Posts by Writer Unboxed
When we heard about entrepreneur Mark Levin’s book, The Fine Print of Self Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 45 Self-Publishing Companies Analyzed Ranked & Exposed, we were immediately intrigued. We don’t know a lot about self-publishing, to be honest, but we know the idea of it appeals to many of you, including our own Ray Rhamey. How does one go about having their work self-published? Are some companies more reputable than others? What, exactly, does a writer need to be aware of — and beWare of?
(Would you like a copy of Mark’s book for yourself? Read on to find out how you might be eligible.)
We’re thrilled that Mark Levine took some time out to talk to us about his book and about self-publishing in general. Enjoy!
Q: What inspired you to write The Fine Print of Self-Publishing?
ML: A fellow author published by the publisher of my first novel contacted me and asked if I could help him get out of a contract he signed with a self-publishing company. The contract was awful and gave this company the rights to the author’s book for the term of the copyright (the life of the author, plus 70 years). This author also happened to be a professor at UC-Berkley. I figured if a guy this educated was signing a contract just to get published, there were probably thousands of writers out there in the same boat. That one incident was my market research before I wrote the first edition of The Fine Print in 2004.
Q: What’s your background, what do you do now?
ML: I was a lawyer by training, but was very entrepreneurial and wanted to own a business. In 2000, I started an Internet company, Click Industries that did online business filings (corporations, copyright registrations, assumed business names, etc.). That company has grown an expanded to 35+ websites across many different fields, including book publishing. In addition to running Click, I’ve published three books (including The Fine Print).
Q: Do you think e-publishing and self publishing will increase or decrease in the future, and why?
Read MoreKath and Therese want to take a moment to share some of WU’s recent mail.
First, from Writer Mama, Christina Katz, who’ll be doing an interview with us in the near future: the Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway begins on Monday (that’s today). There are a HUGE number of writerly books in this contest. The giveaway list is HERE.
Second, from Publishers Weekly spokesperson Nicole Bruce:
In a full-day seminar, experts from Publishers Weekly will guide aspiring writers through everything they need to know about the business of getting their books published. With the help of top agents, authors, editors and marketing professionals, PW will show writers the way to get published. The seminar will take place on Monday, September 22nd at the NYU Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012 from 9 AM to 6 PM.
In advance of the seminar, PW will collect and read proposals, or a piece of a manuscript. One lucky writer selected by PW’s deputy reviews editor and staff will be profiled in an upcoming issue of PW read by agents and publishers. Submissions are due by September 5, 2008. Submission guidelines and details can be found at
Read MoreLots of goodies for WU readers this week:
Just in case this opportunity got lost over the weekend, I’ll repeat it again. Pat Walsh, editor at MacAdam/Cage Publishing, is actively looking for submissions.
Thanks so much and please let your readership know that MacAdam/Cage is once again accepting unsolicited manuscripts and we are actively seeking great books from the slush. We are also going to try and give as much feedback as we can.
MacAdam/Cage publishes an eclectic mix of literary and commercial fiction. If you’re a writer who writes outside the box, this is a great opportunity. The feedback offer is the gold here. A rejection is a rejection, but a publishing professional give feedback on why you’ve garnered the rejection is priceless.
WU contributor and best-selling author Barbara Samuel’s offer of critiques to raise money for breast cancer is also another tremendous opportunity for priceless feedback by a published author.
WU reader Chris Eldin has a promising new blog in Book Roast. From the Roast’s home page:
Each week we’re open for business, Book Roast cooks up five authors from different genres. Stop by to hear about their books, jump in the oven and poke them with a meat thermometer to see if they’re done.
Your menu selections for June:
Weirdly, Bernita Harris – June 23
Souvenir, Therese Fowler – June 24
Head Case, Dennis Cass – June 25
The Roofer, Erica Orloff – June 26
Queen of the Road, Doreen Orion – June 27
Yesterday’s post features a brief excerpt and some, er, thought-provoking questions to ask yourself after reading. You’ll get a kick, a fork, something out of it, we promise.
In other blog news, Writer Beware cautious all of us against the FieldReport Award for True-Life Stories. If you’re interested in entering this contest, read HERE to fully understand what it’ll mean for you and your rights.
Writer’s Digest editor Brian Klems answers the question you want answered: Are agents stealing my stamps? Check it out HERE at Questions and Quandaries.
More business news after the jump.
Read MoreHey WU readers, listen up. RITA-award-winning author and WU contributor Barbara Samuel is auctioning off some critiques on eBay in order to raise money for the AVON breast cancer walk in late June. This, from her eBay description page:
This is highly unusual–I never, ever do critiques and this is a 1 in 3 chance to get one, and also help me raise money for a very worth cause that touches many, many women: The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I’ll be walking 39 miles over two days and all the funds raised from this auction will go toward this cause.
I am offering three critiques of the first three chapters and a synopsis, not to exceed 50 pages.
These auctions will end soon, so check them out ASAP. First auction HERE, second HERE, last HERE.
Good luck!
Read Moreof Sophie Masson’s Demigods and Monsters contest. Sophie recently co-authored an anthology called Demigods and Monsters, which is being sold exclusively through Borders (link unavailable). She asked WU readers to name the Gorgon killed by Perseus. (Psst…Medusa!) The first three readers who did so were able to score themselves a book. The winners are:
Mallika
Riley
and
Gavin.
Congrats to the winners, and thanks for the contest, Sophie!
Read MoreWe get a fair few fans of Erin Hunter’s bestselling YA Warriors series to WU because we were lucky enough to interview authors Kate Cary and Cherith Baldry, who write the books under the pen name Erin Hunter, as well as the brains behind the series, senior editor Victoria Holmes, who is an accomplished author of YA novels in her own right. Vicky was a guest contributor for WU for some time, providing insights into the growing YA market until the Warriors phenomenon exploded and demanded more of her attention. So it deeply saddened us when Vicky alerted us to a tragedy that had occurred to a devoted fan who, with her parents, was killed in the horrific tornadoes scouring the midwest in February.
According to Lynn Wiman of Vintage Books, a bookseller who knew Emmy:
Erin Hunter has no greater fan than Emmy Cherry. She not only read every book, but insisted that we all read them. I am 50 years old, and reading them. Her grandparents are reading them. Her aunts are reading them. Every child in the Middle School is going to read them. Because they are Emmy’s favorite authors.
But Emmy’s legacy won’t stop there. Vicky will be remembering this young girl in an extraordinary way. This from an AP article published in an Arkansas newspaper, The Morning News:
Emmy, 10, will become Brightspirit, a beautiful silver tabby featured inside the fantasy world of the “Warriors,” a series about cats that battle inside their magic forest home. Shiningheart will represent Emmy’s mother Dana while Braveheart will be father Jimmy in the series’ next book, “Long Shadows.”The tornado, with winds of up to 266 kph, left only a slab where the Cherrys’ house once stood. Family members recovered a few memento’s, including a book report Emmy Cherry once wrote on the series.
Victoria Holmes, one of the authors ghostwriting the series under the name Erin Hunter, said the idea to use the family in a book came after a used-book store owner contacted publisher Harper Collins requesting items for an auction benefiting a storm relief effort.
An online forum for child reading fantasy fiction went further, suggesting the family should have a role in the book series, aimed at preteens.
“At first, I had reservations about whether we should draw it to their (readers’) attention . . . I feel like we don’t always need to be reminded of our own mortality at that age,” Holmes, 36, said from her home just outside of London. “But, equally, ‘Warriors,’ the series, deals with some pretty big issues, including death and tragedy and what happens when you die and how you deal with grief.”
As communities still clean up from the storms, Holmes and the other writers in the series signed books and collected other memorabilia to be auctioned off. The money will go to the ‘Warriors Relief Fund,’ which will be administered by Emmy’s grandmothers.
“The fund is going to be used for anything that Emmy might have wanted to donate money to in her local community,” Holmes said. The first purchase will likely be school uniforms to two boys orphaned by the Atkins tornado.
Holmes will leave London for a U.S. tour next week. While in […]
Read MoreWeekend Update 2: Researchers with the Smart Bitches site have uncovered a new sad truth in the plagiarism scandal involving Cassie Edwards–similarities between one of her novels and the Pulitzer-prize winning novel Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge. Here are two comparable excerpts:
Beyond were red-brown cliffs, dull orange bald rock, and yellow sand, leading away to blend into a kind of purplish brown with hazy blue mountains for background. (p. 63, Savage Dream by Cassie Edwards)
Beyond its level were red-brown cliffs, dull orange bald-rock, yellow sand, leading away to blend into a kind of purplish brown with blue clouds of mountains for background. (p. 115, Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge)
Looking up, he saw magnificent dark firs growing along the ledges. Up there, the ruddy rock, touched by sunlight, became dull orange and buff with flecks of gold and a golden line where the earth met a cloudless sky. (p. 63, Savage Dream by Cassie Edwards)
Looking up, one saw magnificent, dark firs growing along the ledges and hanging valleys. Up there, the ruddy rock, touched by the sunlight, became dull orange and buff, with flecks of gold, and a golden line where it met a …” (free Google preview ended here)
(p. 100, Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge)
Weekend update: Signet has revised its position on the plagiarism scandal. This letter copied from the Smart Bitches site:
Our original comments were based on Signet’s review of a limited selection of passages. We believe the situation deserves further review. Therefore we will be examining all of Ms. Edwards’ books that we publish, and based on the outcome of that review we will take action to handle the matter accordingly. We want to make it known that Signet takes any and all allegations of plagiarism very seriously.
Read MoreYou know that we’re not about bashing other authors here. But the developing scandal over one novelist’s work and her extensive “borrowing” of large amounts of others’ texts does make one take notice.
In a nutshell: historical romance author Cassie Edwards has been accused of plagiarism. She hasn’t plagiarized another novelist’s plot, prose, or dialogue. She’s accused of lifting, verbatim, from non-fiction references and research.
[Form your own opinion by viewing the evidence on the Smart Bitches site–Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE, Part 3 HERE, Part 4 HERE, and Part 5 HERE.]
As a blog about the craft and business of genre fiction, we can’t ignore this issue. And we definitely had to say something once Signet, Edwards’ publisher, came through with a response. This, from the Smart Bitches site:
Read MoreAnd they’re off…
Read MoreLove us? Nominate us for Digest’s 101 Best Sites for Writers!
In an email with “101 Sites” in the subject line, include our name and URL (staging-writerunboxed.kinsta.cloud) and anything you’d like the WD staff to know about us. Then send the note to: writersdig@fwpubs.com
Thanks for your support!
Read MoreFrom Answers.com:
When L. Frank Baum, born on this date in 1856, wrote the first in his series of books about the Emerald City — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — little did he know the impact it would have on generations of children who would be terrified by the Wicked Witch of the West and who would cheer for Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion as they made their way to the Land of Oz and helped Dorothy get home to Kansas.
Quote: “A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.” — Wizard of Oz to the Tin Man, by L. Frank Baum
Read MoreYou might live in lovely North Carolina or California, or reside in some picturesque beach house in Hawaii or New Zealand, but we WU mamas (Kath and Therese) live in dreary upstate New York. And it’s been cold here. And rainy. And snowy. And cold. Did we mention cold? Where in this world, exactly, does March goes out like a lamb? Because we’d like to find that lamb and snarf its wool to make a new coat. Still, because we’re true troopers, we’ve donned our best rain gear and gathered some good linkies for you. (Sneeze.) Here ya go:
Nathan Bransford’s blend of agently wisdom and fun pokes at pop culture (yo, Tyra!) make him a daily must read for us. Check out his post on awkward dialogue if thou dost not want to appear dimly lit in thoust skullest. While you’re there, chime in on his latest if you have an opinion about creative writing schools.
Agent Rachel Vater posted on a cool new contest (Fangs Fur Fey). Send in your hook, and if it’s dubbed The Best, Vater will critique your manuscript’s first 50 pages plus synopsis. Window for submissions runs from April 13th through the 15th. Get all the details HERE.
Speaking of contests…
Read MoreWriter Unboxed is in the running to be named one of the best Writers’ Resource sites in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll. Love us? Hop on over HERE and vote for us. (Scan down; it’s alphabetical.) Voting runs through Monday, January 15th. Thanks!
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