sàds

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Every time I consider purging Writer Beware's files to get rid of documentation on agents and others we haven't heard anything about in years and years, I'm reminded of why I hold onto that old paper. Last Friday, I received an email from successful independent editor Jodie Renner . Apparently, client testimonials from her website had been plagiarized by an outfit called WordWorks Publishing Consultants . I hopped on over to WordWorks' website, expecting to discover something on the order of faux publicist Mike Albee , who decorated his site with fake testimonials from known authors. What I found was way more bizarre: plagiarism, plagiarism, and yet more plagiarism, plus a blast from Writer Beware's past. (Bear with me; this is a long post with lots of images, but I wanted to capture them in case WordWorks attempts to hide the evidence.) Based in Alabama, WordWorks is owned by Pamela Wray Biron , who provides "Exp...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware When Entranced Publishing (its website is now gone, but a recent archived version can be seen here ) opened to submissions in 2012, it looked like a promising small press, with a number of imprints, a sizeable staff, and a commitment not to churn out books , author-mill style. However promising-seeming, though, authors always need to be wary of brand-new small presses, because there's such a high attrition rate for such ventures. Even if the staff are very experienced (which often isn't the case in the small press world), it's wise to watch and wait until the press has been publishing books for at least a year. This demonstrates some stability; it also makes it possible to evaluate things like quality and marketing. And--just as important--it allows time for problems and complaints, if any, to surface. In the case of Entranced, that caution would have served authors well. Entranced planned to start publishing in 2013 , and its f...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware   NOTE: One of the most frequent search phrases that brings people to Writer Beware's Literary Agents page is "literary agents for poets" or some variation thereof. I originally published this blog post in 2012, but given a recent rise in the number of writers who come to us with the question, I thought it would be worth running again. ************* Writer Beware hears from a lot of poets. Often, they're contacting us to ask about self-publishing, or to check the reputation of a journal or a contest. Sometimes, unfortunately, they've gotten mixed up with one of the vanity anthology companies , such as Eber and Wein . More frequently, though, they want to know about literary agents. Is the brand-new agency with an interest in poets a good one to query? Is the agent who just asked for the entire manuscript of their poetry collection reputable? Can Writer Beware recommend good literary agents for poets? I've never ye...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware The Internet has been buzzing over the past week over the announcement of a writer-focused initiative from Amtrak : the Amtrak Residency Program . #AmtrakResidency was designed to allow creative professionals who are passionate about train travel and writing to work on their craft in an inspiring environment . Round-trip train travel will be provided on an Amtrak long-distance route. Each resident will be given a private sleeper car, equipped with a desk, a bed and a window to watch the American countryside roll by for inspiration. Routes will be determined based on availability. Now, I personally can't figure out why anyone would find this tempting. Then again, I'm a veteran of Amtrak's overcrowded Boston-to-Washington corridor, where late arrivals and yucky restrooms are always a possibility. I've also done long-distance train traveling, and am painfully familiar with what Amtrak means by a "bed." (Have any ...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Recently, Big 5 publisher Simon & Schuster announced the launch of two adult trade speculative fiction imprints: Saga Press , which will do both print and digital, and Simon451 , which will also do print and digital, but will concentrate on digital-firsts and ebook originals. Simon451 currently is accepting submissions from unagented authors. Simon451 is also running a novel-writing contest for college students . Students submit a synopsis ad the first 50 pages of a novel. A panel of judges will select ten finalists, who will be asked to submit their entire manuscripts. The winner receives a publishing contract with Simon451, a $3,000 advance, and a trip to NY Comicon. In the past weeks, I've heard from a number of writers who are wondering about an apparent rights-grab in the contest guidelines ( you can download the guidelines here ). The language that's the source of concern appears in two places. First, on page 2 of the gui...