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Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Because even watchdogs have to rest sometimes, the Writer Beware blog will be taking a break over the holiday season. Unless there's a really juicy publishing story, this blog will be on hiatus until the new year. (We'll still be answering email, so if you want to reach us, drop us a line at beware @ sfwa.org). Wishing all our wonderful readers and subscribers a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday season--whatever kind of holidays you celebrate. See you in 2011!

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Since I so often get questions about the legitimacy of literary contests (see, for instance, my posts of December 16 and December 7 ), I thought it would be helpful to post some suggestions for evaluating any contests you may be thinking of entering. Who's conducting the contest? If it's an organization, magazine, or publisher you don't recognize, be sure to verify its legitimacy . If you can't confirm this to your satisfaction--or if the contest doesn't name its staff or sponsors--don't enter. You may have to do some digging--for instance, this contest , which on the surface looked like a collaboration between a writers' magazine and a publisher, turned out on closer inspection to be one writer attempting to promote his self-publishing endeavor. Or this one , which appeared to have several sponsors but was actually all the same (less than reputable) company. Be especially wary of contests that spam you , or are...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Query Letter Mistakes Following on the theme of my previous post, here's a fascinating survey on the common mistakes that writers make in their query letters . Blogger JM contacted one hundred literary agents with the following question: What is the single biggest mistake writers make when querying you? More than 50 responded. Here are the problems mentioned most frequently: - "Go to my website for a sample of my work…" - "Find my query attached…" - Querying before your manuscript is ready - Writing a query that is overconfident or pompous - Sending a query that has clearly not been proofread - Queries addressed to "Dear Agent" (or anything similar!) - Vague query letters! - Queries with more than one agent listed in the "To" field - Queries that have no clue what the agent represents - Queries that have no clue what the agent's submission guidelines are JM also includes a treasure trove of qu...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Taking a cue from Janet Reid, who over the weekend posted a truly amazingly bad agent pitch letter (yes, I do know who the agent is, and no, this person does not have any sales), I thought I'd start the week off by posting the spam I received this morning from an aspiring author (sent via a DIY email marketing service ). Greetings! Hello, my name is [name redacted]. I am the author of [title redacted] (now available nationwide). I am also an unsigned (hungry) artist, and very creative. I have two more books I need to finish, and I'm looking for any opportunity that anyone of power and influence may offer. I'll like to invite you to my website [link redacted]. Author [name redacted] [email address redacted] Writers--don't do this. I mean, for a start, I'm not an agent or publisher, so there's no reason for me to be receiving any kind of "get me published" request. Just a small amount of research (as opposed ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Brit Writers' Awards I've been getting questions recently about the Brit Writers' Awards . It's a writing competition for unpublished and self-published writers, with a rich trophy for the grand prize winner: £10,000. Writers can submit work in several categories (to enter, you must be a member of BWA; membership costs £10.95); a panel of judges selects two winners for each category, plus the grand prize winner (the Judging Criteria page references "various stages of the judging process" but doesn't say what those stages are). BWA's judges have real credentials. But how rigorous was the judging process in last year's competition? According to Jane Smith of the excellent How Publishing Really Works blog, Writers were being notified left, right and centre that they had made it through to the various shortlists; very few writers who entered ended up being told that their work hadn’t made it that far . ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware I've been getting questions about a brand-new writers' contest: the 2011 Indie Publishing Contest , sponsored by (among others) the San Francisco Writers Conference . Write, Win AND Publish! New ‘Indie Publishing Contest’ Revamps the Traditional Writing Contest with the Benefits of Indie Publishing. Since when can a writing contest turn the winner into an author with a published book...and provide a staff of book marketing professionals to help get the book into bookstores and publicized? This is the new reality of combining a traditional writing contest with the myriad advantages of indie publishing. By "indie publishing," they don't mean true self-publishing, or publishing with an independent publisher, but the kind of publishing provided by print-on-demand publishing services --in this case, Author Solutions, Inc. , which is one of the contest sponsors. This is not, in fact, independent publishing--but since I've...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Per a recent press release posted online, Author Solutions --owner of a number of print-on-demand publishing services , including AuthorHouse , Xlibris , iUniverse , Trafford , WordClay , and Palibrio --has just issued another whitepaper.  A previous whitepaper , released in early 2009, attempted to re-brand AS as an "indie" or "independent" publisher (see my debunking of this co-opting of terms with already-established meanings that don't fit the AS business model at all). In the current whitepaper, AS announces " The Democratization of Publishing ," crediting "the historical convergence of three technologies for bringing about the end of the publishing 'aristocracy.'” Which three technologies? Well, first, desktop publishing, which "replaced traditional typesetting, [and] meant an individual could design a book more quickly and cost effectively". Second, print on demand technology,...