Letters and Comments

Letters To The Editor For June 18th

Published on June 18, 2008

This Week:

  • How Many Bookmarks and Personalized Pencils Make a Best Seller? None!!
  • The Amazon / BookSurge Lawsuit
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Privacy – Be Careful What You Write!

Published on May 28, 2008

Angela, I am a faithful reader of your articles. Rarely am I moved to respond to one, but "Writing as Healing" struck a nerve with me. Be very very careful with this regarding who may read it. Long story made much shorter as explanation. As a child I suffered from having an alcoholic mother. My only outlet was keeping a diary where I vented. Mother read it and retaliated. At the age of 15, I ran away from home, never to return. Fortunately, my older sister let me stay with them. Who knows what my life would have been like otherwise? I am now 60 and this is something I do not talk about, or even think about very often, but perhaps it may be worth mentioning to warn others. SK …

Invasion of Privacy vs. Libel

Published on May 21, 2008

Hi Angela: Just off the cuff, I think there's more to this issue. I believe privacy laws vary from state to state, and in any case there may be defenses against these sorts of action. With libel, I know, if statements are accurate that is a legal defense. Newspapers and TV news would be out of business if these sort of privacy claims were valid. Admittedly they have bigger legal funds than the average author. Still, it would undermine the intent and credibility of memoirs if personal information of the kind you mention had to be changed in a radical way. I'm all for being sensitive to people's feelings, and perhaps changing or omitting names in exceptional circumstances (having alerted the reader to that alteration). But for a father to delete references to children and grandchildren seems to go too far. As I say, these are spontaneous thoughts, offered without benefit of research. Andrew Means …

Another Brave POD Publisher Tells Amazon How It’s Going Be!

Published on May 14, 2008

I am a self-published author and owner of GungHo Pages, LLC, who recently signed on with Lightning Source POD services. I have been following the Amazon/BookSurge dilemma for a few months now, continually checking to see if my Buy Buttons are still intact. They are. So I am doing my best to keep myself up-to-date and carving out alternative avenues for distributing my books. I will stay with Amazon until they remove my Buy Button. But if and when they do, I will simply take my business elsewhere where it is more respected and appreciated...and perhaps post a few articles on the web about my not-so-positive experiences with the companies in question! Signing out, ABCrane, author of The Tao of Mao: How Capitalist America and Communist China Paved the Way to Each Other …

Vacation

Published on May 7, 2008

Letters will return next week. …

Letters To The Editor For April 30th

Published on April 30, 2008

  • We're Not the Only Ones Disturbed by the Washington State Attorney General Letter...
  • One Thing Leads to Another!
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What’s Up With THIS?!

Published on April 23, 2008

I'm not sure if you've heard but the Dear Author blog has a 600+ comment post about romance writer Deborah McGillivray and the Amazon system. Here is the link. There is also a petition in place to try to get Amazon to change their rating system. See: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/amazon_change/ Keep up the good fight. A.T. …

Letters To The Editor For April 9th

Published on April 9, 2008

New Letters Regarding the Amazon/Booksurge situation are here: https://www.writersweekly.com/amazon-comments-2.php Online Book Marketing That WORKS! Hi Angela, First, I just wanted to thank you for your series of articles on promotion. A little bit of concentrated work really does go a long way and it's such a boost! I have been sending books out to key people, including some writing websites that regularly give prizes. My book, The Unlikely Missionary is featured as a prize this week on TheDabblingMum.com and the editor asked to interview me. Just wanted to say thanks, Elizabeth Brady …

YES, IT’S AN OUTRAGE!

Published on April 2, 2008

We received more letters in the past week regarding the Amazon situation than we have ever received in the history of publishing WritersWeekly (launched in 1997). Just a few are published here. …

More Than One Way to Expose a Deadbeat – Readers Respond

Published on March 27, 2008

Hi, Angela! I just wanted to update you on (my situation). I took your advice and wrote to the CEO of (the publishing company), included my paperwork, and happily, it worked. It took about three weeks for them to "respond" by completing the bank transfer--no one apologized or even acknowledged receipt of my letter--but they finally deposited my payment on March 10th. Thank you so much for all your help and advice, and especially for that last bit of encouragement not to back down. Take care, and happy Easter! --E. …

Letters To The Editor For March 19th

Published on March 19, 2008

This week:

  • All Editors Should Pay On Acceptance!
  • Re: The Mathematics of Freelancing: What's Your Hourly Rate?
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Subtly Promoting Your Book on Other People’s Blogs

Published on March 12, 2008

Subtly Promoting Your Book on Other People's Blogs One of the best ways to find out what's happening on blogs related to your area of interest is to go to Google Reader: https://www.google.com/reader You can put in key words or specific sites. "Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Whether a site updates daily or monthly, you can be sure that you won't miss a thing." Each day when I check, I find out which terms or sites have new content. I click on the new ones and get a list of topics with a sentence or two about the content. I can then click on the arrow to go to that site and see if there is something there I want to comment on. Jaimie (Hall) Bruzenak https://www.rvhometown.com (Coming soon: https://www.RVLifestyleExperts.com) Blog: RV Home Yet? https://rvhometown.typepad.com Author of Support Your RV Lifestyle and other RV books …

Blogs vs. Ezines

Published on January 30, 2008

Regarding Angela's statement: "Ezines Are Better Than Blogs: You Gotta Reach Out to Readers, Not Wait for Them to Remember You Exist" Hi Angela, Just a quick note about blogs vs. newsletters and people having to remember to come back. This is true, but one thing you can do on most blogs is install an email sign up from Feedburner. This sends your post to the subscriber's email. I've subscribed to a blog this way and I like that the post comes to my inbox. If someone uses Blogger.com (free version), there's even a button that will do the install for you right on the Feedburner site once you set up an account (no cost). I even figured it out for the blog I'm going to launch shortly and I'm very much NOT tech-oriented. If by chance you aren't familiar with this feature, you can see how I've set mine up if you'd like at https://www.publishinganswers.blogspot.com. Some people also send a newsletter that simply has a few words with links to their blogs to help avoid the sp*am filters. This could also be an option for some as well who don't have time to write a lot and do both. Hope I've helped in some way. Have a great day. Cheryl Pickett …

Letters To The Editor For January 16th

Published on January 16, 2008

Your newsletter is the most valuable resource out there, bar none. No come ons, gimmicks, or insulting get rich quick schemes. You tell it like it is, and it's much appreciated. Tris …

Holidays

Published on January 2, 2008

Letters will return after the holidays. …

Holidays

Published on December 26, 2007

Letters will return after the holidays. …

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