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Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Amazon has been paying hardball lately. In February, Amazon and major publisher Macmillan went head-to-head over ebook pricing , with Amazon wanting to keep the wholesale pricing model that has till now been the norm for both ebooks and print books, under which retailers can discount book prices as much they like; and Macmillan insisting on the newer agency model, under which pricing is controlled by the publisher (a system that does not allow for discounting). When Macmillan refused to give in, Amazon turned off the buy buttons for Macmillan's books--all books, not just ebooks. Ultimately, Amazon capitulated , admitting that it wanted to carry ebooks from Macmillan, even at higher prices. But who really won that face-off? Though Amazon bowed to Macmillan on the matter of pricing, the dispute allowed it to demonstrate the power of the buy button shutoff--and it now appears to be using this as a negotiating tool. Last week, the New York ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Requests for data on first novel sales frequently turn up in Writer Beware's email. What's the average advance for a first novel? How long does it take the typical first novel to sell? Do most first novelists sell their books on their own, or through an agent? Will publishers and agents consider first novelists who don't have any short fiction publication credits? The quick response to all these questions is that "average" and "typical" are hard to quantify. From advances to time spans, individual experiences are all over the map. But that's not really a helpful answer to writers wondering about what they can expect from a first novel sale. Concrete information is much more useful. Hard data on first novel sales is difficult to come by--but it does exist, if only in limited and fragmentary form. There's SF author Tobias Buckell's survey of first-novel advances in the speculative fiction field . Rom...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Being paid for writing is the ultimate author's dream. Today, guest blogger C. Hope Clark sheds light on an area of support that many writers don't think of: Grants. There are plenty of them out there, if you know where to look--though, as Hope points out, you must be sure you meet their eligibility requirements, and are willing to conform to their conditions. For much more grant information, as well as market info and contest listings, visit Hope's website, FundsforWriters.com . ------------------------------------------------ By C. Hope Clark When I speak at writing conferences, I'm inundated with requests about grants. I prefer to talk about funding streams - how to incorporate contests, publishing, freelance markets, jobs AND grants into a successful career that turns a real dollar. But the word "grant" stirs excitement in a room, in some cases making people tune out all else. Like winning the lottery, who doesn...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Here are several publishing-related items that caught my eye over the past week. Paying for Shelf Space The Boulder Bookstore, in Boulder, CO, is selling shelf space to self-published authors , the Nieman Journalism Lab reports. The store charges its consignment authors according to a tiered fee structure : $25 simply to stock a book (five copies at a time, replenished as needed by the author for no additional fee); $75 to feature a book for at least two weeks in the “Recommended” section; and $125 to, in addition to everything else, mention the book in the store’s email newsletter, feature it on the Local Favorites page of the store’s website for at least 60 days, and enable people to buy it online for the time it’s stocked in the store. And for $255 — essentially, the platinum package — the store will throw in an in-store reading and book-signing event. In addition, the store takes a 40% cut of sales. The Nieman article puts a positive sp...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Because I don't already have enough to do (ha!), I've just set up a Facebook page for Writer Beware. It'll aggregate the content I'm posting around the Web--the blog posts here, my Twitterfeed, and info from various writers' groups and discussion boards. Your comments, responses, and thoughts are welcome! There's also a discussion board, where everyone will be able to post comments, complaints, alerts, thoughts about writing and the writing life, etc...but NOT flames, libel, or inappropriate personal information. I've moderated discussion boards before, and know how much work they can be--so this is an experiment that may or may not continue, depending on how much time it turns out to involve. Please check us out, and become a fan!

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Today: the second of two guest posts on content mills. In this article originally published at The WM Freelance Writers Connection , writer Angela Atkinson takes a more positive view of content mills, arguing that they can be a good way for new writers to sharpen skills and build experience. The down side: you probably won't make much money. And if you're focused on establishing a career, you need to treat them as a stepping stone, rather than an end in themselves. ------------------------------------- by Angela Atkinson I always knew I wanted to be a writer, and though I studied journalism in college, circumstances in my life pushed me toward a corporate job early into adulthood. I wrote every day back then--but it was either some corporate communication or publication, or something just for myself that I always pretended I'd work on getting published, but never did. After leaving the corporate world, I knew that I wanted to foc...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware A content mill, if you aren't familiar with the term, is a website that aggregates huge numbers of articles on a constantly-updated basis, written by freelancers who are paid by page views or ad clicks rather than wages or fees. A few examples: Examiner , Suite101 , eHow , Triond , Associated Content , Helium . I've written on this blog about a number of content mills, focusing mainly on their Terms and Conditions and the implications for writers of the legal language contained therein. But are content mills worth writing for? Can you make money? Will they help you start or build a freelance writing career? This week I'm hosting two guest posts that address these questions (both originally posted at The WM Freelance Writers Connection ). The first is by journalist Carol Tice, who argues that content mills are not a good way for aspiring writers to establish a sustainable writing career. --------------------------------------- by ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Today, Smashwords founder Mark Coker guest blogs about "private label rights" services, which make it possible for anyone to "author" their own ebooks or to populate blogs by putting together chunks of content from the service's database. The result: scads of badly-formatted, poor-quality ebooks and blogs, which are often used by SEO scammers to confuse Google Search results. I'd never heard of these services before, and I'll bet a lot of my readers haven't either--which is exactly why I've been wanting to host more guest blog posts. Many thanks to Mark for illuminating yet another shady corner of the Internet. --------------------------------------- Did you know for only $24.95 a month, you can subscribe to a service that gives you access to a database of thousands of articles you can turn into ebooks? If you're too lazy or too clueless to write a real book, now you slap your name on another pers...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Wri ter Beware   Today, by unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that tossed out a settlement reached in a landmark case involving electronic rights and copyright. In 1999, the National Writers' Union filed suit against the New York Times and LexisNexis, among others, alleging copyright infringement due to the companies' re-use of printed articles and photographs in electronic databases ( New York Times Co. v Tasini et al ). The Times and other publishers argued that the right of reproduction and distribution included in collective copyrights gave them the right to digitize content without permission or payment to the authors. The NWU argued that electronic rights were separate and distinct, and that, since their contracts had not included a grant of e-rights, the Times and other publishers had violated their copyrights. In a 2001 decision, the Supreme Court sided with the NWU . In 2005, the parties (which now...