Today is Memorial Day here in the USA. It's a day when we remember and commemorate our fallen service members.
We don't do a lot of poetry on the OA blog, so in honor of Memorial Day, I thought I'd post a poem written during World War I, in memory of fallen service members everywhere. This poem is in the public domain.
It's time for #QueryFriday! Enter for a chance to win a query critique by yours truly! Here's how to participate:
1. Comment on this post and at least one other post from this week by SUNDAY 05/30 at 12 pm EDT.
2. Leave your email address in the comment or have it available on your Blogger profile. (If I can't find you, I can't get in touch with you!)
The winner will be chosen via random draw and will be announced in the comment section of this post on Sunday.
See this post for additional rules. Good luck!
-Amren
Every month we introduce you to a different writer-oriented website. These are sites with which one or more of our team members has had positive experiences. We hope you'll check them out and let us know what you think!
This month on OA Recommends, we are featuring Writer Beware. If you followed our saga on the Twitter scammer last year -
Original post
Update #1
Update #2
Final
you noted that we included comments from Victoria Strauss, who runs the Writer Beware site and blog. She keeps all of us writers safe by letting us know about scams in the publishing industry.
Let's learn more about Writer Beware!
1- What is the origin story or history of the site?
People often ask me if I got involved with Writer Beware because I was scammed. The answer is no--by and large, my publishing experiences have been relatively positive. But I was fairly ignorant when I began to seek publication, and while scams weren’t anywhere near as common as they are now, it was luck more than anything else that prevented me from falling into questionable hands.
Around the time I first went online, in the mid 1990’s, several major scams were just beginning to implode, in part through writers’ discussion of their experiences on the internet: scam book doctor Edit Ink, fraudulent vanity publishers Northwest Publishing and Commonwealth Publications, and the notorious Deering Literary Agency with its satellite vanity publisher, Sovereign Publications. (There are descriptions of all these scams on the Case Studies page of the Writer Beware website.) I was at first fascinated, and then horrified, by this fraudulent shadow-industry, which I hadn’t known existed. When I saw a call on the website of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for a volunteer to create an online resource on literary fraud, I jumped at the chance, and began to put together the website that would become Writer Beware.
At the same time, my late colleague and friend Ann Crispin, then SFWA Vice-President, was working on establishing a Committee on Writing Scams, whose mission was to gather information on literary fraud and find a way to disseminate this to writers. Neither of us was aware of what the other was doing until a mutual acquaintance put us in touch. Our efforts seemed to dovetail perfectly, and we decided to join forces.
2- What are some of the biggest changes that Writer Beware has experienced over the years and have your original site goals changed?
When Ann and I started Writer Beware in the late 1990s, we hoped to eventually put ourselves out of business by raising awareness of writing scams. Over 20 years later, Writer Beware is busier than ever, and unfortunately there's no sign that will change anytime soon.
Predatory vanity publishers are as active in 2021 as they ever were (unfortunately), but the other scams that were common when we started out—fee-charging literary agents, editing referral schemes—are much less prevalent now, thanks in large part to the growth of self-publishing and small press options that have provided alternatives to traditional publishing. But as publishing has changed, the scammers have adapted. By far the largest number of schemes and scams these days are aimed at small press and self-published authors--in particular, re-publishing and marketing scams.
These scams try to poach writers away from their publishers and self-pub platforms with offers for hugely expensive and largely worthless re-publishing and marketing services that supposedly will boost sales and audience for their books, transition them to Big 5 publishers, get them a movie deal, and more. Often operating under multiple names, they're incredibly aggressive cold-call solicitors, and highly dishonest in the way they present themselves, even to the point of impersonating reputable agents and publishers. Some do provide the promised services, although seriously overpriced and of substandard quality--but many just take the money and run. I've heard from authors who've lost thousands of dollars to these scams. (See my blog post for an overview: https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2019/08/from-philippines-not-with-love-plague.html .)
3- Are there any big events or exciting news coming up for Writer Beware in 2021-2022?
I would love to be able to say "yes"! But no. We'll just keep plugging along, providing warnings and outing predators.
4- With all the websites for writers out there, why should someone take the time to read Writer Beware; what makes Writer Beware unique?
Writer Beware is unique in that it focuses exclusively on schemes, scams, and pitfalls in and around the publishing industry. There are other websites and blogs for writers out there, but I'm not aware of any that have our exclusive focus, or include such a wide range of information (see the next question). Our database of complaints and documentation, compiled over more than 20 years, includes thousands of agents, publishers, editors, contests, marketing services, and others, and is the only one of its kind in the world. We regularly share information from this database with writers who contact us with questions.
5- What types of warnings does Writer Beware feature? [Agents, publishers, contests, etc]
Writer Beware has many faces!
The Writer Beware website (https://www.writerbeware.com/) provides detailed warnings about common schemes, scams, and pitfalls, advice on how to recognize and avoid them, and links to helpful online resources. There are sections on literary agents, vanity publishers, vanity anthologies, editors and editing, contests and awards, self-publishing, small presses, and copyright, as well as a page of writers’ alerts, a series of case studies of actual scams, a resource on possible legal recourse for writers who've been scammed, and our famous Thumbs Down Agent and Publisher Lists.
To complement the website's general warnings, the Writer Beware blog (https://accrispin.blogspot.com/) provides up-to-the-minute info on the latest schemes and scams, along with advice for writers, industry news and commentary, and a special focus on the weird and wacky things that happen at the fringes of the writing world.
Writer Beware's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WriterBeware ) features news, scam warnings, and info about the writing world, and provides a forum for discussion. Ditto for my personal Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/victoriastrauss ).
Last but definitely not least is Writer Beware's free research and advice service (our email is beware [at] sfwa.org ). Writers can contact us with questions about agents, publishers, etc., and we'll check our database to see if we've gotten any complaints or have gathered any negative information--or, if we haven't, research the issue and offer an opinion (we aren't lawyers, so we can't provide legal commentary or advice).
6- How does someone contact Writer Beware with information or questions about a possible problem entity? What types of information does Writer Beware seek? Is the identity of the person who contacted you confidential?
The main way to contact us is via email: beware [at] sfwa.org. Writers can also message me on the WB Facebook page, or ping me on Twitter. We can't accept anonymous complaints, and must hear directly from the affected person (not from someone on their behalf), but identities are absolutely kept confidential. We never share names or unique identifying information unless we're given express permission.
There's more info about who we are, how to contact us, and how we gather information at the Writer Beware website: https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/about/
7- How do you choose what to feature on Writer Beware?
The WB website is intended to be an informational and reference resource, so although it's regularly updated, it otherwise doesn't change much.
For the WB blog, where I post more or less weekly, it's a judgment call, depending on the number of complaints (I need enough to indicate a pattern, rather than an isolated incident), the amount of documentation (if I'm going to write about a bad contract, for instance, I need the actual contract in hand), and the urgency (for instance, if a publisher is on the verge of going out of business or has suddenly adopted a predatory business practice, or if there's evidence of a new trend in scams, such as the overseas publishing and marketing scammers I mention above). I also write about important issues of general interest to writers (for instance, the Internet Archive's unpermissioned scanning of in-copyright print books), and I have a special affection for the seriously weird, which is more common in and around the publishing industry than you might think (such as my post last year on insanely prolific internet troll Gary Kadet).
8- Are there other ways for authors to network to prevent being scammed by fake agents, publishers, contests, etc?
Following reputable agents, publishers, and self-publishing experts on social media can help, primarily because such people offer reliable info about the workings of the publishing world. One of the best ways to avoid being scammed is knowing how things actually work in publishing and self-publishing: if you know what's reputable and/or effective, it's easier to recognize what's suspicious or scammy. Writers' groups and forums can also be helpful--though you do need to be careful, because people who know nothing are as willing to give opinions or advice as people who know something, and there are a lot of people who know nothing on the internet.
Most important: be an educated writer. Learn about the publishing/self-publishing industry—and do it BEFORE you start trying to get published. Attempting to learn as you go or on the fly is the best way to get entrapped by scams, or sidelined by bad advice. In the quest for publication, knowledge is your greatest ally and your best defense.
9- Would you please list the links and ways people can find Writer Beware website, blog, social media.
Writer Beware website: https://www.writerbeware.com/
Writer Beware blog: https://accrispin.blogspot.com/
Writer Beware Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WriterBeware
Victoria's Twitter: https://twitter.com/victoriastrauss
Writer Beware email: beware [at] sfwa.org
Victoria Strauss is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including the WAY OF ARATA duology (THE BURNING LAND and THE AWAKENED CITY), and a historical duology for teens, PASSION BLUE and COLOR SONG. She has written hundreds of book reviews for magazines and ezines, including SF Site, and her articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest and elsewhere. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
Victoria is co-founder, with Ann Crispin, of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) that provides information and warnings about the many scams and schemes that threaten writers. She maintains the popular Writer Beware website and blog, for which she was a 2012 winner of an Independent Book Blogger Award. She was honored with the SFWA Service Award in 2009.
Visit her at her website: http://www.victoriastrauss.com/
Thank you Victoria for sharing with us about Writer Beware!
It's Flash Fiction Friday! It's starting to get hot out there - where I live, at least - so the prompt for this weekend is SWELTERING.
Dear O'Abby,
I'm a poet and I have a whole bunch of completed poems, some which have been published in magazines and literary journals, and a lot that haven't. I'd like to publish a collection of poetry, but I can't seem to find any agents who seem to represent poets.
Can you help?
All the best,
Bemused.
Hi Bemused,
I think the reason you can't find an agent who represents poetry is because in general, agents don't represent poetry. Not unless it's in the form of a novel-in-verse.
Most poets approach poetry publishers directly with their work as they tend to be small presses and often quite specialised. I suggest visiting your local bookstore or library and browsing the poetry section. If you find a book of poetry that feels similar to yours or covers similar subject matter, look at the publisher information and you can then look them up and find out if they are accepting submissions, and how to submit to them.
I found this list of poetry publishers, but I don't know much about them, so do your research before you submit.
You mention that you have had poems published before, so if you do end up getting a publishing deal for the collection, you will need to check your contracts to make sure you have the right to offer re-print rights to your publisher. Most contracts for journals etc I've seen allow this to happen, but may require a note saying "first published in X" and sometimes a date and/or issue number.
You will need to make sure of your rights even if you decide to self-publish a collection of your poetry, which is an equally valid option.
Or you could just continue to submit your work to magazines and journals as you have clearly been doing quite successfully. Having work in these publications often raises your profile as a poet because people who don't habitually read poetry might stumble across your work, read and enjoy it even if they have never set foot in the poetry section of a bookstore.
You can also do all these things. Being a poet allows you a lot of flexibility in the ways you make your work available, even if poetry tends to be a fairly niche market.
Hopefully this helps!
All the best for your ongoing publishing journey, whichever direction you choose to go in.
X O'Abby
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| I plugged KJ and Becka into one of my Yellowstone trip pics |
I could talk about mental health and trauma for several posts and recommend several books to read. What makes Committed by Paolina Milana a great choice is the realness of Paolina's experience and the way she uses language to describe her experiences. It is a gift to experience someone's story in this honest and forthright way. This book is an excellent choice for anyone interested in reading a firsthand account about the search for freedom and independence after taking care of a loved one experiencing mental illness. I received a free PDF of the book for this review.
The pacing is on point and brings Paolina's experiences into a light of understanding that is relatable, educational, and heartbreaking. I highly recommend reading Committed and taking it slow to truly engage with Paolina's experiences and resilience. Some material may be triggering, particularly the death of a parent and suicide.
I have not read the S Word by Paolina yet, but I intend to read it and then reread Committed. I could relate to Paolina's experience without the details in The S Word, and I am curious if the memoirs could be stand alones or if I would recommend reading them in a certain order.
I finished the book. It was enlightening for me to experience Paolina's letters to and from her family since I am unfamiliar with Italian. One of my key factors for reading books is if I would recommend it to others, and if I would reread the book. I would do both, recommending to others and to reread the book myself. I was reminded of The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok and her experiences with her mother experiencing schizophrenia. There are several books on my to do list that are related to Paolina's experiences.
The theme is captured by the following sentences: “I stared down at my mound of misery, crumpled messily inside my box. For now, my priorities were all me: wrap up class projects, focus on finals, and finish registering for next semester. I inhaled until my lungs could take in no more and held it.”
Overall the book was easy to read and engaging. I appreciated Paolina's experiences and insight throughout this book. I look forward to reading more of Paolina's work and rereading Committed.
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| Do you want feedback? |
Our next "OA Recommends" interview isn't ready to post yet, but trust me, you'll be really excited when it's ready in June. So, let's prepare for our next Pass or Pages event for 2021 instead! Genre reveal is next week and we'll announce the agent panel the following week. So – now's a great time to get fresh eyes on your query letter or first page, especially if you're hoping to submit your entry for Pass or Pages.
We are accepting entries this week for either your query or your first page [250 words], in any genre. For a description of how this works, go here.
We have two Mondays between now and when the submission window opens for Pass or Pages, so we can accept the first two requests. If we receive more than two requests, we will email you and ask if you want critique even after Pass or Pages is completed. [NOTE: to avoid confusion, this is NOT entry for Pass or Pages. It IS entry for our blog readers to give feedback on your query or first page. Pass or Pages entry period begins June 7.] If you want to submit your query or first page for critique, send us an email formatted as follows:
[Subject:] Query/First Page Critique
The following query or first page is my own work and I give OA permission to post it on the OA blog for the life of the blog.
I commented on OA blog posts on DATE and DATE as [your online ID].
My query or first 250 words:
[Copy/paste your entry here.]
Entry period opens now and closes at the end of the day on Friday May 21, 2021. All entries will receive a confirmation email from us by Sunday May 23, 2021 that acknowledges receipt of your entry and lets you know the date your entry will be included on the blog for critique. If you do NOT receive a confirming email, send us a DM on Twitter and we'll give you alternative instructions for sending us your entry.
Happy writing!
1. Comment on this post and at least one other post from this week by SUNDAY 05/16at 12 pm EDT.
2. Leave your email address in the comment or have it available on your Blogger profile. (If I can't find you, I can't get in touch with you!)
The winner will be chosen via random draw and will be announced in the comment section of this post on Sunday.
See this post for additional rules. Good luck!
-Amren
Dear O'Abby,
I was inspired to write in when I saw that you and the team were doing book reviews throughout the A to Z. You see, I have a question about writing reviews. Or maybe not a question so much as a problem...
My first book is due to come out this year with a small press. Wanting to be supportive of my fellow authors, I bought a few books published by this press that looked like they'd be up my alley and read them with the intention of leaving reviews on as many platforms as possible.
The first book I read was okay. Not great, but okay. I gave it a three-star review and pointed out the book's strengths and weaknesses in my review.
The next day I got an email from my publisher asking me to remove the review or to rewrite it to be more positive - at least four-stars. It wasn't a really threatening email, but it irked me. I gave my honest opinion of the book and was generous in giving it three stars. It was NOT a four-star read for me.
So I wrote back and told the publisher that the review was my honest opinion and that I was uncomfortable with the idea of changing or removing my review. I have written book reviews for years and nobody has ever asked me to change one before. I review pretty much every book I read on Goodreads, and when I remember, I post to other platforms too.
About an hour later I got another email from the publisher saying it was not company policy to leave reviews for fellow authors that were below four stars.
This was not something I remembered reading - if I had, it would have been a big red flag for me - so I went back to look at the publishing contract and other documents I'd received when I signed my book to this press. Nowhere did it say anything about writing reviews or that there was any policy regarding writing reviews. So I wrote back and pointed this out to the publisher.
I heard nothing more, so I figured the matter was settled. I read a bunch more books, not from this publisher (and reviewed them honestly), leaving the other ones I'd bought unread on my Kindle. A month or so later I was away on a business trip and ran out of reading material, so opened up another one of the books from my publisher I'd bought.
It was terrible! I could not believe that anything so badly written could possibly have been through an editor. The tense changed constantly for no reason, characters names changed from chapter to chapter, and there were some massive punctuation errors that made it almost impossible to read. And don't get me started on the actual story!
I finished the book and wrote an honest review in which I pointed out the inconsistencies and editing errors. I hesitated before publishing it for a moment, but then went ahead because the book was so bad, I didn't want anyone else to make the mistake of paying good money for it.
The next day I got an email from my publisher saying they were sorry, but an editor working on my book, which was due to release the following month, had found some problematic material in it, and that they felt that without substantial editing, it was not suitable for their imprint.
Now I'd been through edits with an editor from this press and she'd mentioned nothing about problematic material. I couldn't even imagine what could possibly be construed as problematic in my book. Certainly none of my beta readers or critique partners had found anything problematic, and my crit group is extraordinarily diverse. I asked what the issue was, and got no concrete answer. Shortly afterward I received notification that my publishing contract had been terminated and the rights to my book returned to me.
Now, I admit I probably made a mistake in publishing that bad review, especially after being warned, but this feels very much like censorship. And I'm angry because I don't believe a publisher has the right to do something like this. I love writing book reviews and I like to think my reviews help people make informed decisions about what they might like to read. And I'm angry because pulling the book less than a month before release is a shitty thing to do. Especially since this small press does very little marketing and promotion and I'd done a ton of work in that area.
Sorry... This has ended up being a stupidly long letter. What I'm wondering, is if there is anything I can do now?
Regards,
Censored
Dear Censored,
I'm so sorry to hear that this has happened to you! What a horrible experience.
Frankly, while I know it's disappointing, I feel like you may have dodged a bullet with this one. You got your rights back without a protracted legal battle, and you're not bound in any way to a publisher who is not only wholly unethical, but obviously doesn't take a lot of pride and care with the books they publish.
I have never experienced something like this, but I have heard rumours of it happening at at least one small press (which could be the one we're talking about here, or may be another one) and just reading about it left a bad taste in my mouth. Like you, I write a lot of book reviews and rate everything I read on Goodreads even if I don't write a full review. And I don't always write good reviews.
I don't know if you're the kind of person who likes to make waves, but it might be worth reaching out to other authors published by this publisher to find out if any of them have had similar experiences. I would also suggest getting in touch with Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware and flagging this with her. She may already be aware of problems with this publisher, but if she isn't, it would be worth getting this on her radar so she can keep an eye on them in case there are other unethical things they might be doing.
I don't know where in the world you are, or where the publisher is, but there may be a legal case to be had too, given how close to publication your book was. I'd be cautious in taking this route though, because legal battles are costly, and even if you are in the right, it might not go in your favour.
It's probably cold comfort, but if you managed to get a book accepted once, you can do it again. Or if you're feeling gun shy (and you have every right to be after this experience), you can self-publish and keep control in your own hands.
And whatever you do, don't stop writing reviews. You're entitled to your opinion of what you read as much as anyone else and I reject the idea that writers shouldn't write reviews (even bad ones) because they might upset publishers or agents who might be considering your project. Reviews - good or bad - are part of the business, and not every person is going to love every book. It's just something you deal with in publishing.
And writing honest, constructive reviews is very different to the Goodreads pile-ons I sometimes see where people rush to condemn something they haven't read just because someone else says it's problematic. That's just as bad as what your publisher did.
I hope this helped, and I wish you all the best in finding a new (and better) home for your book and any future books.
Do keep in touch to let us know what happens.
X O'Abby
1- What sort of book swag are pre-order readers potentially getting?
I have a sticker with a book quote, a bookmark, color-themed candies, and a quirky bike chain bracelet to send out to anyone who sends me either their receipt or proof of requesting their library order the book.
2- Would you please, in 160 characters or less, give a #WriteTip ?
Trust the process.
3- What most motivates you to read a new book?
Nine times out of ten, it is by an author I already love or it was recommended by someone I trust to know my taste.
4- What might teens be surprised to learn about Tourette's Syndrome?
There’s more to it than visible tics, and it can present in a wide variety of ways.
5- Would you share a picture with us of your book with a springy background?
6- What's one way to potentially bring more neurodivergent voices to the publishing table?
Read and review neurodiverse books. If those books are selling, publishers will seek out more of them.
7- What's your Twitter handle, and do you have two or three writer friends on there to shout-out to for #WriterWednesday ?
I’m
@mmerubies
on Twitter (a leftover nickname from an old writing group) and I’d love to shout out
@KristyDAlley
, who will be doing my launch event with me, and
@Halli_Gomez
, who just released a book that also features a neurodivergent main character.
We know Halli! Click for the interview from February.
8- Do you have a favorite #bookstagram image or account/ profile?
@lovelybookshelf
9- Are you a Plotter, Pantser, or Plantser, and how did you adopt that style?
I suppose I’m a plantser. I used to not plot at all, but I have learned to work out a skeleton plot before writing. Over time, I found that I write better drafts when I have some idea of where things are heading but still have space to wander.
10- What does your basic writing schedule look like, and how often do you write?
This has been different for every book I have written. For my current project, I have written 3 chapters over the space of three months, but I hope to speed up now that the semester has ended.
11- What is your favorite book by someone else, what's the author's Twitter handle, and what do you love most about that book? #FridayReads book recommendation time!
Author name: Adiba Jaigirdar @adiba_j
Title: The Henna Wars
Love because: It was beautifully written with a beautiful cover, and the food descriptions made me ravenous. LOL!
12- What emotions do you hope your book will evoke for the reader?
I hope they laugh but also remember that awkward feeling of messing up and trying to fix it and digging yourself deeper that happens to us all.
13- What kind of impact do you hope your book will have?
I’d love for at least one person to read it and see themselves in the pages.
14- What is your favorite creative non-writing activity to do?
I make Project Life albums for myself and my sister, and I love to color and play at visual art.
15- In what ways are the main characters in your book diverse? diversebooks.org #WeNeedDiverseBooks
My main character is neurodivergent, as am I.
16- What method do you feel is the best way to get book reviews?
I wish I had an answer to this one. My book was available through a couple of venues, but I have nothing to compare it to. I did reach out to a handful of neurodivergent reviewers on my own.
17- What was the deciding factor in your publication route?
I didn’t want to oversee my own marketing and cover design, etc. Those aren’t my strengths. So I have always worked toward traditional publishing.
18- What's the biggest writing goal you hope to accomplish in your lifetime?
I’d like to traditionally publish a volume of poetry and I’d love to be a writer-in-residence somewhere.
19- Would you please ask our audience a question to answer in the comments?
What neurodiverse books should I be reading?
20- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?
Signed preorder link: https://novelmemphis.com/pre-order-signed-copies-heather-truetts-kiss-and-repeat
