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Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware True to its promise, Harlequin has ditched the Harlequin Horizons name. It's now DellArte Press .

...heeeeere's Tweetbookz ! Tweetbookz will turn your tweets --those 140-character electronic messages about what you had for breakfast this morning or maybe something more interesting or important, but either way, quickly written and just as quickly forgotten--into Real Paper Books. That's right. Your evanescent 140-character pearls of prose (or not) can be enshrined for the ages in softcover or hardcover. You can include up to 200 tweets (though you can't add new ones or alter old ones to make yourself look smarter or more witty), and choose from four different designs. The cost: nothing upfront. But if you want to buy the books--as gifts, maybe, 'cause, yanno, all your friends who are already following you would love to have a permanent version of the tweets they missed because they were tweeting too, and maybe an actual physical book o' tweets might convince your parents or your spouse that "twittering" isn't a waste of time (oh wait, maybe not)--i...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Last week, RWA , MWA , and SFWA all issued official statements condemning Harlequin Enterprises' new self-publishing division, Harlequin Horizons . (In response to criticism, Harlequin has pledged to "chang[e] the name of the self-publishing company from Harlequin Horizons to a designation that will not refer to Harlequin in any way," but as of this writing, both the name and the Harlequin Horizons website appear to be unchanged.) Now Novelists Inc. has weighed in, with a position statement on vanity publishing and the risks that arise when brand name publishers add vanity publishing divisions. ---------------------------- Novelists, Inc. Responds to Disturbing Developments in Publishing: Vanity publishing is not new, although the Internet has become a lucrative feeding ground for vanity publishers. Presented with enough enthusiastic jargon and color graphics, a hopeful author might well be convinced that he has stumbled up...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware SFWA has joined RWA and MWA in issuing a statement about Harlequin Horizons . ------------- In November, 2009, Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. announced the launch of a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, for aspiring romance authors. Under normal circumstances, the addition of a new imprint by a major house would be cause for celebration in the professional writing community. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances. Harlequin Horizons is a joint venture with Author Solutions, and it is a vanity/subsidy press that relies upon payments and income from aspiring writers to earn profit, rather than sales of books to actual readers. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) finds it extremely disappointing that Harlequin has chosen to launch an imprint whose sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers. According to their website, “Now with Harlequin Horizons, more ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Today, Mystery Writers of America (a sponsor of Writer Beware, along with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) issued this announcement to its members: ----------------------------------- Dear MWA Members: Recently, Harlequin Enterprises launched two new business ventures aimed at aspiring writers, the Harlequin Horizons self-publishing program and the eHarlequin Manuscript Critique service (aka "Learn to Write"), both of which are widely promoted on its website and embedded in the manuscript submission guidelines for all of its imprints. Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is deeply concerned about the troubling conflict-of-interest issues created by these ventures, particularly the potentially misleading way they are marketed to aspiring writers on the Harlequin website. It is common for disreputable publishers to try to profit from aspiring writers by steering them to their own for-pay editorial, marketing, and publ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Deep question number one: Why has the launch of Harlequin Horizons provoked such a gigantic firestorm of indignation, when the launch of West Bow Press (which is exactly the same sort of venture, except way more expensive and with a referral fee scheme thrown in) not only didn't cause a big outcry, but received some fairly positive mentions from industry professionals? I have my own theories, but I'm interested in what others think. Deep question number two: Is Thomas Nelson RWA-eligible? If so, why hasn't RWA repudiated it as well?

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Hot on the heels of the launch of West Bow Press , Thomas Nelson's new self-publishing division, Harlequin Enterprises has unveiled Harlequin Horizons , a company that "that offers aspiring romance writers the opportunity to self-publish their work and achieve their goals." The official press release is here . Like West Bow Press, Harlequin Horizons is powered by self-publishing conglomerate Author Solutions , though its standard packages are considerably cheaper--from $599 to $1,599 , as opposed to West Bow's $999 to $6,499 . You can also spend up to $3,499 for a specialty package (West Bow's specialty packages top out at an eye-popping $19,999--are Christian writers richer, or is it just easier to persuade them to part with the big bucks?) Both West Bow and Harlequin Horizons also give authors the chance to expend sizeable additional sums, such as $11,999 for a premium Christian publicist (West Bow) or a just plain...

On Friday, Google, the Association of American Publishers, and the Authors Guild filed a revised version of the Google Book Search Settlement . It's now up to Judge Denny Chin to set dates for a notice period, an objection hearing, and the final Fairness Hearing. A brief overview of the issues that led to the revision, and a summary of some of the changes, is provided by the New York Times . One of the major concerns of Settlement critics, and also of the Department of Justice, which has urged the courts to reject the Settlement because of anti-trust concerns, was the issue of orphan works (in-copyright works whose authors can't be found), and the fear that Google would gain a de facto digital monopoly over those works. The revision establishes the position of an "Unclaimed Works Fiduciary," or trustee, who will be responsible for all decisions about orphan works, including whether to license rights in those works to third parties. Another potential monopolizing pro...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Yesterday, PW reported on the launch of AgentInbox , a new service from collaborative writing website WEbook (I've blogged about WEbook before). "AgentInbox is a service that connects publication-ready authors with reputable, vetted literary agents," says the service's FAQ for writers . Writers enter their book's "vital stats," including title, genre, query letter, and all or part of the manuscript (there are several tutorials to help with the polishing process). They can then check AgentInbox's roster of participating agents and choose which ones they'd like their submission to go to. WEbook staff pre-screens submissions, then forwards them on to the agents chosen. According to PW, AgentInbox will focus in particular on query letters while also ensuring the manuscripts adhere to basic editorial standards and readiness, said Ardy Khazaei, president of WEbook. WEbook’s team of in-house and freelanc...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Some blog posts and articles that piqued my interest over the past few weeks. Inspired by a silly piece by writer Jeff Rivera on GalleyCat, in which he, the owner of a self-publishing service, and an anonymous author question the usefulness of literary agents, agent Miriam Goderich of Dystel & Goderich provides an eloquent rebuttal: Who Needs an Agent? You Do . From agent Holly Root: why not to sweat the small stuff . "There’s a ton of ink spilled online over do’s and don’ts for writers, and while I am a firm believer that knowledge is power and all, too much information can be paralyzing, and some of us on this side of the desk are guilty of making it seem much harder than it already is. If you really read and adhered to every.single.thing. every agent said online you would never finish a book or a query letter and if you did it would probably be a bland groupthinked mess, which actually will get you rejections." Agent Jennif...

posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware As readers of this blog know, I'm fascinated by the strange phenomena that flourish at the fringes of the publishing world. So I was thrilled recently to discover yet another example: an online course that teaches people how to become Virtual Author's Assistants . What's a Virtual Author's Assistant, you may ask? The course website offers this explanation : Author's Assistants are people who work behind the scenes to create, organize and coordinate all the different pieces necessary to get a book published. To writers, they are miracle workers. The world of publishing can be frightening, overwhelming and frustrating. An author's assistant is the expert the writer turns to guide them step by step through the process. From their homes, Virtual Author's Assistants organize the publishing process for authors around the country and around the world. Expert? As it turns out, potential Virtual Author’s Assistants need kn...