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Writers Slam Secrecy of Book Publishers’ Deal With Google
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA.org) National Writers Union (NWU.org) Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA.org) Contacts: Minda Zetlin, President, American Society of Jour...
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Review of EXTRAORDINARY by Nancy Werlin
Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin My rating: 4 of 5 stars A bargain between the faerie and human worlds has gone wrong, wreaking havoc among the faeries. Mallory and Ryland, a fey brother and sister, are dispatched by the faerie queen to the human world in a last-ditch effort to salvage the situation. Their mission: to masquerade as humans in order to manipulate Phoebe, a descendant of the original human bargain-maker, into fulfilling the the terms of the pact. There are familiar paranormal elements here (faeries–yeah, OK), and familiar romance elements as well: good girl falls for bad boy who treats her like dirt yet it takes her the whole book to figure out that he’s a jerk and she should kick him to the curb. Werlin does provide an internally consistent framework for this scenario, since the reader knows that Phoebe is under Ryland’s magical influence; every now and then…
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Publishers Settle With Google–But What About Authors?
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Seven years ago, the Authors Guild and several major publishers (including McGraw Hill, Penguin, and John Wiley) filed suit against Google for its unauthorized scanning of in-copyright books. The AG and p...
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Garden Notes — Summer’s Last Gasp
Though fall has been getting steadily longer and milder over the past few years here in Western Massachusetts, and we still have at least a month of fine weather to go before winter closes in, this is always a bit of a melancholy time of year for me, as I watch my garden yield to the change of seasons. So, for a look back, I’m posting photos I took toward the end of August, when things were still in vibrant bloom and torrential rainstorms hadn’t squashed the late-blooming flowers flat. Click on the image to see a larger version, plus my comments.
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Class Action Lawsuit Against PublishAmerica Dismissed
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware On June 11 of this year, a class action lawsuit was filed against PublishAmerica by a Baltimore, MD law firm, in association with high-profile litigators Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. Among other things, th...
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Writer Beware is on Vacation
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Actually, I'm on staycation, but I'll be cutting way back on the Web stuff for the next two weeks. I'll be back the week of September 24. I'll still be checking messages and answering email, so if you ne...
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Guest Blog Post Writers Be-Wary: Electronic Distribution and Control of Creative Material
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Today: another guest blog post of relevance to freelance writers. This one covers content aggregators, and the pitfalls that may be lurking in their Terms of Use. ___________________ Writers Be-Wary: Ele...
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Guest Blog Post: 7 Freelance Writing Scams and How to Fight Them
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware It's freelance week at Writer Beware! In this week's blog posts, two guest bloggers will be discussing issues of interest and importance to freelance writers. In today's post, freelancer and marketing prof...
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Fake Jared And His Friends: Author Solutions’ Misleading PR Strategies
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware In my recent blog post on Pearson's acquisition of self-publishing giant Author Solutions Inc., I posed several questions that I hope Pearson will consider as it integrates ASI with Penguin Group. One of th...
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Vanity, Vanity: Turning The Label Around
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware In the war of words that rages between advocates of self-publishing and proponents of traditional publishing, one of the long-standing weapons is the term "vanity publishing." It's often leveled, dismissive...