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Hi, folks: A month ago, I attended the Nebula Awards weekend in Austin, Texas. And just one week later, I was a guest speaker at the Oklahoma Writers Federation's annual conference, which included their Awards Banquet. My new black suit and periwinkle tank top with the sparkly decals got a workout. Two successive Saturday nights watching and listening as writers were honored and received their awards. It was a great watching Michael Chabon win a Nebula to pair with his Pulitzer, and Michael Moorcock receive his well-earned Damon Knight Grand Master award for a Lifetime Achievement. My biggest personal thrill was discovering that one of my former students was a Nebula finalist in the short story category! Since was an outsider at the OWFI Awards Banquet, I had lots of time to sit there as their awards were handed out, and ruminate on writers in general, and the differences between the two events. It struck me as I sat there, listening to these writers, who had come from all...

Last November, I made a blog entry about the victims of vanity publisher and author "marketing" service Airleaf (formerly known as Bookman Marketing), who decided to go public with their problems, which included long publication delays, non-payment of royalites, non-provision of services, and substandard quality for those services that were provided. Under pressure from angry authors, and apparently in financial trouble, Airleaf closed its doors in December. Since then, the Airleaf victims' network , under the leadership of the indomitable Bonnie Kaye, has been fighting to bring Airleaf and its owner, Carl Lau, to justice. This past week, they succeeded. On Thursday, May 8, in Morgan County court, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter filed suit against Airleaf, LLC for taking money without providing services in return. 120 authors (identified as "customers") are named in the suit. Carl Lau is accused of violating Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, of...

In a previous post , I highlighted Aultbea Publishing , a (sometimes) vanity press that appears to have a penchant for publishing very young writers. Aultbea isn't alone in targeting youngsters. Now there's Operation Teen Author . "From now until May 10th," the OTA website breathlessly announces, "you have the opportunity to apply for one of the 50 places to become a best-selling author this year! Yes, while you are still a teenager!!" All teens have to do to apply is write a 150-300 word essay explaining such important things as why they should be chosen and what they've done in life so far to demonstrate their creativity (they are advised to "be convincing"). If they're accepted into the seven-month program, they will be assigned a Team Leader who will mentor them through a series of webinars, teleseminars, e-mail exchanges, and online forums. At the end of the process, each teen will have created a 1,500-2,000 word chapter, to be inclu...

This post has been updated. My recent post about collaborative writing website WEbook identified some significant concerns about its Terms of Use. A comment on that post from a WEbook staffer indicated that the TOU were about to be revamped. Yesterday, WEbook members received a chirpy email announcement: WEbook aims to be the best place for new and experienced authors to publish. To make that a no-brainer, today we posted our revised Terms of Use. In between the requisite lawyer stuff, you’ll find that authors and contributors now share 50/50 in the profits of published WEbooks. And there’s more. Write and receive reactions on anything you wish at WEbook without giving up any rights to your creative genius. If your work is picked by the community for publishing, you’ll have the choice. With WEbook’s platform, engaged community, and industry-leading royalties, we hope the choice will be simple. That stuff about killing all the lawyers? Maybe we can let some of ‘em live. The new TOU is...