…And hi, Filigree’s Rule! I’d hoped to leave all my Filigree’s Rule writing posts up on this blog, but a stipulation of Amazon means I have to privately publish them now. Effectively hiding them from internet search. I’ve taken those posts, condensed some, expanded others, and updated everything I could into a more-easily read book…
Read More Bye, Filigree’s Rule…Okay, we’ll try another version of this. In other words: writing is work. Often very hard work, that might pay little or nothing for an insane amount of time and labor. There is no set ‘destination’, since your career can skyrocket to best-seller and movie status, or crash into obscurity with equal speed. If you…
Read More Crane’s Guide to Writing and BakingOh god, this is so funny it’s painful. To go along with Lani Sarem and GeekNation’s previous misadventures involving Handbook For Mortals, YA author and blogger Claribel Ortega takes on the soul-stunting task of reading and live-tweeting this book. To be super efficient, Claribel has Storified two separate reads in these handy threads. So if…
Read More Claribel Ortega tweets HandbookThe predatory vanity publishing world is not limited to fiction. Academic and scientific papers are also a hot commodity, since the legitimate markets can have high entry barriers in fees and vetting. A host of predatory and often outright criminal publishers have surfaced to ‘serve’ those customers. Many scientists and academics need to publish work…
Read More Beall’s List and fake academic publishersOh, looky, yet another vanity publisher cuts and runs toward bankruptcy, rather than 1) changing its ways or 2) paying its authors. Australia’s JoJo Publishing was recently profiled in a television program detailing the company’s duplicitous practices. Here’s an article about their attempts at strategic liquidation. And here is the AbsoluteWrite.com thread about them (read…
Read More Case study: JoJo Publishing (Australia)Once upon a time (2007ish) a new publisher came online with the usual bells and whistles, and then devolved into a sea of acrimony and accusation (circa 2011 – 2012). That publisher was Aspen Mountain Press, and out of its ashes a group of authors, editors, and support personnel banded together to create Musa Publishing. From…
Read More Musa Publishing: a case study<Takes a deep breath.> I need a word to describe the feeling I got when someone I only vaguely know (from a large genre marketing site, where we exchange no more than pleasantries) announced proudly they’ve just had their first book published, and I was really happy for them, until I looked up the book…
Read More I need a word, pleaseRecently on an online writers’ forum, a pulp writer I know offered the following snarky-but-sadly-accurate list. It’s distilled from his years of reading the typical ways authors defend their substandard, clueless, or frankly predatory publishers. Upon talking to veteran authors, editors, and agents, I realized we’d all seen these excuses. (Our usual responses in parentheses.)…
Read More when writers defend iffy publishers(Scroll down for new info.) Or why it is not enough to research publishers once, at the start of your writing career. Diligent authors need to keep tabs on the industry at large, especially on already-established publishers. Because you never know when one is going to melt down… Anyone who has been involved in romance…
Read More Ellora’s Cave and Elephants in the RoomToday I worked on the (currently) last revision to that pesky fantasy novella, repaired a vintage British umbrella, varnished the covers for a new mini-book, crashed a thread on AbsoluteWrite, and apparently earned the ire of an anti-AW website. Why? Because I glanced at a trainwreck of an online debacle on another site completely, one…
Read More Nefarious Achievement Unlocked (adult language)Don’t get me wrong: I like Writer’s Digest and Publishers Weekly, and many of the other paid periodicals and free forums aimed at writers. They often have tips I can use, or inspiring stories and interviews. Publishing industry periodicals give those of us outside the NY environment an invaluable glimpse into the industry. When I…
Read More Caveat Emptor: writers’ magazines