March 17, 2021
In a previous blog I talked about vanity presses and why I think a writer should avoid them. This week the Writers Beware® blog highlighted a bogus company that offers self-published and wanna-be-published writers ways to get their books or unpublished stories looked at by TV and movie companies and/or republished by traditional publishers. I […]
March 3, 2021
Recently I was asked by another writer if I thought she should use a vanity book publisher. With self-publishing so popular nowadays, I didn’t even realize vanity publishers were still out there, but sure enough she had one in mind. I gave her my thoughts, but you may feel different, and if so, I welcome […]
June 28, 2017
How do I find an agent? In the last month I’ve had two people ask me that question. I think they wanted a short, easy answer (the secret). They looked disappointed when I start talking about going on-line and finding which agents represented the type of book they’ve written; checking Writers Beware for any warnings; writing […]
May 24, 2017
Not long ago I saw an ad on Facebook for a book contest. Two writer friends had “Liked” it, and the contest sounded great: free advertising for a period of time and a certificate/label you could use on your book if you won. Also, for this month, they’d reduced the cost of entering the contest. […]
November 9, 2016
Last week I wrote about “Publishing Then and Now.” This week I want to focus on “Now.” Writers nowadays, both published and pre-published, have three basic options. Writers can go with traditional publisher, print-on-demand publishers, or Independent self-publishing. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages. First Option Let’s assume you’ve written a fantastic book. If you […]
September 9, 2015
In the last two weeks I’ve seen an email about a publisher that isn’t paying its authors, and I received a phone call from an woman wanting to know if she should sign a contract with a publisher for her cook book. In the case of the woman with the cook book, as soon as […]