Over the past few months, after each quarterly short story contest, I've been posting missives 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. …
Fiction author Piers Anthony has been a thorn in my side for years. He runs an "Internet Publishing" page that he presents as an "accurate" source, but, in my opinion, it contains numerous inaccuracies, submitted by "anonymous sources." …
The word CENSORSHIP is sure thrown around a lot these days. It has a very negative connotation about it, don't you think? But, it is really a BAD word? It was previously used primarily when speaking of government action...but the word Censor is far more widely used today. …
Last week, we pondered if Examiner.com, which seems to be running ads for writers EVERYWHERE, is just another pay-per-click meat market. I issued a call for "Examiners" to contact me, and to share their experiences. Sadly, some Examiners are working very hard for very, very little money...and seem very happy to be doing so. You'll see that not everybody below is disgruntled so we believe this represents a fair sampling of Examiners. …
We received a complaint about the terms this company offers contributors so we decided to check it out. You've likely seen the hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of ads posted on the Internet by Examiner.com, which seems to perpetually need writers. You can bet that anyone posting this many help wanted ads is offering really, really low pay. …
My POD Best Practices articles series states that POD publishers "should not do business of any kind under a false name." A reader notified me last week about a website that appeared to be set up to help authors find the best "indie publisher" for their book... …
There are lots of snakes in the Print on Demand (POD) industry. While most companies charge too much, way too much, there are a few that offer good services at reasonable prices. Some of those even offer reasonable customer service! This week, we are consolidating the entire list from Part I, Part II, and Part III. But, first, I need to rant. Being a POD publisher myself, I hear from authors who have been ripped off by other POD publishers on almost a daily basis. Some of their stories make me sick. From elderly authors who were convinced to give more and more and more of their retirement money to the POD publisher (who knew all along that person's memoirs would likely never sell more than a few copies to family members), to authors who paid thousands when they could have paid hundreds to a better POD publisher, to authors who were forced to pay hundreds to fix the POD publisher's own mistakes, to authors who gave up rights to their current and future books to a company that pretended to be a "traditional publisher" but who was just another form of vanity publisher, preying on authors and hoping they would buy more and more and more books. …
There are lots of snakes in the Print on Demand (POD) industry. While most companies charge too much, way too much, there are a few that offer good services at reasonable prices. Some of those even offer reasonable customer service! We are currently compiling a list of "Best Practices" for the POD industry and we'd love to have you share your ideas with us! In Parts I and II, we discussed things a POD publisher should and should not do. Here's a breakdown... …
Amazon recently announced they would be removing other book names and links from book reviews. Some so-called book reviewers are furious about it...because they were accustomed to using Amazon's book reviews option to promote themselves. While I'm no fan of Amazon, for once, they're doing something I agree with! …
There are lots of snakes in the Print on Demand (POD) industry. And, while most companies charge too much, way too much, there are a few that offer good services at reasonable prices. And, some of those even offer reasonable customer service! I thought it would be fun to start compiling a list of "Best Practices" for the POD industry. …
There are lots of snakes in the Print on Demand (POD) industry. And, while most companies charge too much, way too much, there are a few that offer good services at reasonable prices. And, some of those even offer pretty good customer service! I thought it would be fun this week to come up with a list of "Best Practices" for the POD industry. …
Three weeks ago, I published this article: What Recession?! Plenty of Freelance Jobs for Writers! In the article, I talked about how the media keeps telling us the sky is falling...but that every restaurant and store in our town (and other towns we traveled through, down to Virginia and back last month) seems to have a full parking lot. I received lots of emails from readers who reported the same thing in their towns. You can read a couple of the emails I received about the article HERE. This week, I'm going to share some links to more good publishing financial news with you... …
In case you've been living under a rock, there is a pending class-action settlement involving authors / publishers and Google. Basically, the lawsuit was brought by authors and publishers who claimed Google violated their copyrights when it scanned books and featured them, or portions thereof, online without permission of the copyright holders. Of course, Google denies the claims (snicker) even though the books are still featured at books.google.com! Anyway, what's in it for you? Well, you get to decide. You can either opt-in and get $60 per book (read the fine print!) if you are the sole copyright holder of a book. Or, you can opt-out (which means you can sue Google later if you want to). …
Over the past few months, I've been posting a missive about the common themes in entries submitted for the previous 24-Hour Short Story Contest. We received lots of positive feedback so I'll continue to do this for future contests. For the past month, I've spent every spare moment judging the hundreds of entries submitted for the Winter 2009 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, take a rest from your busy day. Sit back, relax, and step into...a mysterious wedding scene? …
Gads, if I receive one more query letter from a writer on how writers can survive a bad economy, I'm going to scream. I believe a lot of what is happening is caused by panic. What better way to incite panic than to help the rest of the yell-fire-in-the-theater journalists by publishing yet another article on the bad economy? …
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. …
One of the banes of our existence as a POD publisher is that most of our competitors don't vet manuscripts for quality and, thus, publish a lot of garbage. Sure, there are some gems in there but, heavens, if you saw what we see on a daily basis, you'd be amazed. I'm not trying to be harsh or to hurt anybody's feelings but, honestly, wouldn't you want somebody to tell you if your book was really, really bad before it went into print? Sadly, most POD publishers are far more interested in how much money they can get out of you than they are in the quality of your book. …
Here's a letter I received last week from a disgruntled Xlibris.com author. This has nothing to do with the purchase of the company as this has been going on at Xlibris for years. …
There aren't too many things that frustrate me during the course of a day. If Mason potties on the floor instead of making it to the toilet, that frustrates me. When my computer shuts itself down before I've saved my current document, that frustrates me. And, when somebody asks me to Google something for them, when they obviously can very well do it themselves - and faster than it took them to email me - that frustrates me. The people that frustrate me the most, however, are the ones that send me emails like the one below. …
Last week, I wrote about the new trend of authors who "just want to sit at home and write" and who don't want to market their own books. Many hopeful authors mistakenly believe a traditional publisher is going to pour marketing bucks into their book. This just doesn't happen. I wrote, "I'd love if some of you who have traditional contracts would contact me and tell me what your publisher did or didn't do to promote your book vs. what you had to do to promote your book. It's rare to meet an author who feels their publisher has adequately promoted their book." Of all the responses I received, only one author claimed he was happy with his publisher's marketing efforts. Here are some of the emails I received... …
I'm noticing a disturbing trend. At least once a week now, I'm contacted by an author who is seeking a self-publisher that actively markets their book for them...for free. …
Several months ago, we ran a feature that revealed the shipping costs charged by POD publishers on author orders (large-quantity purchases). Today, we're comparing the shipping costs POD publishers are charging YOUR readers - the customer who drops by to order a book from the publisher at the recommendation of the author. Yes, inflated shipping costs CAN impact your sales! …
Here are a few examples of what we believe is "hot air" on some POD publishers' websites. Of course, this is our opinion. You can form your own. …
Last week, we talked about FORCED MARRIAGE: When POD Publishers Take Your Money AND Your Rights. This week, I'm going to discuss a disturbing trend among POD publishers. The list prices of some POD publishers' books are going up - and fast. Some of these prices are so high that authors know potential readers will not buy their books. Authors should not spend hundreds to thousands to publish a book that will ultimately be priced beyond what the market will bear! …
A year ago, I published POD SECRETS REVEALED: You Pay...But THEY Own the Rights, an article exposing how many POD publishers charge authors for services, but then claim the rights to the materials the author paid them to create. Let's face it. If an author pays hundreds to thousands to a company, and then can't get copies of their production files to use elsewhere, how in the world can that author afford to move their book to another publisher if they're unhappy? …
Author Thomas Rey Benjey filed a lawsuit against Amazon/BookSurge alleging copyright infringement. …
After the Summer contest, I posted a missive about the common themes in entries submitted for the Summer 24-Hour Short Story Contest. We received lots of positive feedback so I'm doing it again this quarter. …
Several months ago, we started offering a "disgruntled author's special" to authors who aren't happy with their current POD publisher. If they move their book to BookLocker, they only have to pay $99 in setup fees, which is the same special we give to all returning authors (meaning authors only pay $99 setup fees on their second and subsequent books published through BookLocker). Why do we do this? …
Think you're safe from the Amazon/BookSurge ultimatum because you're in the United Kingdom? Think again. You might be next! Amazon has launched a POD service in the U.K. While they say "We are offering titles that are being produced by other print on demand providers" - they don't say they'll continue to do so. Read more HERE. …
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! Featured below are real quotes from book proposals submitted to me over the past year. …
Sometimes I read stuff online that makes my blood boil. I'm serious. My face gets red and my heart starts pounding because I get SO MAD! …
While I see lots of "employment" ads each week asking writers to write for free, I can count on one hand how many people have approached me directly, asking ME to write for free over the past decade...because most people know how I feel about writing for free. Last week, I ran a link to a video showing Harlan Ellison talking about how insulting it is to ask a writer to write for free. So, I was shocked when the owner of a writing blog wrote to me this week, asking me to write for her...for free. I'm going to share our exchange with you below but I'll paraphrase her emails since she refused to give me permission to publish them. …
In the past several years, I've done the majority of my Christmas shopping online at Amazon.com. Since we boycotted and sued Amazon after they tried to force us to pay them to print our books, I've been scurrying around online, trying to figure out where I can send my Christmas business this year. …
After running last week's article, Who REALLY Controls That ISBN You Bought? Probably Not You!, I received the following email from Andy Weissberg at R.R. Bowker... …
Last week, I received an email from a guy claiming to be the head of Bowker, the ISBN agency. Whoa! Why was the "head" of Bowker contacting me? The email implied we were doing something wrong... …
I've been making notes about common themes that are emerging in the entries for our Summer 2008 24-Hour Short Story Contest. I thought I'd share these with you today so you can see how difficult it is for some writers to come up with completely original variations of a common theme. …
