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Hello, Friends! I know I've been a bit scarce lately, and I'd like to thank Victoria for doing such a great job of maintaining the blog. The reason I've been scarce was one I wasn't free to discuss until now, and it's Big News for us and for writers everywhere. Over the past ten years, Writer Beware and other publishing industry watchdogs like Preditors and Editors have worked hard to increase public awareness of writing scams and the toll they take on aspiring and even experienced writers. It's been an uphill job, but gradually, both law enforcement and civil authorities have begun to realize that writing scams are something they should and will fight. And now there is a new Administration, so a new wind is blowing. It's for that reason that the Federal Bureau of Investigation decided to create a special task force to help agents in their field offices recognize and deal with writing scams, since most can be prosecuted under Federal jurisdiction due to t...

Although many authors who decide on self-publishing (whether they choose true self-publishing, in which the author handles editing, design, printing, etc. him/herself, or one of the print-on-demand self-publishing services) don't know it, it is extremely difficult to sell self-published books. Despite the periodic news stories about self-publishing successes, the average book from a self-publishing service sells fewer than 200 copies (see the Sales Statistics section of the Print on Demand page of the Writer Beware website). This is why success makes news if it happens: it's rare. Here's a unique take on this problem. "Is Sara, the Pineapple Cat the most unsuccessful book series in publishing history?" asks this press release . Have you ever heard of Sara, the Pineapple Cat? No? Well, that does not come as a big surprise to the publisher...Because sales have been so non-existent, the publisher is considering contacting the Guiness [sic] World Records people to s...

The following press release was posted today at the SFWA website and Livejournal . Naturally, we're all extremely pleased with this result. CHESTERTOWN, Md . -- A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss, the principal operators of the Writer Beware website, filed by a purported literary agent. Writer Beware is a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America which “shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.” The suit, initiated by Robert Fletcher and his company, the Literary Agency Group, alleged defamation, loss of business and emotional distress while making claims Fletcher had lost $25,000 per month due to warnings about his business practices posted by Crispin and Strauss. The suit was dismissed with prejudice March 18 by the Massachusetts Superior Court due to Fletcher’s failure to respond to discovery or other...

Given the rash of haters who've been attempting to hijack my comment threads lately, I thought this post from Grammar Girl was especially apt: How to Write a Great Blog Comment . Here's a sample: Rule #3 -- Be Respectful I shouldn't have to tell you this, but comments that start out "You're an idiot," are laced with profanity, or are just plain disrespectful, undermine the authority of your argument. Nobody gives much credence to an obnoxious troll. So aside from the pleasure you get from annoying people, you're wasting your time writing such comments. Oh yeah. Check out the video, too. It's a hoot. P.S. This is not aimed at the 95% of you who make funny, informative, relevant, and/or just plain great comments. I love 'em--please keep them coming! I'm talking about people like The Ternisher or this twit , who just want to rant or make trouble.

In February, I was contacted by a writer who got the following email, which I reproduce exactly as it was received, redacting only names and email addresses: From: treey [email address redacted] Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:22 AM To: [email address redacted] Subject: Notice of Intellectual Property Protection Dear Sir or Madam: We are a domain name registration service company in China. Yesterday we received a formal application submited by Mr. Steven who wanted to use the keyword "[name redacted]" to register the Internet Brand and with suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia/ domain names. After our initial examination, we found that these domain names to be applied for registration are same as your domain name and trademark. We don’t know whether you have any relation with Mr.Steven. Because these domain names would produce possible dispute, now we have hold down the registration of Mr.Steven, but if we do ...

If you haven't encountered Queryfail (the brainchild of literary agent Colleen Lindsay, it's an initiative in which agents and editors post to Twitter about How Not To Query), it's definitely worth checking out. Jane Smith gives a good summary on her blog, including some of the negative reactions to the project. Such discussion can be bruising, especially if it's your query being Queryfailed. But in my opinion, the information provided--direct from the source--is extraordinary helpful, and writers should make an effort to take heed. Also, given the incredibly unrealistic expectations many writers have about how agents should respond to queries, and the horrible things that so many writers routinely say about agents, in public and in private, distress over the supposed negativity of agents' Queryfail comments is a bit ironic. So, joining in the spirit of the thing, here's the ultimate Queryfail: querying someone who is not an agent or an editor. Whose email add...

Last November, readers of, among others, Parade Magazine and Cardmaker Magazine saw an announcement for a free "open amateur poetry contest" . Poems of "24 lines or less" could be sent to a New York City address, and would then be eligible for $100,000 in prizes. A perk of entering: all poets would receive a "personal critique" of their poem. There were warning signs. For one thing, the organization or company conducting the contest was not identified. Entering contests when you can't verify who's behind them is a major no-no, not just because you have no way to judge the contest's prestige, but because you can't assess its honesty. (Many people, unfortunately, seem to have assumed that because the publication where they found the contest announcement was reputable, the contest was reputable too.) For another, short poems and big-money prizes are a hallmark of vanity anthology schemes . These schemes, which are legion, all work pretty muc...

From today's edition of the Shelf Awareness newsletter: Scam alert: Rhoda Wolff, general manager at Schuler Books & Music, Lansing, Mich., reported that an order she received via e-mail had the earmarks of a potential scam. The letter, to the attention of store owner/store manager from Paul Jackson, begins, "WE ARE PAUL JACKSON INSTITUTE WE DO WANT TO PLACE AN ORDER FOR 50 COPIES OF EACH OF THE TWO BOOKS LISTED BELOW." The two books were Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. According to Wolff, "When I attempted to get a phone number, address, or any further information, the e-mail said he was in meetings all day and would only communicate via e-mail. When I googled Paul Jackson Institute, there were no exact matches. This closely resembles another scam we dealt with a few years ago in which our stores were contacted by phone through an operator that was speaking on behalf of someone who was hearing impaired. I just thought it would ...

Questionable and incompetent literary agents, publishers, and others (scammers or not) are often unable to fulfill their promises. Non-performance is among the most common complaints that Writer Beware receives: unpaid royalty checks, publication delays, no followup on manuscript submissions, editing projects late by months or even years. Excuses for these problems (where excuses are made--many dodgy operators simply resort to silence, leaving emails and phone calls unanswered, closing down message boards and guestbooks) range from the mundane (scheduling conflicts, website and email glitches, that old whipping boy the US mail) to the personal (individual or family crises, health problems for key staff) to the downright bizarre. We know of several less-than-honest agents who have announced their own deaths--via an alias, of course (one of them got her aliases mixed up, surprising grieving clients with her apparent resurrection). Another questionable agent explained that he couldn't...

Last week, a lengthy article in Publishers Weekly profiled a number of "fast-growing" small presses. Unfortunately, PW didn't mention the fact that two of those publishers charge hefty fees. Greenleaf Book Group is both a distributor and a publisher. It's very selective in the projects it chooses to take on, provides a full range of services including design and editing, and puts real marketing behind the books it distributes (10 of the 85 titles it published in 2008, according to PW). Greenleaf has had some successful books; according to PW, its net sales doubled between 2006 and 2008. It seems to be well-regarded both as a distributor and a publisher. However, authors must pay their way, and Greenleaf is pricey. Based on documented reports Writer Beware has received, costs for a full publishing package can top $20,000, depending on the number of books printed. On its website, Morgan James Publishing describes itself as "The Entrepreneurial Publisher" (...

It's not news that the newspaper industry is in trouble. Hardly a week seems to pass without word of layoffs, shrinkages, mergers, or closures. It's a scary time for print journalism. Now newspaper giant Hearst has hit on an interesting way to save money. According to this article in the Boston Business Journal , Hearst will partner with content site Helium , using Helium's "citizen journalists" to contribute local and lifestyle stories to the Hearst Newspapers chain. "Hearst executives say the deal will enable its newspapers to provide local content at a lower cost than using staff resources...Hearst is proud to be a pioneer in leveraging new models that will transform the newspaper industry." How it will work, apparently, is that Hearst will put stories on specific topics out to bid. Writers can then submit stories through Helium, and Hearst will choose those its likes best and compensate the writers. No word on what the compensation will be, but giv...