes. Not about the rather annoying cleverness of the people who sat down and cooked up the perfect literary persona, with a sensationalRead More
Writers’ services are proliferating across the Internet, targeted to both aspiring writers and writers who are self/vanity/POD-published. There are submission services and manuscript display sites; there are book marketing services and electronic press release websites and book review services. Some are free. Some are modestly priced. Some are eye-poppingly expensive. Are they worth it? Well…Read More
