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While you are worrying about whether beta readers will steal your ideas, there is a more genuine threat on the horizon.
When offered a publishing contract, please do all your research before you sign. There are a number of fakes and scammers out there, as well as good-intentioned amateurs that don’t know how to get your work to a wide audience. I won’t tell the heartbreaking stories here – there are too many.
Being published badly is worse than being never published.
It can destroy your career and your dreams.
The quick check is to google the publishing house name + scam or warning.
But, to be sure, check with these places first. They aren’t infallible (nothing is) but they can help you protect yourself. They are written and maintained by expereinced writers, editors, publishers and legal folks.
Absolute Write: Bewares and Background Checks
and the WRITER BEWARE blog
Keep yourself and your work safe.
This is really important, so if you are a writer or have writer friends, or you are a writing blog, please reblog it.
Just to let you know, PublishAmerica changed their name to America Star Books.
HEAD’S UP, WRITER TYPES: THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PSA!
Also applies to many so-called freelance sites that are just content mills, and may not pay unless your work is used, even if the contract seems designed otherwise.
Listen, reading these is like legit reading horror stories. When it comes to publishing your writing, always, always, ALWAYS do your research. Not only will it help you avoid scams, but it will also be likely to help you land a much better fit for an agent/publisher/whatever. Knowing more is never going to hurt.
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Yesterday I walked into a bookstore and saw this display and got really choked up. A lot of people lately have called me an overnight success, but here’s some context: THIS SAVAGE SONG is my 11th book.
Here’s some more:
My first book, THE NEAR WITCH, got almost no press aside from the fact it was a debut. It was in a select number of stores for a very short time, 1-2 copies max, and disappeared by the end of its first season. Out of print at 18 months.
After that, I wrote a sequel, which my publisher decided they didn’t want.
My second book, THE ARCHIVED, and its sequel, THE UNBOUND, did well, but not well enough for the publisher to finish the trilogy. I remember being terrified it wouldn’t get shelf space, then being terrified it wouldn’t sell, then being terrified of a hundred different things, half of which ended up happening. The hardcover of TA was just officially taken out of print.
[ETA: And because I just got an actual flurry of asks about
TA3–I made a promise and I will keep it; THE RETURNED will be made
available, in one format or another, whether through a publisher or
online, when it’s ready.]My fourth book, VICIOUS, was a total risk at a new publisher, and a surprise success, and my first book to come out in the UK. Nearly 3 years after release, it’s still selling strong.
My fifth, sixth, and seventh books were Scholastic Clubs and Fairs titles that sold more than 600,000 copies in Scholastic Book Fair, and STILL got turned down by Barnes and Noble. I never got to see them on shelf.
My eighth book, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, was probably the one that launched my ship. It got decent store placement, great reviews, and is still selling strong–the paperback has been a Barnes and Noble bestseller for 4 months. Also the UK put up posters of it on the London Underground, and that’s pretty damn cool.
My ninth book was part of a multi-author platform at Scholastic. I hope I didn’t tank that series. It feels like I might have, though I’m really, really damn proud of my book.
My tenth book, A GATHERING OF SHADOWS, was my first book to hit the NYT list. It was the first time I got to go on a national book tour, and see hundreds and hundreds of readers, some who were new, and some who’d been with me since the beginning.
And my eleventh book, THIS SAVAGE SONG, just came out in the UK, with the US release to follow next month.
So when I walk into a book store, and see my books on tables, on displays, when I have booksellers approach me in their cafes and ask if I would mind signing some stock, it makes me pretty f*cking happy.
It doesn’t make me mad when people call me an overnight success, but it doesn’t paint a true picture, either. So here you go.
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Yesterday I walked into a bookstore and saw this display and got really choked up. A lot of people lately have called me an overnight success, but here’s some context: THIS SAVAGE SONG is my 11th book.
Here’s some more:
My first book, THE NEAR WITCH, got almost no press aside from the fact it was a debut. It was in a select number of stores for a very short time, 1-2 copies max, and disappeared by the end of its first season. Out of print at 18 months.
After that, I wrote a sequel, which my publisher decided they didn’t want.
My second book, THE ARCHIVED, and its sequel, THE UNBOUND, did well, but not well enough for the publisher to finish the trilogy. I remember being terrified it wouldn’t get shelf space, then being terrified it wouldn’t sell, then being terrified of a hundred different things, half of which ended up happening. The hardcover of TA was just officially taken out of print.
[ETA: And because I just got an actual flurry of asks about
TA3–I made a promise and I will keep it; THE RETURNED will be made
available, in one format or another, whether through a publisher or
online, when it’s ready.]My fourth book, VICIOUS, was a total risk at a new publisher, and a surprise success, and my first book to come out in the UK. Nearly 3 years after release, it’s still selling strong.
My fifth, sixth, and seventh books were Scholastic Clubs and Fairs titles that sold more than 600,000 copies in Scholastic Book Fair, and STILL got turned down by Barnes and Noble. I never got to see them on shelf.
My eighth book, A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC, was probably the one that launched my ship. It got decent store placement, great reviews, and is still selling strong–the paperback has been a Barnes and Noble bestseller for 4 months. Also the UK put up posters of it on the London Underground, and that’s pretty damn cool.
My ninth book was part of a multi-author platform at Scholastic. I hope I didn’t tank that series. It feels like I might have, though I’m really, really damn proud of my book.
My tenth book, A GATHERING OF SHADOWS, was my first book to hit the NYT list. It was the first time I got to go on a national book tour, and see hundreds and hundreds of readers, some who were new, and some who’d been with me since the beginning.
And my eleventh book, THIS SAVAGE SONG, just came out in the UK, with the US release to follow next month.
So when I walk into a book store, and see my books on tables, on displays, when I have booksellers approach me in their cafes and ask if I would mind signing some stock, it makes me pretty f*cking happy.
It doesn’t make me mad when people call me an overnight success, but it doesn’t paint a true picture, either. So here you go.
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Honestly, I think the whole “don’t pay the writers” thing boils down to the notion that everybody thinks they can write. It’s the old saw about the novelist at a cocktail party having to hear someone say, for the millionth time, “I’d love to write a book someday.”
Someone–Stephen King? Pretty sure I saw this in a Stephen King foreword–once said they’d like to say to a brain surgeon, “Boy, I’d love to do brain surgery someday.”
We treat “the ability to put words into a sentence” like it’s just the same as “the ability to form a coherent narrative that engenders a variety of emotions within the reader and puts them in a scene and shows them what they didn’t see before”.
And that’s like me drawing a stick figure and saying I’m an artist.
Writers are constantly devalued because everyone thinks they have a book in them and don’t realize the level of skill and commitment it takes to finish even a short story, much less a whole book.
This goes well beyond fandom, but man, I would’ve hoped fandom would know better.
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Inspiration comes and goes, creativity is the result of practice. Phil Cousineau
AUTHOR | HISTORIAN | ARTIST 