sàds

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware   Self-promotion: a subject much on many writers' minds. All across the Internet, new authors are urged to be proactive in publicizing themselves and their books--to build a "brand." But what to do? And how much? I blogged about that a few months back, focusing on the uncertainties involved, and the fact that, ultimately, no one truly knows what works. But there's also the question of when to start. The day after you make your first sale? When you start submitting? Even earlier? Is it possible to begin your campaign of self-promotion too soon? In this week's guest blog post, author Alyx Dellamonica takes a look at this issue. ---------------------- by Alyx Dellamonica What would happen if you spent a day reckoning the price of everything you purchased in terms of the time you spent earning the money? If you earned a dollar an hour, a 99-cent music download would represent an hour of your life. A movie would come to...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Like many writers (whether they admit it or not), I have Google Alerts set to email me a link whenever my name is mentioned online. Today, it brought me a link to a blog post by Peter Cox of the Redhammer Agency . The post concerns the question of whether an agent who competes against another agent for business (i.e., solicits the other agent's clients) is, well, questionable. "What is it about this business that makes us so allergic to the idea of competitive selling?" Peter asks, and then, to illustrate what he identifies as the general perception that competitive selling is Not A Good Thing, quotes me. Even now, any agent who overtly prospects for business is widely considered to be, well, wide. “Be wary of an agent who solicits you,” cautions the queen of literary scam-busters Victoria Strauss. “Good agents don’t need to advertise—or to solicit. Questionable agents, on the other hand, often derive much of their clientele f...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware There's been a bit of attention paid lately in the blogosphere to the "promotional" antics of everyone's favorite author mill , PublishAmerica . As with other author mills, PA endeavors to turn its authors into customers. While it doesn't contractually require authors to buy their own books, it's relentless--and creative--in its efforts to persuade them to do so voluntarily. Among the latest of these efforts is the "buy one, get one" ploy that's a standard sales tactic for businesses that want to entice customers to spend more money than they might otherwise have planned to part with. For months now, PA authors have been receiving email solicitations promising that if they buy X number of copies of their own books (at an AMAZING discount!!), PA will donate (FREE!!) X number of copies to (pick one) their local bookstore / their workplace / DreamWorks / Starbucks / Tom Hanks / Oprah / Random Hou...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware A frequent question, especially among self- and small press-published authors, is how books get into libraries, and what authors can do to help. Today, guest blogger and public librarian Abigail Goben explains how libraries choose the books they purchase--and what authors should (and shouldn't) do to play a part in that process. ------------------------------------------ by Abigail Goben One of the many hats of your public librarian is book purchasing. We are allocated a budget and spend a fair amount of time trying to build a collection that is well rounded, appeals to a wide variety of people, mixes great literature with popular novels, and will meet the needs of our community. In this day and age of budget cuts and calls for fiscal responsibility, it is not only harder to get published, but harder to get published books into libraries. As we're trimming ever shrinking budgets, we librarians need to be able to justify the materi...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware I've gotten a number of questions recently about the Nurmal Resources PUBLISH ME! contest , from authors who've been solicited via email to enter it. (What's Nurmal Resources, you may ask? A new publisher. According to its website , "Nurmal is passionate about developing resources that inspire a new normal in everyday life. We cultivate emerging authors who have a clear life-impacting message, are actively engaged in community life, and are committed to spreading their ideas locally & globally.") Do you want a 1 in 50 chance of getting published? Enter the PUBLISH ME! Contest sponsored by Nurmal Resources, and you could be published within a few months. We are focused on cultivating emerging authors, and you could be one of them. The winning author will have his or her book published by Nurmal Resources and receive 500 copies of the book plus $1,000 cash toward marketing! The contest is limited to the first 50 entr...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware In the Ethicist column last week in the New York Times , Randy Cohen addressed the following question: I bought an e-reader for travel and was eager to begin "Under the Dome," the new Stephen King novel. Unfortunately, the electronic version was not yet available. The publisher apparently withheld it to encourage people to buy the more expensive hardcover. So I did, all 1,074 pages, more than three and a half pounds. Then I found a pirated version online, downloaded it to my e-reader and took it on my trip. I generally disapprove of illegal downloads, but wasn’t this O.K.? Cohen's response: "An illegal download is — to use an ugly word — illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical." Although the questioner violated copyright law, s/he is in the moral clear because s/he paid for the book, and "[b]uying a book or a piece of music should be regarded as a license to enjoy it on any platform." Oh, really? Say...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware In an unprecedented series of overnight corporate acquisitions, Amazon.com purchased Google, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Author Solutions, Lulu.com, Bertelsmann, Inc., Macmillan, the New York Times Corporation, and 574 other publishing and newspaper related companies. Google co-founder Sergei Brin is reported as saying "For a while, it looked like Google would be buying Amazon, but they made us an offer we dared not refuse." The publishing world is bracing for a exceptional period of transition, in which virtually all books, both paper and e-, will be under the thumb of this corporate giant. Industry analysts say that the resulting company, Amgoolubemacorp, will be able to take advantage of economies of scale, especially in the licensing of book rights from authors. "It'll be the only game in town," said Gene Gardner, former VP of Kensington, one of the companies that disappeared last night, taking his job with it. ...