Heard it before

It came as an email, and the first glance and first reading sounded good.  An interest in "The Obedience of Fools," and invited  me to submit the work to a... competition!

 Hey Martyn Taylor,

My Precious

David Gaughran posted a piece about the current state of the publishing industry and its attitude towards books and publication. Read it, go, read it, and then come back here. I have my own two pennorth to throw into the ring.

David is known for his advocacy of the cause against Vanity presses and the links between the scammers and the so-called reputable industry. His earlier blog posts are worth looking at regarding the Penguin Random House relationship with Author Solutions, and others.

New Kid on the Block?

The newbie author entering the world of writing and publishing must feel like the new kid who's just arrived at a new school half way through the term, All around are people who know people,,cliques of friends and shared interests. Unlimited agendas, some up front and in your face, others tucked away hiding like dark secrets, revealed only by the results of action, never spoken.

A bewildering array assaulting the senses, and somehow, somewhere, the newbie has to start establishing themselves in the midst of this apparent chaos. Chaos it is, the dynamics of the relationships are spinning beyond the newbies reach, then after a few tentative steps the first contact is made.

The Target for tonight!

It's what you are aiming for, the target is to find a publisher, someone who will travel with you and share the journey from manuscript text to published novelist.

Sounds straightforward, and it should be, but as ever there are the unscrupulous, devious and downright nasty characters in the big bad world out there!

Boot and Other Foot?

The madness continues at Indies Unlimited, the #PublishingFoul features reached the halfway point in the month with an update on the story so far.

A quick way to catch up with the information gleaned from the four corners of the Indies world is to click on the referee image on the right hand sidebar. The link takes you to the #PublishingFoul index page and posts directly related to the March Madness.

It doesn't make for easier reading, but highlights the frequently asked question, why do we, (writer's) fall for the scams? The simple truth maybe that they are better at the dark practises of scamming and fleecing than we are at spotting the same. Knowledge is the answer, and the greatest defence, and one of the strongest elements I've discovered among Independent authors is a willingness to share information. This month's features on Indies Unlimited supports this. 

We all want to sell our books, of course, but that doesn't mean we have to compete with each other when it comes to steering away from trouble. Any one of us may have narrowly avoided the pitfalls by  way of another author sharing their experience.

The update offers a review and links to a couple of useful pages; How to avoid a scam and  Resources for Authors, for legal advice and tips on where and how to research the useful details for avoiding the scammers.

The stakes are high! David Gaughran's posts at Let"s Get Digital, and his research on AuthorSolutions, reveals some of the figures involved. A new piece in the story appeared today with an appeal from David to spread the word to writers everywhere:  AuthorSolutions are sponsoring the Bay Area Book Festival; a very profitable ground for their activities, to the cost of many authors!.

Victoria Strauss offers more information at Writer Beware and one particular link discussing Vanity/Subsidy Publishers caught my attention. A lengthy piece worth taking the time to study, especially the case histories and the custodial  jail sentences given to publishers. The owner of Northwest Publishing, a Vanity Press based in Utah, received thirty years for cheating authors out of millions of dollars. (Some of the details may seem dated, but the page has been checked recently - Dec 2014.)

Labyrinthine, yes it may be, chasing the links between the sites offering information, but and it's a big but; taking the time to work your way through the links may save you a lot of money and of heartache.

Following the links proffered by the Vanities may drag you along at the same pace; however the end result may be very different to the one you wanted or expected to find.

Tread carefully, there are plenty of people out there who will trample your dreams without finding that we've been doing the same, to our own dreams!

Still treading on dreams!

Earlier this week ago I posted about Indies Unlimited March Madness, the feature of the month being experiences - usually bad - of independent authors at the hands of predatory publishers, Predominantly the vanity presses and new material has been posted on the site since my piece was published here.

The big player in the field is Author Solutions, but they are not alone and the predators aren't always the size of the proverbial Great White. Some are smaller, akin to the Piranha but the methods and principles are the same.

Virtually real!

I like surfing the net, not just in an idle sort of way, but following a hunch to see what I can unearth chasing the connections. It is usually someone who offering a service, I want to know whether they are who they say they are.

Self-publishing on a tight budget makes you tread cautiously, and consider carefully anyone promising the deal you can't afford to miss that may be the one to run away from screaming loudly. When the alarm bells start jingling and you've read to the bottom of the page and noted the address; indulge your inner detective!

A couple of weeks ago Green Shore Publishing flashed on to the radar. Reading through the blurb and testimonials left a strange itch, and it needed a good scratch. I scratched away

A new start-up with a prestige sounding address, an office in the centre of a major city. On a street that has been there for centuries (Not difficult when some urban street plans are unchanged since the eighteenth century), and the property may have been in the same hands all that time. Inner City properties come with a price tag, higher rather than lower; so how?

Writer Beware posted a warning detailing the elements of the website that didn't up; the comments attached to the blog make interesting reading. The question cropped up, what is real, how much of what was on the screen was genuine, the whole set up bordered on the unreal, and the scratching revealed an answer to the start up question.

Was any of it real; the virtual office; a working space in a shared address, secretarial cover and mail forwarding; emails go direct. The postal redirect could be as basic as the clerical cover opening the mail, scanning it and emailing the scanned documents (A small publisher using this system would accept only email submissions) and the originals would be stored for a limited time or shredded depending on the individual arrangements.

Fiction is our business, the making it up stuff and no resemblance to the living or dead is grist to the creative mill but what happens when the people you are working with in the real world edge toward fiction. A prestigious address may be money in the bank, your money in their bank. Scratch away, type in the company name followed by "complaint" and look at the results. View it from any angle you can think of and add the results to your list. 

Check everything, work through the links, use all your tools and if you're curious about where they are, street view is a handy piece of kit. The little orange man can drop you on the street where they live and check out the neighbourhood. Unscrupulous, straight up, decent and honest, the hunch could
lead you to any of these. Tread carefully.