Last March, word went out that self-publishing giant Author Solutions Inc (owner of AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris, Trafford, WordClay, Palibrio, and several others, and contractor for the self-pub divisions of several major publishers) was looking for a buyer.

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

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To vary our subject matter and present differing points of view, we publish occasional guest blog posts on subjects relating to publishing, self-p…

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

You may have noticed that there were no posts last week. Apologies! I’ve got a humongous workload, and have had to cut myself off from the web almost entirely in order to deal with it. 

I thought I…

Following on my last post about how authors can waste money on promotional strategies, here are some more cash-sucking “opportunities.”

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Author Solutions has just introduced a new marketing service called BookStub, which it describes thusly:

Loyalty card-sized BookStubs display your cover on the front side and ordering instructions on t…

I can’t count the number of questions I’ve received over the years from unhappy PublishAmerica authors, wondering whether a class action lawsuit against PA has been/might be/ever will be filed.

As exciting as the digital transition is, I feel a bit sorry for authors of the future, whose books may never become physical objects–there really is nothing like holding your book in your hands for the first time.

An important legal ruling was handed down yesterday by Judge Denny Chin in the five-year-old Authors Guild v. Google class action lawsuit over Google’s scanning of millions of in-copyright books.

A couple of years ago, I blogged about the launch of PW Select, an online supplement to the regular PW magazine. PW Select, which is published quarterly, allows self-published writers to buy brief listings (author, title, subtitle, price, pagination and format, ISBN, a brief description, and ordering information) for $149.

Two fascinating surveys appeared this week. They look at opposite ends of the writing business, but dovetail in interesting ways.

The Writers’ Wo…