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. …
Through WritersWeekly Whispers and Warnings, we publicize deadbeats, scams targeting writers, and even lowly spammers (who also target writers). The names of these jerks pop right up on google, through our Whispers and Warnings posts, and also through other websites, like ripoffreport.com. They are ripe for the picking by any writer willing to take the time to google a potential client's name. Sadly, I hear from writers all the time who type a varying version of this: "Aaarghh! I wish I'd googled that deadbeat's name before working for/with him/her!" …
Last week, I received an email from an author who was perturbed that we didn't offer something similar to what he received via email (spam!) from another POD publisher. What was it? A $199 manuscript evaluation. If you paid and then decided to use that POD publisher later, you could deduct $199 from your setup fees. They could (probably do!) then upsell you on their expensive editing services that their manuscript evaluation very likely will say you need. Now, come on. Do you really think they're going to tell you your manuscript is perfect? No way... …
Each week, when researching job links to distribute through WritersWeekly, I see specific red flags in some job ads. This week, I'll share some with you. …
Many authors sign up with a self-publishing/POD company, innocently expecting to pay a certain price...only to discover they'd need to pay more for services you'd expect would be included in every basic package. Here are some not-so-humorous examples... …
This week, we're going to pitch ourselves as interview sources to online radio shows. …
Lots of authors are turned on by the bells and whistles offered by some of the POD publishers. They seem to think if they just buy this, that, or the other, their book will be a success. Before they know it, they've spent several hundred to several thousand dollars... …
Yesterday, after work, while flipping through the mail, you find a postcard from Author Anne. It's a pretty postcard. It shows her book cover on one side, and has a brief description of the book on the other. But, you receive marketing postcards everyday...and you can't pick up the book and thumb through it. You're not online right now so you can't click to read more about the book. You leave it on the counter and forget about it. Later, you use it to push some crumbs into the sink and then you throw it away. …
A couple of years ago, I published this article - My Time to Whine: When A Contest Sponsor Gets FED UP! It primarily described how the actions of some writing contest entrants can make somebody want to stop hosting a popular contest completely. Today, I'm going to give you some hints on how to stand out in the crowd during your next writing contest. …
This article appeared in Monday's Special Edition of WritersWeekly.com. You may reprint this article or quote from it at your discretion. You can read/post comments here: https://antitrust.booklocker.com BookLocker.com has filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon.com in response to Amazon's recent attempts to force all publishers using Print on Demand (POD) technology to pay Amazon to print their books. …
We recently received an angry email from a woman who claimed her father's book, which we published, constituted a violation of her privacy... …
This article was ready to publish a month ago when we exposed the Amazon/Booksurge Ultimatum. While we're, of course, still publishing updates about Amazon/Booksurge, I'm VERY happy that we're able to get back to book selling this week! …
Well, if it looks like a competitor, and acts like a competitor, and smells like a competitor... …
$500 Reward Offered for Information Leading to the REAL Identity of PODdy Mouth Imagine being contacted by one of your customers one day and being alerted to a blogger who is posting false statements and insults about you and many of your competitors on a continuing basis. Furthermore, the blogger is writing under a fake name...which previously belonged to someone else in the industry - a respected person - who had recently retired. To add insult to injury, when you approach this blogger to correct some of the numerous errors in their blog, they post more false statements about you, attack you personally, call you names like "ugly" and "self-masturbatory", and then blacklist you so you can no longer post comments in your own defense...all the while continuing to post false statements and refusing to correct the previously published inaccuracies. This situation is occurring right now. Read the entire story on Preditors & Editors HERE. ~~~~ REWARD!!! If you are the first to tell us the real identity of PODdy Mouth (not the original POD-dy Mouth, but the one mentioned above), and can provide verifiable proof of his/her identity, we will send you $500. We will, of course, respect your identity, but you must tell us who you really are because PODdy Mouth may very well try to trick us into implicating someone else. Please spread the word. If you know who PODdy Mouth is (or even if you want to weigh in with a guess for fun), contact: angela - at - writersweekly.com If you or your business has had a similar unfortunate experience with PODdy Mouth, we'd like to hear about that as well. Three industry executives, when recently asked on separate occasions who they think PODdy Mouth is, all immediately gave the EXACT same answer... …
Since WritersWeekly broke the Amazon Ultimatum Story two weeks ago, news has traveled quickly across the globe and it didn't take long for everyone, including book buyers, authors, publishers, and writing organizations, to weigh in against Amazon's actions... …
Tuesday, April 1st, was the rumored deadline Amazon.com gave to some POD publishers to sign an agreement allowing their printing division, BookSurge, to print each publisher's book to be sold through Amazon, or risk having their "buy" buttons turned off on the Amazon.com website... …
Some Print on Demand (POD) publishers are privately screaming "Monopoly!" while others are seething with rage over startling phone conversations they're having with Amazon/BookSurge representatives. Why isn't anybody talking about it openly? Because they're afraid - very, very afraid... …
This week, we're going to list our ebook for sale at some ebookstores and also take advantage of a few free ebook directories... …
This week, we're going to subtly promote our book(s) while posting comments on major news sites. I don't know about you but I love reading Letters to the Editor in newspapers and magazines. The letters section is one of the first places I look when I'm reading a periodical. The great news is, in increasing numbers, newspapers, magazines, and other news websites are allowing readers to post comments about articles, often instantly, on their websites, directly under each article. You can find a list of the nation's 100 largest newspapers right here... …
In case you're a newbie, a blog is a regularly-updated personal journal that is posted online. Special software enables bloggers to post their comments instantly online. No HTML! Yea! Blogs have exploded in recent years because they make publishing online so easy and because they are usually of a more personal nature than professional websites. Blogs seem to attract the voyeur in all of us... …
This week, we're going to meet some new groups of people while subtly marketing our book. I'm quite a social butterfly online and participating in online discussion groups is something I'd do for fun... …
This week, we're gonna drum up some free advertising in ezines, blogs, websites and maybe even some magazines. If you can't/won't spend money to place ads in magazines, ezines, blogs and websites, you might still be able to get them to mention your book. How? By offering them free content to publish. Remember the book excerpts we formatted during Week II? Well, let's see if we can get those published in some periodicals that are already serving your book's target audience... …
This week, we're going to expand our online marketing reach. We're going to cozy up to websites, zines and blogs that have good Google rankings! …
Last week, we discussed how important it is to offer a free excerpt of your book. We also shared URLs to "free article" websites where you can post your excerpt as an "article." Unfortunately, fiction authors are sometimes left out in the cold in this area. How do you turn a fiction excerpt into an "article?" Well, good luck with that. The good news is now you don't have to! …
Last week, we talked about sad assumptions and irrational expectations new authors usually have about book sales. We then discussed the dire need for an author to have his OWN website (not a URL controlled by someone else) and a periodical (ezine/blog) to market their book. …
This week, we're going to start a new series on successfully marketing your book online. If you have any unique or lucrative online marketing ideas to share, please send them along to me at: angela - at - writersweekly.com SAD ASSUMPTIONS AND IRRATIONAL EXPECTATIONS There once was a pencil maker named Peter who puttered around popping out pretty pencils from his place in Pennsylvania. After many months of hard work, he finally finished his first box of pencils and Peter the Pencil Pusher was now enthusiastically pushing those pencils on local store owners and some online stores as well. Peter finally managed to get the local pencil store to carry his box of pencils. He went in there, week after week, but his pretty pencils were still there on the shelf, gathering dust, surrounded by thousands, perhaps millions, of other people's pencils. Nobody bought his pencils! Peter didn't understand! His pencils were so special! Why didn't anybody pick up and pay for his pretty pencils? Peter also listed his box of pretty pencils for sale on the biggest online pencil store in the world... …
I received the following letter last week: I was interested in your article on book return policies. Recently, I published a book with AuthorHouse and was expected to contact bookstores myself. When they found out there wasn't a return policy in place they wouldn't order my book. AuthorHouse then came out with a fee (currently $699) for book returns. They wouldn't cooperate with advertising either even though it was part of the package. The publisher would not help with the most important part of the presentation of my book. Both publisher and bookstores expected me to do it all myself. …
This time of year, most of us are feeling ambitious and thinking about ideas for new books we want to write. It always happens to me, too. New Year's Day = New Book Ideas! I can't help it. They come spilling out of my brain faster than I can process them. In fact, I have a "book ideas" folder in my email box. It's filled to the brim with ideas for books that I will never, ever have time to write. …
Last week, I wrote about paper sculptures, personalized dolls, and personalized snow globes. The snow globe materials arrived this week but it's slow going so I don't have any pictures of the finished goodies to show you yet. We took photos of the children that make it appear they are holding their breath and swimming in the globes.. I originally took photos of the backs of the children, too, so there wouldn't be just white photo paper on their backs. Well, that didn't work... …
I have a big problem buying stuff for people who already have everything... especially when I know they probably won't want whatever I could find on sale at the mall or at the department store. I'd much rather spend less money, but more time, making homemade gifts for family members and close friends. …
If your home business has grown to the point of bursting, and you are thinking about hiring someone, but don't want the headaches associated with that, you should seriously consider trying to automate some of your processes. …
Okay, I need to confess something to all of you. I have a problem with... delegation, the act of entrusting another to MY work. That's right. MY work. I like to maintain complete control of our business at all times. From A to Z (accounting to Zach), I am convinced that if I am not controlling everything simultaneously then things will definitely and completely fall apart. I recognized this problem long ago, and I know the stress my little control problem causes is probably slowly killing me. But, I was always afraid to turn over my tasks to another person. And, it seemed the time it would take to train someone to do it would just take up even more time that I did not have! Over the summer, our business boomed and it got to the point where I had to finally say, "No more!" My breaking point turned out to be a blessing. …
Last week, I gave you a tour of our hectic house and "home office." That was important because it gave you a good idea about how our surroundings can affect our productivity (and creativity!). This week, I'm going to share how we manage to homeschool Max while we work more than full-time on our business... …
Today, I'm starting a series on organization, automation, and delegation. How does one run a house, a marriage, five children, and a business in only 24 hours a day? It's not always easy! The keys are organization, automation, and delegation. Today, I'll give you a tour of our house and explain how we (try to) keep it organized. …
I'm pretty backed up this week so I'm going to share another installment of our popular column, World's Worst Book Proposals. Yes, these are real! Enjoy! In the actual book - Chapter 1, Line 3: A person who practices witchcraft is indeed a witch, yet what is a witch and how does a witch practices witchcraft. …
DISCLAIMER: Many deadbeats use legal threats and intimidation to try to scare their victims. These bullying tactics are common when you're dealing with psychotic, anti-social crooks. While anybody can sue anybody for anything these days, you should remember that they would have to open all their books in the event of a lawsuit and many deadbeats don't want to do this. In addition, they would likely have to sue you in your own state. And, defamation lawsuits are hard to prove and may be very expensive, especially if they are out of state. Ironically, some deadbeats would rather pay their attorney thousands than pay a writer the hundreds they legitimately owe. But, their legal hot air is usually just that - hot air. You may want to consult an attorney if you plan to take the action below against the deadbeat. We aren't attorneys and none of this should be considered legal advice. …
