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.
Received in email this morning via Google Alerts: this press release from an outfit called 3L Publishing, announcing publication of a book called Vanity Circus: A Smart Girl’s Guide to Avoid Publishing Crap. A manual on how to avoid bad writing? Not exactly. “Vanity Circus is an entertaining, funny and insightful book that guides readersRead More
Since I so often get questions about the legitimacy of literary contests (see, for instance, my posts of December 16 and December 7), I thought it would be helpful to post some suggestions for evaluating any contests you may be thinking of entering. Who’s conducting the contest? If it’s an organization, magazine, or publisher youRead More
Taking a cue from Janet Reid, who over the weekend posted a truly amazingly bad agent pitch letter (yes, I do know who the agent is, and no, this person does not have any sales), I thought I’d start the week off by posting the spam I received this morning from an aspiring author (sentRead More
Brit Writers’ Awards I’ve been getting questions recently about the Brit Writers’ Awards. It’s a writing competition for unpublished and self-published writers, with a rich trophy for the grand prize winner: £10,000. Writers can submit work in several categories (to enter, you must be a member of BWA; membership costs £10.95); a panel of judgesRead More
I’ve been getting questions about a brand-new writers’ contest: the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest, sponsored by (among others) the San Francisco Writers Conference. Write, Win AND Publish! New ‘Indie Publishing Contest’ Revamps the Traditional Writing Contest with the Benefits of Indie Publishing. Since when can a writing contest turn the winner into an author withRead More
Per a recent press release posted online, Author Solutions--owner of a number of print-on-demand publishing services, including AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford, WordClay, and Palibrio--has just issued another whitepaper.
A previous whitepaper, released in early 2009, attempted to re-brand AS as an "indie" or "independent" publisher (see my debunking of this co-opting of terms with already-established meanings that don't fit the AS business model at all). In the current whitepaper, AS announces "The Democratization of Publishing," crediting "the historical convergence of three technologies for bringing about the end of the publishing 'aristocracy.'”
Which three technologies? Well, first, desktop publishing, which "replaced traditional typesetting, [and] meant an individual could design a book more quickly and cost effectively". Second, print on demand technology, through which "copies of a book could be printed individually, at costs comparable to traditional, large offset runs" (actually, this isn't true; low setup costs make digital printing cheaper for one-at-a-time production and small print runs, but offset printing, which can benefit from economies of scale--i.e., the more you produce, the lower the unit cost--is far more economical for runs of more than a few hundred). And third, the Internet as a distribution channel, which "leveled the playing field for authors who wanted to distribute their books broadly and cost effectively."
