sàds

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency (SBPRA) is the tip of a fee-charging agenting/editing/publishing iceberg created by Robert M. Fletcher of Boca Raton, Florida. Since 2001, it has employed a veritable carousel of changing names (more than 40 to date), and Writer Beware has received hundreds, if not thousands, of complaints from authors who've cited abuses such as fees for literary agency services, fees for publishing, fees for editing, fees for marketing services, referrals to other branches of the business without revealing the connection, and more. Fletcher's operation has long been the subject of an Alert at Writer Beware .* In 2009, as a result of a public consumer-related investigation, the Florida Attorney General filed suit against Fletcher, his businesses, and several staff members under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Delays and legal maneuverings drew the case out for several years--but...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware On April 30, Author Solutions Inc. (currently the subject of a class action lawsuit by authors who allege, among other things, breach of contract and unjust enrichment) announced expansion of its Partridge brand to South Africa and surrounding nations with Partridge Africa . This follows expansion in March to the Malaysia region with Partridge Singapore . Both new ventures are being launched in "partnership" with Penguin Random House's subsidiaries in those countries, and both--while not promising any crossover-- heavily leverage the PRH connection. I blogged last year about Partridge India , the first of the Partridge ventures. Since that time, Writer Beware has received complaints from Partridge authors who've had problems with quality and service, similar to those experienced by authors with other ASI brands . Some of those complaints can be seen in the comments on my post. Given what I know about ASI's PR stra...