Writer Beware Helps Avoid Publishing Pitfalls!
While investigating various internet sites regarding how to publish a book, I came across Writer Beware quite by accident. After navigating through it’s many informative sections, I believe that all writers should click onto this site if they wish to avoid scams, pitfalls, and the fleecing of their money!
Writers come in all shapes and sizes…as does their reasons for writing. Some wish to express their thoughts and opinions in written form while others hope to earn an eventual income through the posting of their writings on various paying websites and/or by attempting to publish those writings in book form.
As I can only recount my own experience in navigating through the ‘publishing landscape’, I want to tell you that never did I feel so inept and uninformed as when I tried to find information regarding how to publish a book!
Self-publishing sites, writing contests, etc, are enthusiastically advertised all over the internet along with many of them cautioning a writer to not contact a ‘traditional’ publishing company (such as Penguin, Random House, and others) due to such slim chances existing along that route for the publishing of an unknown and previously unpublished author’s writings.
Feeling myself sinking into a quagmire of publishing sludge, I accidentally found a website called Writer Beware. Even though this publishing Watchdog site is sponsored by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, it concerns itself with the publishing pitfalls and problems of ALL novel writings… biographies, non-fiction, and poetry included. Writer Beware also maintains an updated list of twenty of the worst Literary Agents and Agencies to stay away from as well as a blog site where you can interact with other writers and possibly learn from their experiences.
Writer Beware concerns itself with helping both the inexperienced and the experienced author in avoiding scams and pitfalls that one can so easily fall into as well as providing information regarding the proper steps needed to be taken if one truly desires to be published.
For example, did you know that:
- Most self-publishing companies will work enthusiastically in their attempt to get you to sign on their dotted line but, once you have paid them to publish your work, their enthusiasm wanes! The reality is that they will usually only invest a minimal amount of energy in promoting your book because the true lucrative income for them is in finding other authors like you…who are willing to pay to be published!
- Often you will spend at least twice as much money as originally agreed upon due to hidden costs and ‘extras’ that won’t be known to you until after the self-publishing process has begun.
- Most book stores refuse to carry self-published books because of poor return-policies, inferior quality, and lower-than-normal percentage profits. It’s just not worth it to them to carry something they might get stuck with if it doesn’t sell.
- If your self-publishing company goes out of business while your book is under contract with them, your book rights might be tied up in legalities and your book unpublishable by another publishing house until after all ‘gone-out-of-business’ legalities have been taken care of in court…sometimes involving up to two or more years!
- You cannot just send a manuscript or a Query letter to a ‘traditional’ publishing house. It will be returned unopened because it was sent by you and not by a Literary Agent representing you.
- A Query Letter is required by you when approaching a Literary Agent…and it follows a basic format.
- Anyone can be a Literary Agent…no licensing is required! But there ARE ways to determine a good agent from a bad one.
- The Literary Agent of today does the work that the publishing houses’ editor used to do…mainly determining whether or not your work is marketable.
Even though getting published may be hard, keep in mind that most manuscripts are poorly written, contain a multitude of spelling errors and poor sentence structure, and, therefore, end up at the bottom of the pile. If your manuscript is well-written, shows that the author has a good grasp of the English language and its’ proper structure, and the topic is interesting… well, you’re already in the top five percent!
Writer Beware can be an invaluable tool to use if an author deeply desires to be published and is willing to do the homework. Writer Beware does not guarantee that your manuscript will be published but it definitely helps with giving you information and facts that you may never have thought about, otherwise.
I hope that all writers who are seriously considering publishing their works…or even just toying with the idea right now…will check out this informative watchdog site. Writer Beware may save more than just your time…it may help keep your wallet from being picked clean!
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December 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 am
Very helpful information.
Wonderful write.
Happy holidays.
God bless.
December 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 am
Thanks, Debra! Your support is greatly appreciated. And I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season!
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:09 am
Gosh Muriel, I didn’t realise you had to overcome so many problems when publishing. Thank you for the information. It is a real help.
Love Christine
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
I didn’t realize it either, Christine. It seems overwhelming at first but if a writer is willing to read, learn, and then take things one step at a time instead of rushing, the chances of doing everything right and not getting fleeced is greatly enhanced!
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
I self published through lulu.com, I found it a great experience and could afford the outlay, I knew I had to do the legwork from the start as I chose not to promote through bookstores. Lulu gave me a storefront and a link to that sales area, I have sold from there as well as using my own two feet ;0
This was an informative and well laid out article, I learned something new, thanks.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Very informative, and great info!
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hi Glynis! I agree that self-publishing can be a good experience for those informed writers who already know what their outlay is going to be, can afford it, and walk in with their eyes wide open expecting to do a lot of work, themselves, to promote their works.
Also, many writers don’t yearn to become another Stephen King or Anne McCaffrey. They would just like to see their words in print so, for them, self-publishing would probably be the best route to take.
Basically, the bottom line is that it’s up to each writer to figure out ahead of time what the end goal is and then take the necessary steps to reach it!
But no matter what the goal is, be armed with knowledge before signing on any dotted line!
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:57 am
Great article for newer writers.
– Jeff
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:54 am
Hi BC! When I first starting finding info re; publishing, self-publishing, copyrighting, etc, etc, etc, it was mind-boggling! There is so much to learn! There are good agents as well as shady or inexperienced ones, and there are reputable self-publishing companies as well as Fly-By-Nighters who just want your money!
I tell you…it’s SCARY out there! Lol
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hi Jeff! Thanks for taking the time to read my article! Experienced writers already know many of the things I’ve spoken about here so, yes, I feel that this article will give the most help to newer writers.
But experienced writers may still want to check this site out for any new information, scams, current problems surfacing in the publishing world, etc.
And don’t forget the list of the Twenty Worst Literary Agents/Agencies to sign on with…which keeps being updated!:)
December 25th, 2008 at 8:01 am
I didn’t realize that one has to go through a lot before being able to publish a book. This is certainly a very helpful article. Thanks for sharing.
December 25th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Thanks, Eddie! There’s certainly a lot more to know than what I had originally thought, too! I’ll keep you posted on what I go through as I plow forward!^-^
December 30th, 2008 at 5:51 am
I ‘m glad I saw this article of yours. Thanks for sharing!
January 4th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Hi Dee Gold! I’m glad you liked the article…thanks so much for the encouraging words!
February 19th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Great article full of information.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Thank you for the information. You gave a lot of ideas.
Shalom.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:51 am
Good information. SFWA is very supportive of beginning writers; Science Fiction is pretty much the poor step-child of the publishing world. The authors who have “made it” in that genre (except for one famous exception) tend to be very kind to new writers. I used to work in a public library. You would not believe the quality of some of the “self-published” books that were hopefully donated.