Hello, writers. I’m back from Merrye Olde, where I hoped to learn a lot about sailing ships for my longterm work-in-progress Ghost Ships, and did.
Thanks to doughty writers mettle fatigue, bonetti and dconrad for hosting and for getting DaKoWriMo going and keeping it rolling.
And thanks to the eagle-eyed dconrad for noticing that my regular links about writing scams are out of date.
Absolute Write, which was a yuge forum for writers with threads on many topics, including what were often knock-down-drag-out flame wars about various small “alternative” publishers (who frequently turned up in the threads to defend themselves) appears to be engaged in some kind of drama. They say they’ll be back. (That’s a Facebook link, fair warning. I hate Facebook links.)
Preditors & Editors, which listed publishers and agents alphabetically with notes about their reputations, seems to have first gone offline due to the death or incapacity the original founder… it’s not clear. The people who then took it on have apparently run into trouble with threats, an unfortunate aspect of exposing scammers. The site’s still there, but asks for personal contact info right off the bat. I’m not going to link it.
Writer Beware, under the name of the late A.C. Crispin but maintained for many, many years by the indefatigable Victoria Strauss, soldiers on.
When I first started Write On!, a particular kind of scam was rife in publishing. It involved so-called “alternative” or “hybrid” publishing in which authors were told that they would be “sharing” the cost of publishing their book. In fact, authors never saw any evidence that the publisher’s “share” existed. The websites of these companies were notable in that their pages focused on recruiting authors rather than on selling books.
Some of the biggest operators have lost massive lawsuits, but the scam itself hasn’t gone anywhere. If you frequent WO! and don’t have a paid dKos subscription, you probably get ads for “alternative” and “hybrid” publishers. But scammers are always evolving. There’s new stuff now.
I get occasional emails inviting me to participate in promotional activities, for a hefty fee. ($500 to set up a table at an event no one ever heard of, etc.) This sort of thing is legit only if its a real market for books and if one has the sort of personality that’s comfortable schmoozing with the potentially-book-buying public. (Most writers don’t.)
Another kind of scam that turns up a lot is writing contests. I am a big fan of legit writing contests; they are a good way to get your foot in the door and are in fact how I got my foot in the door. (Displays bruised foot.) But writing contests which charge entry fees, or contain rights grabs (e.g. teh fine print states that the contest organizer gets publication rights to all entries) are to be avoided.
The bottom line— The more you educate yourself about how the business side of writing works, the harder you will be to scam.
Before you sign anything, google the name of the publisher, agent, or contest and the word “scam”. It takes 30 seconds and could save you a lot of trouble.
Below is the grey box for al the excellent DaKoWriMo goals. Please give me your latest progress updates.
bonetti: 30 revision tasks; 15 done
dconrad: 20,000 words; 3000 written.
Leo Orionis: Write ‘A New Viewpoint’. 40-50% done.
Mercy Ormont: Continue/finish Thirty-Nine Years on the Street memoir. Revised earlier writing and 2 more chapters written.
mettlefatigue: Find my WO stories that could go in OFPM. (5 stories found)
Mnemosyne: Finish NNWM 10k-word goal; 6520 written.
reppa: Continuing research on potential projects.
RiverOfTheWest: Complete revisions and illustrations of the history book; 700 words & 5 illustrations.
strawbale: Write another alien story + the foreword to the collection. Story and foreword fully drafted. 800 words into second story,
TASW: 50 pages of Callie and the Solicitresses.
Since the above doesn’t lend itself to a tonight’s challenge, try this:
Write a letter or dialogue in which someone tries to convince someone they should do something which, really, they should not do.
Use the two unrandomly selected words:
peach
mint
Try to limit yourself to 100 words.
Write On! will be a regular Thursday feature (8 pm ET 5 pm PT) until it isn’t.
