The SFWA Blog

A little while back, I blogged about yet another of the ways in which PublishAmerica was attempting to extract cash from its authors: a fee-charging “literary agency.”

Sometime over last weekend, the Writer Beware blog passed the 20,000 subscriber mark!

We’d like to offer a heartfelt thank you to all our readers and subscribers for their attention, support, and participation (we love comments! We love questions!) …

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Raider Publishing International over the years. Founded by a former (and disgruntled) PublishAmerica author, it’s basically a self-publishing service with some added bells and whistles.

I thought Writer Beware’s readers might be interested in hearing about the only time I’ve ever had a face to face meeting with a known writing scammer.

I often see small presses using a contract template they’ve picked up from somewhere, which may employ outdated terminology (such as referring to plates or unbound sheets) or contain unnecessary language (such as including a revised editions clause in a fiction contract) or make inappropriate claims on subsidiary rights (a larger publisher may be able to do something with translation rights, for instance, but there’s no reason in the world for a cash-strapped, contactless small press to claim them).

A stopped clock is right twice a day. A dodgy publisher is right…well, less often. But sometimes