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.
I first started getting questions about Illinois-based Green Ivy Publishing in 2015. From its website (here’s what it looked like then, courtesy of the Wayback Machine), it was clearly pay-to-play–not least in its use of the term “hybrid” to describe itself. Genuine hybrid publishers do exist, but far more often, “hybrid” is a marker forRead More
Last week, Bowker released its periodic report on ISBN output in the self-publishing field, updated with 2016 and 2017 figures. There are many interesting bits of information in the report–including CreateSpace’s hulking dominance of the field, with more than 10 times the output of its closest competitor, Smashwords (although it should be said that theRead More
Another contest! I seem to be writing about these a lot lately.
This contest is from Waldorf Publishing, which is "is always seeking new talent to add to our extensive roster." I'm going to count the red flags that are evident just from the contest and Waldorf's website--plus the secret one that you'd never know was there because Waldorf actively conceals it.
Red flag number one: the contest rules. These don't look so bad, until you get to this:
In March of 2014, a small press called Entranced Publishing closed its doors less than a year after issuing its first books, amid a haze of lies, unpaid authors and staff, and bizarre claims about a change in ownership. Only two months later, in May 2014, Fiery Seas Publishing (FSP) posted its first acquisitions on PublishersRead More
I was planning on writing about De Montfort Literature myself, but Alliance of Independent Authors watchdog John Doppler beat me to it, with this excellent warning post.
Started by hedge fund manager Jonathan de Montfort (I have some questions here; see the update below), DML promises to help writers kick-start their careers by paying them an annual salary of £24,000, plus royalties, to write novels that will be published under the DML brand. DML also promises to provide a pension and "all computer equipment and software necessary." As with Inkitt, there's an algorithm. It also looks like the company wants to create its own proprietary e-reader software (a risky move, unless you're Amazon).
What must writers agree to in return? Not much. Just surrender copyright (per its FAQ, DML claims copyright not just to novels, but to ideas--despite the fact that copyright does not cover ideas)*, write only for DML, accept net profit royalties (always a huge red flag), and give up their day jobs (yes, you read that right). Early versions of the DML FAQ described a punitive non-compete provision barring authors from writing for other publishers for two years after leaving DML; that appears to have been re-thought, and is no longer mentioned on the website.
This post has been updated. There’s another big-money writing competition in town: The Short Story Project’s My Best Story contest. The Short Story Project (TSSP) offers customized lists of curated short stories for download, in text and audio form. Right now, the stories on the site are a mix of in-copyright and public domain works; TSSPRead More
