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Writer Beware is taking time off for the holidays. Unless there's some especially major publishing news, look for us to be back after January 1. Victoria will still be answering email. Contact her at beware [at] sfwa.org. We wish all our readers peace, happiness, and excellent writing. Thanks so much for being here, for reading and commenting and sharing your experiences and spreading the word. See you in 2014! - Victoria Strauss - Michael Capobianco - Richard White

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware So...if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I love the crazy stuff, the little nuggets of publishing weirdness that I run across from time to time. Like author reality shows . Or bidding for a literary agent . Or trying to auction your story idea on eBay for millions of dollars . Or the tale of the "literary agent" who faked her own death and turned out to be a wanted criminal . So here's another snippet of weirdness for y'all. Introducing Quill Shift Literary Agency ("Re-imagining the role of the literary agency by creating an environment that finds and promotes great writers, invites readers to participate, and intrigues publishing houses to purchase those writers' works"). Founded by Ayanna Coleman, who claims publishing experience but provides no specifics (though she appears at one point to have worked for Serendipity Literary Agency ), the premise of Quill Shift is a bizarre mashup of ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Anthologies, once a staple of genre publishing, have become a rarity at major publishing houses over the past couple of decades. Small presses still embrace the anthology format, however, as do genre readers--at least, judging by the number of small press or one-off genre anthology projects on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter . While most of these campaigns are completely above-board, some are less so, and their growing popularity makes it vital for writers to be aware of several areas of concern. (Donors, too. Do you really want to give money to an anthology that doesn't treat its writers fairly?) Donating backer prizes. Many crowdfunded anthologies ask or expect their authors to donate prizes for campaign backers--a story critique, a Tuckerization, an illustration, an item of the author's choice. From the perspective of the anthology's publisher or organizer, the benefits are obvious: more (and more tempting) backer incenti...

My name is Michael Capobianco . Some of you may know who I am. I was President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America for thee terms, 1996, 1997, and 2007. I’ve also served SFWA in a number of other capacities, including VP, Treasurer, and, currently, as one of SFWA’s representatives to the Authors Coalition of America . In addition, I’ve worked with other SFWAns to oppose the Google Books Settlement , write SFWA’s Orphan Works white papers , and worked on various other copyright and contract related matters. I was married to Ann Crispin, and, while there’s no way I could replace her, with Victoria’s kind encouragement, I’ve decided to officially join Writer Beware. I’ve already written a few blog posts for WB, mostly about legal copyright matters , but I’ve also helped with the April 1st posts from time to time. The Google Broccoli Kitten Settlement was my idea, for example. My interests are somewhat more policy-oriented than WB tends to be, but WB has a very broad ag...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware If you've read my two previous posts about All Classic Books, you already know this story. If you haven't, here's the gist. Cheryl Lee Nunn of notorious vanity publisher American Book Publishing (one of Writer Beware's Thumbs Down publishers , also featured in an alert at Writer Beware ) attempts to expand her author-fleecing operation with a network of bogus organizations and publishers. Outed on this blog , she cuts her losses and folds the scheme--but, eager to make money on the back end, she holds authors' rights for ransom , threatening to give their contracts to a "transfer agent" unless they pony up a buyout fee of $695. Authors with All Classic Books (the only one of the bogus publishers to issue contracts) have just received another email demanding even more money (all errors courtesy of the original).  From: Rebecca Reece Winslow Date: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 1:06 PM Subject: [Name redacted] Your Auth...