Scammers are common in many places throughout the internet. They are now also infiltrating the publishing world. With scammers pretending to be big names in the industry, how does one know when an encounter is legitimate or not? And what can publishing professionals do to protect themselves?
The Scammers Wonderland
Pic. The Famous Tea Party- John Tenniel
THIS WEEK IN PUBLISHING,
Scammers… Just when you think they couldn’t stoop lower – you find that they can.
Victoria Strauss from Writer Beware is wondering if the scammers have just made a monumental mistake. They are using the names of Big 5 publishing houses, along with editors and agents in some big publishing scams. Will big publishing finally wake up and do. something? Reputations are on the line.
Rumbling along in the background is the class action being taken against Amazon for price fixing. This week there was a splash of publicity when an Indie bookstore came out to join the class action. Sounds like the movie You’ve Got Mail- said one commentator. Except I don’t think there will be a happy romantic ending here.
Publishing Perspectives reports on a call from UK translators to use racial equality in literary translation. If the book is written in its first language by a particular gender /race writer then it should be translated by a matching translator, shouldn’t it?
The New Publishing Standard reports on Big Bad Wolf’s latest mega sale, online at the same time as in person… (How many English remaindered copies can one mega company sell? Millions.)
Kris Rusch continues her interesting series on Hollywood and the pitfalls for writers– She examines the story of The Luminaries and how the screenplay was a nightmare of rewrites for Eleanor Catton.
Anne R Allen has an interesting post on The Fashion Of Writing. What is in and what is out and how fashions in writing change. ‘For instance, once you could sprinkle adverbs willy nilly in dialogue tags,’ she said happily, channeling her inner 1920’s diva.
Joanna Penn has a great interview with a story dialogue coach this week. How do you stop your characters from sounding all the same? Check out her interview with Jeff Elkins.
IN THE CRAFT section,
2 Great posts on motivation for writers.-How to find the motivation to write- Now Novel
And 5 creative ways to get writing – C S Lakin- Bookmark Both.
The roles of secondary characters– Writers in the Storm-Bookmark
Choose the right story setting– Becca Puglisi
How to avoid weasel words when you write– Kristen Hogrefe Parnell- Bookmark
5 guidelines for writing helpful critiques– Maggie Smith
in the marketing section,
2 great posts from Penny Sansevieri
Book Marketing plan for audio and How to sell books by strategically engaging readers– Bookmark
Email Newsletters and why they are not going away– Catherine Baab Muguira
5 steps to finding a books ideal audience– Angela Ackerman
How to prep for your Book Launch– Heather Weidner
Do Bookbub deals work for permafree? – Carlyn Robertson- Bookmark
Selling Direct – Joanna Penn -Bookmark
To finish,
A few weeks ago, I posted a link to the books that had entered the public domain. These are books whose copyright has expired. (Generally, after 70 years.)
I came across a list of children’s books today in this category. They are all classics and always seem to be reprinted every few years. (cash cow) However, if you want to mash up Alice In Wonderland with some hot modern genre- now could be the time.
Maureen
@craicer
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