Writer Beware hears from a fair number poets. Much of the time, they’re contacting us to ask about self-publishing, or to check the reputation of a journal or a contest. Sometimes, unfortunately, they’ve gotten mixed up with one of the vanity anthology companies, such as Eber and Wein.

It seems clear that Luserke is active again–even if only sporadically. Given how few reminders of his perfidy survive on the Internet, I and Writer Beware feel it’s important for writers and artist to be aware of his history of financial and intellectual property theft.

When Westerners think of major book markets, India may not be the first country that springs to mind. But India’s publishing industry is the sixth largest in the world, and fully a third of it is devoted to English-language publishing.

Just as in the USA and the UK, the success of debut novelists in India fuels the dreams of legions of aspiring writers. And where there are aspiring writers, there are writing scams.

Literary agencies becoming publishers? Screw that trend. PublishAmerica, always a trail blazer, is swinging the other way.

The unpublished often believe that agents exist because of the publishing funnel, and to be sure, that has helped cement agents’ central importance to the publishing business. But what really enables agents to exist is the fact that up until recently, every deal, big or small, was up for negotiation–the size of the advance, the terms of the contract, the rights up for discussion.

I don’t often write posts like this, because it’s really like shooting fish in a barrel. And there are so many red flags here that savvy writers may wonder why I bother. But there are a lot of new writers searching for agents, many of whom are probably new to Writer Beware, and may not yet be clear on what to watch out for.

by A.C. Crispin Introduction Agents–When Do You Need One? Getting Started–Compiling a List, Researching Agent Listings, and Following Submission Guidelines How to Recognize Real Agents Writing the Synopsis Writing the Query Letter Sending Out Your Query Letters Playing the Waiting Game Make Sure Your Manuscript Lives Up to Your Query The Psychology of Querying Introduction […]

A fascinating discussion began today on Twitter (as of this writing, it’s still going on–check it out under the #agentpay hashtag), kicked off by agent Colleen Lindsay, who asked, “How would publishing change if agenting moved from commission-based payment to billable hours?”

An article in the North Devon Journal reports the court appearance last week of UK literary agent/film producer Robin Price, who is accused of stealing more than half a million pounds from clients.

A cautionary tale of why it is important to research an agent before submitting.