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Posts Tagged ‘victoria strauss’
Quick Updates for 2010-03-07
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Resources
- Victoria Strauss: Learn about the history of the ebook
- SFWA member Laura Bickle: Free Workshop for Writers – Before Copy Editing.
- SFWA member Nancy Fulda on why we need editors.
Member News
- Welcome to SFWA’s newest Affiliate member, Leonell Strong III!
- Congratulations to SFWA member Carrie Ryan whose THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH is on the New York Times’ list!
- SFWA member Yasmine Galenorn is having live online chat in her chat room Sun 7th; 6:00 PM PST.
Tags: Carrie Ryan, Laura Bickle, Leonell Strong III, Nancy Fulda, twitter, victoria strauss, yasmine galenorn
Posted in Excluded Categories, News, SFWA Blog | No Comments »
Quick Updates for 2010-03-05
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Resources
- An interview with Nebula nominee Kij Johnson. Tentacles! Sex! And insights into writing.
- Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop, a NASA funded workshop for writers, is accepting applications through 3/31.
- SFWA member Jim C. Hines has an interesting post and discussion about advances.
- SFWA member Jonathan Strahan talks about managing your digital assets.
Member News
- Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Gord Sellar. Read one of his qualifying stories.
- Interview with SFWA member Mike Resnick.
- SFWA members: The direct link to ask your candidates questions is here.
- Welcome to SFWA’s newest Affiliate member, illustrator Apis Teicher.
- Watch SFWA member David D. Levine’s Ignite Portland (#ip8) talk on YouTube.
Industry News
- Victoria Strauss: Penguin experimenting with a book format for iPad.
Tags: Apis Teicher, David D. Levine, Gord Sellar, Jim C. Hines, jonathan strahan, Kij Johnson, mike resnick, twitter, victoria strauss
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | No Comments »
Quick Updates for 2010-03-03
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Resources
- What do LGBTQ teens want to read?
- Victoria Strauss: Mokoto Rich on the math of ebook pricing: they’re not as cheap to produce as many people think.
- Bookends Literary Agency offers a handy publishing dictionary
Member News
- New issue of Apex Magazine is a single author issue with fiction by SFWA member Mary Robinette Kowal.
- SFWA member Jess Wynne has a story in the Steampunk issue of Crossed Genres.
- SFWA member Monica Valentinelli’s THE QUEEN OF CROWS is now available at DriveThruHorror.com.
- SFWA member Jay Lake is reading and signing new novel PINION at Powells Cedar Hills store on 4/1.
- Happy release day to SFWA member Seanan Mcguire for A Local Habitation.
- Happy Book release day to SFWA Member Blake Charlton's novel, Spellwright.
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Rachel Aaron, author of The Spirit Thief.
- Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Genevieve Valentine. Read one of her qualifying stories.
Industry News
- The Nebula final ballot is now open to Active SFWA members.
- Asimov's has posted their Nebula nominated stories.
Tags: Blake Charlton, genevieve valentine, Jay Lake, Jess Wynne, Mary Robinette Kowal, Monica Valentinelli, Rachel Aaron, Seanan Mcguire, twitter, victoria strauss
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | No Comments »
Quick Updates for 2010-02-19
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Resources
- Victoria Strauss: Open Book Alliance: how Google Book Settlement gives Google monopoly in another area: search.
- SFWA member Jim C. Hines is conducting a survey about first novel sales.
Member News
- Welcome to SFWA’s newest associate member, Brad Aiken, who sold “Locked In” to Analog.
- Congratulations to SFWA member Edward Willett whose novel Terra Insegura has made the short list for this year’s Prix Aurora Awards!
Industry News
- Pyr Books is now accepting unagented manuscripts in certain subgenres.
Tags: Brad Aiken, edward willett, Jim C. Hines, twitter, victoria strauss
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | 3 Comments »
MyFreeRead.com: Not Quite What It Appears
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Earlier this week, I received an email from a company called MyFreeRead.com, enticingly titled, "Authors: We Want Your e-Books & Articles!"
Dear Authors, We want your e-books -- and we'll pay you for them!! * e-Books * Newsletters * Excerpts from books * Self-Published Articles Now, there's a new idea... actually get paid for writing your e-books and articles! We're launching a brand new website, where visitors can download free e-books on everything from running a business to fixing a car... and WE PAY OUR AUTHORS US $0.20 every time an e-book is successfully downloaded!Gee, 20 cents a download--who could resist? Me, for one. I might have written this off as just one more random spam--but then I began hearing from writers who'd gotten the very same email offer. The volume of questions began to suggest a sizeable spam campaign, which always gets my Writer Beware radar twitching. (more...)
Tags: victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 2 Comments »
Author Solutions CEO Wants to Talk to Writers’ “Guilds”
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
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 (which he incorrectly dubbed the “Science Fiction Writers’ Association”–though I can’t fault him for this, as PW regularly gets it wrong as well) to sit down with him and other AS representatives to discuss the recent debate over AS’s “partnerships” with Harlequin and Thomas Nelson. (Weiss didn’t mention another professional writers’ group, NINC, which issued a strongly-worded statement in response to the debate.)
(To recap, if you have been living in a cave for the past six months: This fall, Harlequin and Nelson–both major commercial publishers–launched “self-publishing” divisions, whereby aspiring authors could pay a fee and have their books formatted, printed, and distributed online. Both divisions were run by AS. A storm of public criticism ensued, prompting RWA, MWA, and SFWA to issue public statements and to de-list Harlequin, Nelson, or both.)
From the press release:
“I’m inviting the three writers guilds who’ve expressed the greatest objections with the partnerships we’ve established with traditional publishing to sit down with us and discuss how we can improve the opportunity for their writers and the choice for readers,” Weiss said in the statement.
In response to ASI’s announcements of partnerships with traditional publishers, the three writer’s guilds led a campaign to discredit the publishers involved in creating these groundbreaking opportunities, even going so far as to de-list one as a qualified publisher. Weiss believes the guilds may not fully understand the role self-publishing can play in expanding options for writers and consumers while at the same time providing benefits to traditional publishers who are in the midst of tremendous upheaval.
“Not only do I want to discuss the differences they have with our business, as well as the partnership models that we’re engaging with traditional publishing, but I also want to discuss the things that we are doing and plan to do to advance the cause of their members on a daily basis,” Weiss said.
In the video, Weiss claims that “choice is under attack,” citing concerns that cheap ebooks and book retailers’ price wars will undercut publishers’ revenues, resulting in fewer chances for new authors and fewer choices for readers. The implication is that AS addresses that problem by making publishing services available to all (though I would find this more convincing if so many of AS’s services weren’t predatory and overpriced–there’s a good analysis at Shiloh Walker’s blog–and if, by Mr. Weiss’s own admission, the average sales for an AS title didn’t top out at 150).
Weiss also gets a couple of things wrong. I’ve already mentioned SFWA’s name; also, RWA, MWA, and SFWA didn’t de-list just one publisher, but both–MWA and SFWA by implication, since Thomas Nelson doesn’t really publish in their genres, RWA explicitly, by removing Nelson as well as Harlequin from its conference-eligible publisher list. Plus, the press release’s claim that RWA, MWA, and SFWA “led a campaign to discredit the publishers involved” is hyperbolic. The writers’ groups made strong responses, but most of the outcry came from individual writers (and involved Harlequin; Nelson more or less got a free pass), and it was largely the outcry that spurred the statements, not the other way around.
I’d also love to know exactly what it is that AS does to “advance the cause” of RWA, MWA, and SFWA members “on a daily basis”–especially given that authors cannot qualify for membership in MWA and SFWA on the basis of self-published books–but I guess Weiss is saving that for the sit-down.
Will a sit-down, if it happens, be productive? Good question. Part of the objection to the AS/Harlequin/Nelson “partnerships” was the misleading way in which they were presented–seriously overstating the benefits of self-publishing for many if not most authors, using the carrot of possible transition to commercial publishing as a hook to draw in customers–as well as, in Nelson’s case, a promise of referral fees for agents who steered authors its way, plus a truly exorbitant cost. Given that high costs and less-than-transparent presentation are at the core of AS’s services, I don’t think that’s likely to change. Also, can there ever be a meeting of the minds between professional commercial writers’ groups and a company that wants to present fee-based publishing as an “indie revolution?” Part of the problem, I think, is that Weiss is speaking a different language.
I don’t want to be unduly negative. There are certainly ways in which AS could benefit RWA, MWA, and SWFA members–by providing a reasonable, efficient way for members to bring their out-of-print works back into circulation, for instance. And, simply as a matter of pragmatism, I do think that we will have to get used to at least some degree of cohabitation between commercial publishing and fee-based publishing–since commercial publishers need revenue and fee-based publishing is (for now) extremely lucrative. If, in these difficult times of economic pain and technological transition, launching a fee-based publishing division could help a commercial publisher maintain its core publishing operation–and if the fee-based division were straightforward, reasonably-priced, and transparent (i.e., no bogus farm-team promises, or referral fees, or exaggerated portrayals of the potential for success)–I might be able to make peace with that.
Is AS the right company to provide those services, though? Do publishers even need to hire an outside company to set fee-based publishing divisions up for them? Those are whole other questions.
Tags: victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 1 Comment »
The Law Finally Catches Up With Faux Literary Agent/Film Producer Robin Price
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
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.
Price is alleged to have “encouraged authors to pay exaggerated literary fees and invest in non-existent film deals,” and has been charged with six counts of theft, most committed over the course of several years:
● £293,603 from Cecil Humphery-Smith OBE between 2001 and 2007.
● £99,335 from Judith Day between 2001 and 2008.
● £120,000 from Dr Bryan Walton between 1999 and 2006.
● £14,250 from Chris Bailey between 2001 and 2004.
● £4,200 from Michael William Hawkes between 2004 and 2006.
● £646 from Evelyn Joyce Jolley in 2005.
Price has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A date for his trial will be set in February.
I first heard of Robin Price in 2001, when I began receiving questions about a literary agency called Avalon Associates, which was asking writers for £150 upfront “to cover initial costs of representation.” The fees were an obvious red flag, as was the fact that the agency had no discoverable sales, either of books or scripts. Price, who made big promises to his clients and touted his industry connections, also owned a production company, Avalon Films, whose website boasted a huge roster of film and television projects planned or in production, many with well-known writers, actors, and/or directors attached. (more…)
Tags: victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 2 Comments »
Apparently I’m a Boring Wrinkled Self-Published Lesbian
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
No way, you say? Well, fee-charging literary agent Eddie Kritzer begs to differ.
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. More recently, I’ve begun hearing that Mr. Kritzer is asking for a $500-600 “advance on commission.” (I have documentation of these fees, but you don’t have to take my word for it–a number of writers have blogged or posted about their encounters with Kritzer, and there’s a whole thread on him at Absolute Write.) (more…)
Tags: victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 9 Comments »
SFWA, NWU, and ASJA on Google Books Settlement
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
The National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have written to their author peers in Congress, seeking their support in encouraging the Department of Justice to continue its opposition to the Google Books Settlement.
The text of the letter is embedded below. The Los Angeles Times reports that Google has declined to address the letter’s concerns, and the Authors Guild did not respond to a request for comment.
Writers to Congressional Authors
Tags: American Society of Journalists and Authors, Google Book Settlement, National Writers Union, victoria strauss, Writer Beware
Posted in News, SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off
Quick Updates for 2009-12-24
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Member News
- Victoria Strauss: From the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Which companies respect ebook readers' privacy
- Congratulations to SFWA member Caren Gussoff, winner of the SLF's 2009 Gulliver Travel Research Grant
- We have 1199 Active members. Who will be number 1200?
Tags: Caren Gussoff, twitter, victoria strauss
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off