I am curious to know your take on a situation I have encountered the last few months with publications--their editors, in particular--whose "writers wanted" ads I have responded to after seeing them listed in WritersWeekly's jobs and opportunities. The issue is this: professional courtesy and timeliness in responding to e-mail and returning phone calls. …
Q. The editor of the local paper, who serialized my first book after it was published, suggests I serialize my next book as it progresses, BEFORE publication. What do you suggest? A. The original star of electronic book serialization (not newspaper) was famous novelist Doug Clegg. Years ago, long before Stephen King took a shot at it, Clegg was distributing a free chapter of his book to his fans every Friday, via email... …
In writing my autobiography, is it okay to incorporate material one sees on the Internet if there are no conditons such as; "cannot be copied, etc., without the author's permission?" …
My book has been out of print for a long time but it is still listed for sale on lots of websites. Why? …
I wrote an article for a small magazine that was accepted for their January 2005 issue. There were no rights discussed (I'm not so naive now!), just the acceptance, which read that they had accepted my article and to let them know if I had any questions. Now I would like to use the article in its entirety in my upcoming book. Do I need to secure permission? …
I want to publish a funny celebrity quote on my book cover. Can I legally do this? …
I think I heard somewhere that if one is writing a book on the subject, you can't take chapters and send them into magazines as articles. But, I don't know if that's true, and don't know the reasoning behind it. …
I sent a review copy of my book ON REQUEST to a journalist...and he then tried to sell me an ad!…
"I found an image online that I want to use on my book cover but I can't find out who owns it. Isn't everything on the Internet royalty free?" …
I don't understand why my publisher, Ingram and Amazon aren't marketing my book. Isn't that what they do? …
How do I go about finding a legit agent? Is an agent paid up front, or does agent take a percentage of the book sales? …
I have been unable to find a clear definition of what "freelance writing" is and is not. …
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... …
Between what I've written prior to your class and all the new stories cascading from your memory triggers, I need some advice. I'm writing to ask a question about naming real characters in stories. Since this is a memoir, I figured it's appropriate to keep honest and name names. It's certainly easier to keep track of everyone this way. However, some of the people I have written about are not likely to appreciate this. For example, I had a fourth grade teacher who went around the bend one day. I'm quite sure she's dead, but who knows? Then, there was the bully at school. Although his crime was nothing to alert the S.W.A.T. team over, it had a huge impact on me. Oh, and my family? I had 41 first cousins, 35 on my Mother's side. They couldn't agree on a memory if they were there. HELP! How do you suggest I handle this? …
I am considering two different POD companies, BookLocker and CreateSpace. From what I can see, CreateSpace (owned by Amazon) has no set up fee but you pay a little more for each book sold. Honestly, after reading all the information you provide, I like your approach and I have purchased a book from you and I like the way it feels and looks, but I am having trouble justifying paying $500 when I can pay $0 in set up fees. Can you tell me if I am missing something with CreateSpace? I see they are not one of the companies you discussed in the comparison article. Thanks for any additional information you can provide! …
I was reading the web page of Booklocker.com and I saw your name in there. What I would like to know is; are there any POD publishers out there who take books back from the bookstores? …
I have a question, in a guideline I received it said that the submissions should be in "AP" style. I have looked all over the place or places and I can find no reference to AP style. Do you know what that means? Please help!! …
Just a short note to state my opinion about the way writers are paid. Personally I think it is an insult what some magazines offer. How can you ask for 6,000 words and pay between $10.00 & $25.00 for it? I don't know of any writers who can knock off 6,000 words the first time without several rewrites. Do they think they are doing us a favor by publishing what we write??? They certainly aren't paying for the privilege of using our work. This isn't just a few. It is most of what I've come across. It takes me forever to find an editor willing to pay for what they want. They ask for perfection and offer zilch in return. Who works for 10 cents an hour. Writers???? Why do they offer such a piss poor excuse for a payment! I was in business management and accounting. That was the way to support my family. Now I'm disabled and I can do what I love, writing. Maybe I think in dollars and cents because of my previous occupation but I don't think it's right to offer next to nothing for hard work. I've searched many places and it is an insult to be offered a nothing amount. Why do they do that?? …
A local publication owes me $325 and change for several stories of mine it published in October and November (originally scheduled for September, but they cancelled that issue). Over the past six weeks I've received probably a half-dozen promises that payment was forthcoming ("at the end of the week", "next week", "overnight by Friday", etc.). Finally, after much frustrated follow-up, I received an e-mail from the publisher saying that advertising has been slow (which I knew), he is owed a lot of money by advertisers, he hasn't taken payment himself in three months and he hopes things will be better after the new year. I'm sympathetic, but this doesn't change the fact that I'm owed money for work I did at his request more than three months ago - and a portion of what I'm owed is even repayment for an expense I incurred at his request. Do you have any tips for squeezing blood out of a turnip, as it were? What is my recourse? Is there any binding way for me to make sure that when money does come in to him, he pays me before he pays expenses for a next issue? …
I'm active on a new forum and have received two emails from someone in Spain asking to buy 40 "combo" packages ASAP. I had to repeatedly explain that I don't do that kind of shipping and he should contact my publisher. Is this a scam? …
Is it common for freelancers to get an "offer" to write while also being told that more details of their assignment will come after they sign a contract and return it? The contract in question has a space in section two where it states that the details and pay rates for the assignment will be given out at a different time and on a separate contract. …
I've been contacted by a foreign-language publisher who's asking for foreign rights to my self-published book. What should I do? …
I purchased a two-year, 5-page, "website tonight" package from GoDaddy.com for $45/year. I would appreciate any suggestions you might have regarding important things that should be included? …
My POD publisher just raised the price of my book but it's way too high and I can't sell it at this price. What can I do?…
As I read it, I give up all rights if I submit to this [Glamour magazine] contest and the copyright is worthless. Do you agree? …
I found an article I wrote online, published without my permission. They claim they got permission from another company (the company I first sold the article to - and it was *not* a work-for-hire job!). I sent them an invoice. However, they didn't agree to pay my invoice, only to remove my article. What should I do? Tell him that's not good enough. You can't take away somebody's copyrights and then restore them just like that (snap!). It's like spending someone's rare coin at the store and then trying to pay them back with a quarter. And, the fact that they got caught using stolen goods isn't your concern. They shouldn't be publishing articles without speaking to the writer directly. Obviously, you can't always trust companies that claim they have permission to resell/share articles with others. …
I thoroughly enjoy WritersWeekly, and especially appreciate your views about the publishing industry. An acquaintance wrote me recently to tell me that he saw my book posted on Google Books. I hadn't heard of Google Books and was somewhat shocked to discover a majority of my book's pages posted in full on the site. Isn't this protected by a copyright? Is this good or bad for authors and publishers? I'd love to hear your opinion! …
I wanted a work at home job so I signed up for a work at home site. I got an email saying FreelanceHomeWriters.com is a legitimate site. I have not paid anything yet. I'm very skeptical because they are wanting 2.95 to ship a cd, then after seven days 40 dollars or something like that monthly. I was wondering if you know if this is a scam or not? …
I need a book publicist. Is there one you can recommend? …
What do you think about companies that create and distribute press releases? Do you think it's worth the money? …
