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.
A couple of weeks ago I got a question about the reputation of a publisher I’d never heard of before. I checked out its website, which was pretty amateurish-looking, and provided no information at all about who was running the company and where the company was located. This is information you always want to seeRead More
Hope everyone had a good holiday! Ours was fine, just quiet with family, which was nice. Sometimes we have a lot of visitors with us, but not this year. And what was REALLY nice was that the MEN pitched in and helped my sis and me clean up. Now you know who still did theRead More
More thoughts on the subject of being pursued by angry agents and publishers… One of the things that the people who’ve been the focus of writer complaints sometimes get worked up about is that Writer Beware doesn’t usually contact them to get their side of the story. As far as they’re concerned, this invalidates anythingRead More
Well, Agent “B” hit me with a Cease and Desist too. Life with Writer Beware wouldn’t seem normal without a few “we’re going to sue you!” threats floating around. These scammers never do go beyond threats, however. They can’t afford to, literally. If they were to go beyond threats to an actual court case, there’sRead More
Attagirl, Victoria! She’s accurate, she’s thorough, and she’s fearless! She wields the world’s most complete database of scuzzy agents, publishers, book doctors, etc., in the world with the judgment of Solomon and the precision of a surgeon. Writer Beware could not function without her. Well, I don’t have time to make a lengthy post tonight,Read More
I was out most of yesterday, driving my husband to get tests and assessments for surgery he’s having this coming Monday (nothing serious, just mechanical problems with a knee injury). When I got home, an e-mail from SFWA’s legal counsel was waiting for me. A literary agent–let’s call her Agent B–had contacted him with aRead More
