Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Once upon a time, there was a self-styled literary agent named Cris Robins who ran a purported literary agency called The Robins Agency. For more than ten years, Robins charged editing fees, levied various upfront fees, and, as far as Writer Beware can determine, never made a single […]

In a video posted to YouTube on Friday, and in an accompanying press release, the CEO of Author Solutions, Kevin Weiss, invited the Romance Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to sit down with him and other AS representatives to discuss the recent debate over AS’s “partnerships” with Harlequin and Thomas Nelson.

The Authors Guild is offering telephone seminars next week to help authors and agents who have questions about the Google Book Settlement. Remember the deadline to make a decision is January 28th.

How to Handle a Grievance It’s a truism that writers like to think of themselves as artists, not businesspeople. Like many truisms, it’s not true. Writers wear a lot of hats (especially, but not limited to, indie authors), and most of them aren’t our Writing Hats. Never is this more true than when you are […]

The Google Settlement — What it means for writers. A FREE workshop will be held for writers in mid-town New York, Wednesday, Jan. 20 from 2-4:40 p.m.

Resources and Member News for Lynn Flewelling, Ginger Clark, and Paolo Bacigalupi!

Since Writer Beware’s founding, I’ve been getting questions and advisories about Mr. Kritzer and his company, EKP Productions. In 1998 and 1999, most involved Kritzer’s referrals to Edit Ink, a fraudulent editing service that paid kickbacks to agents who sent clients its way.

RT @jasonsanford: From Janet Reid, literary agent, comes a few statistics to torture writers with. http://bit.ly/5QBdSN #

As part of fixing the process for claiming works, the Settlement Administrator has issued SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURE FOR CLAIMING YOUR BOOKS AND INSERTS The gist of it is that authors may now submit a list of their works by mail or email.

Given Random House’s recent claim on electronic rights in older contracts, Macmillan’s recent announcement that it will be issuing “enhanced ebooks” simultaneously with some of its hardcover releases (and charging even more than for the hardcovers), and the thorny rights and payment issues raised by the rapid expansion of the ebook market, this seems an especially relevant piece of news: the UK’s Society of Authors has issued guidelines on ebook licensing and royalties for authors and agents.