I get really, really tired of writing about writing scams — I used to cover them extensively on my writing blog, but there are so many I can’t keep track. (Writer Beware does a good job of alerting writers to scammers.)

Publishers pay YOU, you don’t pay them

This should go without saying, but if you’re a new writer, remember: THEY PAY YOU — you don’t PAY anyone to publish your work.

One particular scammer has turned into an industry on his own. Making Light: Robert Fletcher, Literary Scammer, Part II says about this devil:

“One of the chief points against Fletcher-the-Agent (New York Literary Agency, Writer’s Literary Agency, Children’s Literary Agency, Poets Literary Agency, etc. etc.) was that he demonstrably couldn’t sell books to publishers. But if he owned a publisher….

The difference between Strategic Book Publishing and Eloquent Books is this: Strategic Book Publishing pretends to be a ‘traditional’ publisher—no fees to the author—provided the author agrees to buy five copies per week at full retail price. Eloquent Books, on the other hand, pretends to be a ‘joint venture’ publisher, where the author and the publisher each put up half of the cost. But since Eloquent Books authors typically send Fletcher (under one or another of his names) a thousand bucks plus in advance, it’s clear that they’re paying the whole freight plus a nice profit for Fletcher.”

He’s one among many scammers. You can avoid them all, if you remember this one, very simple point: publishers pay you. You don’t pay them. Nor do you pay agents.

Here’s a slideshow presentation from Kelly Gallagher, VP of publishing services at R.R. Bowker: “The Customer’s Always Right: Who is today’s book consumer?”

It gives you great information you can use in marketing your book — and remember, marketing starts BEFORE you write your book.

Fascinating news: Google is becoming, in essence, a digital bookshop.

Google Signs a Deal to e-Publish Out-of-Print Books – NYTimes.com reports:

“Last week, American authors and publishers reached an agreement with Google to settle lawsuits over Google’s Book Search program, which scans millions of books and makes their contents available on the Internet. The deal lets Google sell electronic versions of copyrighted works that have gone out of print.”

It will be interesting to see where this initiative is a decade from today. Perhaps books will never go out of print; they’ll always be available.

Angela Booth’s writing guides have been created to help you to make money from your writing every day. Join the thousands of writers who are making great money with their writing skills.

Sadly, Michael Crichton is no longer with us. He’ll be missed. I’ve never yet been disappointed when reading one of his novels, and I’ve some of his books several times.

My favorite is Timeline, a book which takes you back to the Middle Ages and is, in my opinion, the best time travel novel ever.

An Appraisal – Michael Crichton – Builder of Windup Realms That Thrillingly Run Amok – NYTimes.com says:

“Michael Crichton, who died on Tuesday at the age of 66, was like a character in a Michael Crichton novel. He was unusually tall (6 feet 7 inches), strikingly handsome and encyclopedically well informed about everything from dinosaurs to medieval banquet halls to nanotechnology.”

If you’re writing a book, you may think that you need an agent.

However, for some writers, a literary lawyer makes more sense.

FT.com / Arts & weekend / Magazine – The Washington insider who made Obama rich reports:

“Barnett’s business model doesn’t suit all authors. ‘I probably get 50 proposals a year I don’t make sense for,’ he concedes happily. ‘I make no sense for a first-time novelist in Vermont who’s going to get a $10,000 advance. I make better sense for Bill Clinton or Tony Blair or James Patterson.’ In the case of Patterson, who dependably produces eight best-selling novels a year (only actually writing a portion of them), the savings can run into tens of millions. Patterson, a former ad executive whose books earned $50m in the past year alone – only J.K. Rowling made more – left his third agent for Barnett early last year. And he probably doesn’t even need the full treatment.”

Fascinating article.

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