Writer Beware

Latest Posts

Beware: Wid Bastian a.k.a. Widtsoe T. Bastian / Genius Media Inc. / Kairos Phoenix Company

DEC 30, 2019October 8, 202220 COMMENTS

Early in 2019, seventeen writers were recruited to participate in a box set of medical thrillers, called (with unforeseen irony) Do No Harm.

The buy-in: $750, with net income from sales going to two designated charities, and participating writers receiving a pro-rated share of any net income above those contributions. The goal: through cooperative marketing efforts, to get the set on the USA Today bestseller list.

Here's how the opportunity was presented to potential participants (this is from an email that was shared with me):

CONTESTS AND AWARDS

Writing Contest Beware: Pressfuls

DEC 23, 2019April 28, 20225 COMMENTS

On Sunday morning, I woke up (late, I admit) to a flurry of emails about an website I’d never heard of before: Pressfuls. The writers who contacted me reported that they’d entered a free short story contest this past September. As you can see, pretty minimal information. At the end of October, they received aRead More

PUBLISHERS AND PUBLISHING

How Predatory Companies Are Trying to Hijack Your Publisher Search, Part 3

DEC 20, 2019April 28, 20225 COMMENTS

In my first post about the ways that predatory companies attempt to ensnare unwary writers who are searching for publishers, I discussed fake publisher-matching websites. In my second, I exposed the scammy Google ad tactics of vanity publisher Austin Macauley. In this third post, I’ll talk about an equally insidious practice: providing misinformation or evenRead More

PUBLISHER COMPLAINTS

Publisher Alerts: Complaints at Month9 Books, Nonstandard Business Practices at Black Rose Writing

NOV 25, 2019July 14, 202529 COMMENTS

In mid-2016, I wrote about YA publisher Month9 Books' abrupt decision to scale back its list, reverting rights to as many as 50 authors across all its imprints. Explaining the culling, Month9 founder and CEO Georgia McBride cited her own health problems, along with staffing issues and the company's "substantial growing pains" over the past six to nine months.

McBride's announcement triggered a surge of complaints from Month9 authors, who described a host of serious problems at the company, including late or missing payments (for staff as well as authors), problems with royalty accounting, delayed pub dates, broken marketing promises, overcrowded publication schedules, communications breakdowns, and harsh treatment and bullying by McBride.

According to authors and staff, these problems were not new or even recent, but had been ongoing for a long time. Why had authors kept silent? Almost every writer who contacted me mentioned their fear of retaliation--along with the draconian NDA included in Month9's contracts. I've rarely encountered a situation where authors seemed so fearful of their publisher.

SELF-PUBLISHING

Issues at Audible’s ACX: Attempted Rights Fraud, Withdrawn Promotional Codes

NOV 22, 2019January 1, 20236 COMMENTS

Two issues involving Audible’s ACX have come across my desk recently. Rights Fraud I’ve heard from several self- and small press-pubbed authors who report that they’ve found their books listed on ACX as open to narrator auditions…except that they, or their publishers, didn’t put them there. This appears to be an attempt to steal authors’Read More

PUBLISHER COMPLAINTS

Scandal Engulfs Independent Publisher ChiZine Publications

NOV 15, 2019March 24, 20225 COMMENTS

If you’re not part of the horror or speculative fiction community, you may not be aware of the scandal that over the past two weeks has engulfed ChiZine Publications, a (previously) highly-regarded Canadian independent publisher. In September of last year, several authors, including Ed Kurtz, made a complaint to the Horror Writers Association about long-overdueRead More