Hello vermin!
I come here today offering a bit of assistance for the aspiring writer. I hear about situations like this a lot. Someone writes a book and it’s a good one. The characters are well developed and believable, the plot is solid and compelling, and it’s well paced. It’s just wonderful– you know, like a still-beating heart freshly torn out of a nun. Mmmm Mmmm Good… oh crap where was I? Oh yeah: writer, book, plot, what’s next…? Publishing!
So our writer friend has a book he/she/undecided wants to publish. Outstanding, right? Not always. A friend tells you that he’s submitted his work to a few publishers and after a lot of refusals one of them contacts our friend and says he’ll publish the book for the oh-so-reasonable price of $650.00
According to this publisher that’s a good price and it’s used for “publishing and promotional costs”. The big question: This is a good deal, right?
WRONG!
Time for our first lesson in knowing a publisher from a rectal wart. No reputable publisher, repeat, NO REPUTABLE PUBLISHER will charge you to publish your book! It’s one of the most common and sadly the fastest growing form of fraud in the industry today. Publishers earn the right to a percentage of your sales for 1) turning your manuscript into a marketable book and making it available to the reading public. 2) promoting your work in order to boost sales. THAT is where his money comes from. It does not come from the writer’s pocket. It’s this kind of filth that makes folks scared of the industry: there are genuine bad guys out there… know who you’re dealing with.
For the aspiring writer I’d suggest visiting (and reading everything you find there) two websites:
Writer Beware is an awesome site that lists people and companies you really don’t want to deal with and the reasons you don’t want to deal with them.
http://www.sfwa.org/beware/
Predators and Editors is kind of like the Holy Grail for new writers. What to do, what not to do, and how to do it. Not to mention what to avoid and enough general reference info to help anyone get going.
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/
That’s probably the best help I can offer other than killing your enemies. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to do it but hiding the evidence is too much work at my age. Besides, we haven’t even been formally introduced.
‘Til next time Vermin
Break a leg, preferably someone else’s.
