Writer Beware

Latest Posts

The Literary Reporter: A New Book Promo Site That’s Rather Less Than It Appears

AUG 2, 2024December 30, 202430 COMMENTS

Just last week, I began getting questions about email solicitations from a website I wasn't familiar with called The Literary Reporter (TLR).

The (extremely verbose--more on that below) emails offer authors placement for their books on the TLR website, plus promotion to "supported book groups" (none named) and a listing in the TLR newsletter, which claims a subscribership of 25,000. For this "unmatched exposure", writers only have to pay a one-time fee of $75.

Worth it? the authors who'd been solicited wanted to know. So I did some research.

CONTRACTS

Evaluating Publishing Contracts: Six Ways You May Be Sabotaging Yourself

Header image: word cloud featuring the word Contract (credit: www.epictop10.com / Flickr.com)

JUL 26, 2024July 26, 202418 COMMENTS

(If you're a regular reader and are feeling some deja vu at the title of this post, it's because I've published it before, in a slightly different form. I'm updating and re-running it because I've gotten so many questions about these issues over the past few months.)

Several years ago, a now-defunct literary magazine called The Toast gained notoriety by demanding that its writers surrender copyright. In the widespread discussion that followed exposure of this author-unfriendly policy, I was struck by the number of comments from writers who seemed to think that a bad contract clause was not so very awful if (pick one) the publication was great; the people who run it were great; the bad contract clause was not always enforced.

That's all very well. But this kind of thinking is exactly how writers get screwed: by making assumptions about a publisher's intentions, by letting their emotions overrule their business sense, and by forgetting that, in the author-publisher relationship, the publishing contract is the bottom line.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

The Curious Case of Fullers Library and Its Deceptive Link Requests

JUL 5, 2024March 10, 202624 COMMENTS

This isn't strictly writing-related, but it is the kind of weird rabbit hole I enjoy going down, and it's a writer (and artist) who drew my attention to it.

The writer got in touch to share an email with me.

A local library, a young writer, a suggestion for a helpful resource to add to a list of similar helpful resources--sounds pretty normal, right? The writer maintains a page with a large list of links to, among other things, writing and arts organizations, so the suggested article seems like a good fit. Who wouldn't want to make young Nora's day?

SCAMS AND SCAMMERS

Cheated, Swindled, or Scammed: What’s a Writer to Do?

Header image: a hand surreptitiously slipping a $100 bill out of someone's back pocket (Credit: Kate Sumbler / Flickr.com)

JUN 28, 2024January 4, 202617 COMMENTS

You’ve chosen a publishing service, engaged a marketing company, entered a writing contest, hired an editor, inked a representation agreement, or contracted with a publisher, hybrid or traditional.

You’re aware that there are no guarantees: your book won’t necessarily become a bestseller. Your story may not win the contest prize. Your agent may not find a home for your manuscript. But your expectation is that the person or company will keep their promises, adhere to timelines, deliver acceptable quality, and generally honor whatever contract or agreement you both have signed.

What if they don’t, though? What if, after paying out a lot of money and/or waiting in vain for a service to be completed and/or receiving a product too shoddy to use, you realize you’ve been conned? What are your options? What can you do?

OVERSEAS SCAMS

The Latest Impersonation Scams

JUN 21, 2024February 18, 202629 COMMENTS

Among the most frequent scam reports I receive are impersonation scams. These are many and various, including agent impersonations, publisher impersonations, bookstore impersonations, production company impersonations, and more. The aim of the scam--as always--is to relieve writers of money.

Herewith, a compendium of the latest impersonation scams that have crossed my desk. Like most of the worst scams these days, all of them start with an out-of-the-blue solicitation.

I've seen several examples of this one, which offers to create "a compelling article about your book" and "an in-depth profile of you as the author", supposedly to be published in the New York Times--all for the low, low price of $499.

OVERSEAS SCAMS

From Motionflick Studios to Snow Day Film: The Evolution of a Book-to-Film Scam

Solicitation from Motionflick Studios for inclusion of the author's book in the September Producers Film Pitch event, claiming interest from Paul Dano in creating a "an impressive pitch deck" for the event and asking the author to submit a screenplay

JUN 7, 2024June 7, 202441 COMMENTS

The Hollywood dream has always burned bright for writers...and scammers and dodgy operators have always been eager to take advantage. The method may change--from the coverage grifts and pay-to-play snail mail catalogs that were a staple of the pre-internet days, to the impersonation and fake film company scams of today--but the aim is the same: to trick writers into spending money for nothing.

Last July, I began getting reports of solicitations from a company called Motionflick Studios.

Everything about this email said "bogus", from the solicitation itself (solicitation, as regular readers of this blog know, is one of the first signs of fraud these days), to the implausibly large option fee, to the absurd notion that an established Hollywood figure like Paul Dano would be personally creating pitch decks.