Letters To The Editor For February 25th
This Week:
- THANKS!
- ENCOURAGING YOUNG AUTHORS…AND PROTECTING THEM
Cons and Scams. Oh Me, Oh My! By Karen Carver
When people are desperate for money they’re more likely than ever to “try anything”…to “take a chance.” That’s when they become ripe prey for con or scam artists.
The Squawking Bird Gets the First Payment!
A publishing firm owes me payment for a British-English copy edit completed in late August. On 23 September 2008 I sent an invoice for an American-English copy edit. Those are the only jobs I’ve done for the firm…
You Can Never Be Too Protective When Children Are Playing Outside
As I type this, we are in traffic, somewhere in New Jersey on Route 1, heading north. We’ll be on the interstate soon and Richard will want to stop and fill up the tank before we drive through New York City (well, around the city…but it’s hairy all the same). If we were in the RV, we’d go out of our way, WAY out of our way, to avoid that traffic. But, it’s not too bad in the truck. Last night, we slept in Princeton, New Jersey, after driving through the town and have a very nice dinner there.
Letters To The Editor For February 18th
This Week:
- My Oh My, How Things Have Changed
- When Authors Aren’t Willing to Market Their Books
Learning from the Low Points By Gail C. Johnson
It’s hard to single out a low point in my writing attempts, but I have one that illustrates what we have all heard – keep trying and read your target markets.
Looking for Green Grass! Where is it?!
We did it! We escaped Bangor for a week, heading south to my sister’s house to meet our sweet little nephew for the first time. As I’m typing this, we’re racing south on I-95. There’s tons of snow on the ground so we’ll be looking for the drifts to get smaller and smaller, the further south we get. It is supposed to be in the upper 60’s at my sister’s when we’re there so we all packed shorts. You think I’m kidding? This time of year, we think anything above freezing is a warm front!
My Oh My, How Things Have Changed! By Angela Hoy
Lots of people think self-published authors had to print and then store zillions of copies of their books before Print on Demand came around. Actually, that wasn’t always the case. Some of us went an alternative route to avoid large up-front costs. Today, I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane to my early days as a self-published author.
Lulu Responds to Angela’s Article with Marketing Blurbage, Implies False Accusation about “Accuracy”
Lulu responded to Angela’s article. Since the letter contained over-the-top marketing blurbage, I’ll cut to the chase.
She claimed what we wrote were “misperceptions” and claimed the title of my article was “incorrect.”
The title was:
“Lulu CEO Admits They’ve ‘Easily Published the Largest Collection of Bad Poetry in the History of Mankind'”
She then went on about the author being the publisher, not Lulu, blah blah, and said, “Bob was actually saying, as he always does when asked, that Lulu authors have easily published some great work with our site – we are also home to the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind.”
That’s followed by more marketing blurbage and then she insults us by saying, “I am always happy to provide you with any information you might need to ensure accuracy.”
Here’s my response…
Your Online Reputation – Don’t Risk It! By Susan Sundwall
Two seemingly unrelated things happened to me recently; I joined Facebook and I watched an early morning news segment about guarding our reputations