Why do people sign up for content mills? To make fast, easy money like their ads usually state, right? Well, from what we've been reading over the past several months, the money is anything but easy. …
For the past six weeks, we've spent every spare moment judging the hundreds of entries submitted for the Spring 2010 24-Hour Short Story Contest. In case you're not familiar with our quarterly contest, this is how it works. On the date of the contest, at start-time, we send out the topic for that specific contest to all registered entrants. We also post it online. Entrants then have 24 hours to write and submit their stories. The stories "must deal with the topic in some way to qualify" and they must not exceed the pre-assigned word count. After reading the entries for each contest, we can see how difficult it is to come up with a unique plot when working with an assigned topic. But, inevitably, a few writers do manage to successfully break away from the pack. So, sit back, relax, and take a break from your busy day to...watch death and greed collide. …
I took most of Monday off this week for the holiday so my post is short and not-too-sweet this week. I wanted to share this with you. I received an email from a man who wanted to post a help wanted ad on WritersWeekly.com and he obviously hadn't done his homework. He said they needed writers for "academic writing jobs" and my warning bells blew. I checked out their website and, sure enough, it was a term paper mill. This was my response: We would NEVER assist you with helping students cheat. Your service is the rock-bottom scum of the entire industry. What if your child was ill and the specialist you took her to was someone who'd paid a company like YOURS to do his schoolwork for him? Shame on you! How can you sleep at night doing what you do for a living?! Don't EVER contact me again! Angela Hoy WritersWeekly.com …
On April 14th, I publicly exposed some individuals and websites who were stealing copyrighted material from WritersWeekly and publishing it as their own. …
Perhaps a dozen times a week, authors ask me some variation of this question: What is the best way to promote my book online? It's quite simple, really. This is all you need:
It is SO entertaining to us at WritersWeekly when someone who owes one, two or a few writers money tries to scare us into silence. I could wallpaper my upstairs bathroom with all the cease and desist letters we've received over the years. In my opinion, cease and desists are form letters designed to intimidate victims, advocates for the victims, or the press... …
We've been getting more inquiries from disgruntled CreateSpace/BookSurge authors lately. From what we can tell, a service claiming to be "free" (if you follow all their rules and specs to the letter) can sure be expensive. Some authors are spending hundreds to thousands of dollars to get their books published there. Here are some comments from recent CreateSpace / BookSurge authors who have approached us about moving their books to BookLocker... …
So, you sued that deadbeat publisher in small claims court and you won. Congratulations! After the satisfaction of winning settles in, you start to wonder when he's finally going to pay you. You do some research and discover there's still really no way to force him to send you a check. …
It's always interesting when someone calls themselves a writer...when stealing another writer's work. Last week, I shared the story of invoicing Anne Wayman $38,250 after finding 51 incidents of copyright infringement on her website, aboutfreelancewriting.com. This week, we're exposing more copyright infringers, along with their responses (or lack thereof)... …
It makes me sick to write this article but you deserve to know about this situation. If I sound a bit angry here, it's because I AM. And, you should be, too, because this affects YOU, our readers... …
Today, I ended up spending my writing time chasing down copyright infringers. What do infringers most frequently steal from WritersWeekly.com? Our paying market listings. …
I've read lots of different stories online about authors giving away free copies of their ebooks to try to boost print book sales. Some, mostly from traditional publishers, say doing this increased sales (but nobody seems to want to give out the real numbers) while others say doing this hurts sales. I thought I'd share my thoughts on this with you to help you determine if you should give away your book, or a significant portion of it, for free. …
For the past six weeks, we've spent every spare moment judging the hundreds of entries submitted for the Winter 2010 24-Hour Short Story Contest. In case you're not familiar with our quarterly contest, this is how it works. On the date of the contest, at start-time, we send out the topic for that specific contest to all registered entrants. We also post it online. Only registered entrants can submit stories and the contests usually fill up before "start time." Entrants then have 24 hours to write and submit their stories by email. The stories "must deal with the topic in some way to qualify" and they must not exceed the pre-assigned word count. After reading the entries for each contest, we can see how difficult it is to come up with a unique plot when working with an assigned topic. But, inevitably, a few writers do manage to successfully break away from the pack. So, sit back, relax, and take a rest from your busy day. Hey, are you feelin' crafty? …
One of the biggest mistakes new authors make is believing that blindly mailing copies of their book (or, worse, emailing copies of their ebook) will result in sure-fire coverage by book reviewers and journalists. They waste this valuable opportunity by making several common mistakes. …
Sometimes, I receive emails that just don't make any sense to me. For example, occasionally people write to me under false names, sending false allegations about one company or another, or feeding me a completely false news story. Of course, I investigate these before I publish them and it's not too hard to figure out if somebody has fed me outright lies about one outfit or another. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a stretch to think some people have tried to get me to publish lies just so they can smear my name later for doing so. Let's face it, after a decade of WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings, I now have more enemies than I can count...or even remember. Then there are the emails from people claiming to be long-time readers, who insult me for just plain doing my job - protecting them from industry scum. This week, I'll share one of those with you (edited and consolidated - we exchanged a couple of emails). After receiving this email, I felt like I'd been hit over the head with a purse after trying to help a little old lady cross the street. …
price fixing (n.) - the establishing of prices at a determined level, either by a government or by mutual consent among producers or sellers of a commodity. (dictionary.com) If everybody agrees to list and sell ebooks for $9.99 (or at any other "determined level"), that's price-fixing, plain and simple. When prices are fixed, who gets hurt in the end? Everybody...except the one mandating the price, of course... …
A year and a half ago, I published an article about hard core sales tactics being used by some POD publishers. Some of the sales reps at some POD publishers work on commission. Obviously, things haven't changed. In fact, they've gotten worse. …
This may be old news to you now but, just in case you missed it, Amazon had a showdown with Macmillan (one of the "Big 6" traditional publishers) over the weekend...and Macmillan appears to have won. Other large publishers are expected to follow suit. Basically, Macmillan wants the right to set their own retail prices for ebooks, and to set their own sales terms to bookstores. In my opinion, this is how it should be. The publisher should be able to dictate the terms of sales of their books to bookstores. Bookstores, of course, can negotiate their own purchase terms with a publisher but no bookstore should be able to dictate how, or at what price, a publisher sells their books elsewhere. You can read my comments on this situation in detail under Morris Rosenthal's article HERE. PublishersWeekly.com is posting frequent updates to this situation. And, finally, don't miss this article in Fast Company: Amazon Revealed: It Hates You, and It Hates Publishers UPDATE: Harper Collins is also now demanding better terms from Amazon. Click HERE to read comments by News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch. …
There's an entire industry of people online now who making a living out of subcontracting writing work out to other writers - often for far less than they're being paid by their client. I have nothing against hiring ghostwriters, nor against ghostwriting. However, I do have a problem with someone taking a "job" for $500, and paying another writer $5 to do it. …
We suspected Amazon would want to settle before discovery began and we were right. …
Many authors ask me if they should choose a POD publisher based on the traffic the publisher's website gets. This is what I tell them: A common misconception among new authors is, "If I put it online, it will sell!" …
The publishing sites were abuzz last week over Amazon's claim that they sold more Kindle ebooks than print books on Christmas Day. The press release doesn't name the Kindle ebooks that were "sold" (but, oddly enough, it does name some best selling print books). When I heard about the press release, I went to Amazon.com to see what was "selling" so well. …
I really am trying to be on "vacation" this week (ha ha). But, as a follow-up on last week's piece, Google Ordered to Pay French Publisher $430K for Copyright Infringement, I also found an article about a well-known author who has terminated her 36-year relationship with the Author's Guild because of their dealings with Google. Read it HERE. HAVE A SUPER AND SAFE NEW YEAR'S EVE, EVERYONE!!! …
I'm supposed to be taking my holiday break (ha ha - like that ever really happens!) but I wanted to let you know about this latest Google Books development. …
I'm sharing readers' comments that arrived after the article was published. Don't miss the last one! …
With all the hubbub about content mills (and how many believe they are responsible for declining pay rates for freelancers), I can't help but wonder if they are also contributing to the decline of the quality of writing on the Internet... …
At the risk of offending some authors, and after yet another uncomfortable and embarrassing email discussion with an author this week, I must bring this up. Many authors choose to put their photo inside or on the cover of their book. This is usually a good idea because readers want to get to know the authors of the books they read. Sometimes, however, a photo can kill a book. How? Well, again, this is a bit uncomfortable but somebody needs to say it. So, here goes... …
I'm still hacking and sneezing so this week I'm going to share another installment of our popular column, World's Worst Book Proposals. Yes, we can learn from others' mistakes! …
Over the past few months, at WritersWeekly.com, I've been posting a missive about the common themes in entries submitted for the previous 24-Hour Short Story Contest. We've received lots of positive feedback so I'll continue to do this for future contests. …
We have been profiling content mills and companies that have revenue sharing / pay-per-click programs. You know the type. They either offer insultingly low rates for articles (and often take all rights)...or you work your butt off to fill their site with content, and promote their site to get lots of clicks and/or ad revenue. They then earn money on ads placed on your content pages and you usually end up earning less than minimum wage, if anything at all. Last week, I issued a call for writers who write, or have written, for Demand Studios / DemandStudios.com... …
Two weeks ago, we pondered if AllVoices.com, which runs lots of ads for writers, is just another pay-per-click meat market. Last week, the CEO and founder of AllVoices.com refused to reveal how much her contributors are (or aren't) making. This week, we're going to wrap this up by letting readers weigh in on these types of services...including one who is a previous AllVoices.com contributor... …
Last week, we pondered if AllVoices.com, which runs lots of ads for writers, is just another pay-per-click meat market. I issued a call for AllVoices.com contributors to contact me, and to share their experiences. This is what I wrote at the end of the article: So, this week I'd be interested in knowing how many writers Allvoices.com has and the total amount they've paid out to their "Citizen Journalists" since they launched. I'd also be curious how much the highest earners have earned versus the lowest earners. And, I'd be curious to know what percentage of their contributors have earned less than, say, $100 in the past year. I'm also wondering how long it takes to write a typical article for them and what the pay breaks down to by hour - for the average "Citizen Journalist", of course. I bet they wouldn't give me any of this info. Surprisingly, not one AllVoices.com contributor contacted me with answers to my questions. However, I did get an email from the founder of AllVoices.com... …
What is up with all these content-hungry websites, you may be wondering? It seems like every other help-wanted ad we see for writers now is from a company that pays measly pennies (or less) per click for a writer's blood, sweat and tears. …
Each week, while looking for legitimate freelance jobs to link to in WritersWeekly, I see dozens of jobs that make me shudder. Below are examples taken from real help-wanted ads - ads that all freelancers should avoid at all costs. …
In last week's Q&A, I briefly mentioned how some so-called "literary agents" claim to have landed book contracts for their authors. But, on further study, you may discover these are actually contracts with fee-based companies...and some of those companies may be owned by the agents themselves! …
You must opt-out of the Google settlement this week or be bound to whatever terms they specify for *your* books! …
