Writers Be Aware!

The art of “How to Write”, has become more profitable than the actual writing itself. Don’t believe me? Just Google, “How to write books”, oh yeah, I just got 131,000,000 hits off of that one line.

No doubt about, the art of selling, “How to Write” has become a lucrative market. Where money is, like fresh blood, sharks are sure to follow. In the writing business both as an author, writer, publisher, editor, agent, or agency, sharks prowl mercilessly over naive, and sometimes even foolish writers.

You want to make it “Big” as writer? Get a lottery ticket. Truth is, you have the same odds as winning the lottery as you do getting a million dollar publishing contract. Over a million manuscripts are sent out to publishing houses each year and less than 10% of those ever find there way inside. Of those 10%, about 1% makes the money you hear about. Problem is the Sharks know that the general writing community will not hit it big or may never hit it big. 

The sharks know, however, that you—as a writer—want that dream and the sharks pitch themselves in a way that sounds very salable. Like a reading fee, finders fee, any kind of fee paid by the author for services rendered is ludicrous. A publishing company pays YOU as the author for your work NOT the other way around. An agent gets paid by the publishing company via a contract not by YOU ever! If they say otherwise, in short, they are taking advantage of you. Used to be called snake oil in the day, same concept, just different administration of the poison. Yes, that is what it is, poison to the naive writer.

Now, if you are paying for someone to edit your book, well, that is different all together. Some establishments do offer such services and although I have never partaken in them myself, it is available. Some publishing houses allot no error in grammar, punctuation, and even in continuity and in that case you have to get your work proofed thoroughly before they will ever consider your work.

The best idea is to go to a smaller publishing house, build your skills, and then upgrade as you improve. Never get impatient as a writer or you will make calculated errors in judgment that will propagate inevitable regrets.

Many very good writing schools (such as the one I attended) teach you how to weed out the poisonous vipers from the legitimate organizations. Most importantly, there are numerous websites out there that help the writer journeyman on his new born quest for star-eyed (and hopefully lucrative) fame.

What organizations am I talking about? Glad you asked:

 

Preditors & Editors

http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubwarn.htm 

Hated by the crook and coveted by the honest. It is A guide to publishers and publishing services to help the wayward writer find their way back to a safer haven with those they can actually trust.

 

A.A.R. Agents http://www.publication.com/aylad/aaragent4.htm 

Think you can trust all agents? Think again! Scrupulous agents will send you to scrupulous publishers. Find out if they are part of the AAR (Association of Author's Representative) and if they are not, believe me, they will give you all the reasons why they aren’t. Truth is, legitimate in there reasons or not, can you trust your future to one who isn’t a member of the AAR? Would you send your money to a bank that could close down on you in a week or a month? Or loan your money out to others without your permission? A writer’s work is precious as gold to the writer and should not be trusted with just anybody. If you take on an agent who puts you and your work at risk, you are gambling with your career…That is a risk I would not be willing to make.

 

Ralan.com http://www.ralan.com/ 

Ralan.com is an excellent guide to ezines, publishers, pro and semi-pro and gives you a concise listing to follow. Invaluable to the new writer who struggles trying to find sources to send submissions to.

SFWA http://www.sfwa.org/ 

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, gives a huge resource to the writer. Most importantly for this particular article is Writer Beware a sub-link under “For Authors”

http://www.sfwa.org/ Writer Beware, “Warnings About Literary Fraud and the Schemes, Scams, and Pitfalls That Target Writers” It is an invaluable source.

With all the sharks out there it is nice we have safety nets and cages. No matter how much you want to get published, stay behind the nets and be patient. Nothing is worth becoming shark bait!