  Mystery
This week: Edited by: darkin
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Welcome to the Mystery Newsletter. A good mystery is like that strange friend you've always had, and wouldn't give up for anything. Mysteries make you think, trying to solve the crime before the detective can. You follow ever clue, examine all of the crime scenes and remember what each suspect said when questioned by the detective. A good mystery can keep you interested until the end. A great mystery will keeps you guessing until the last page...when it makes you slap your forehead in surprise!
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| ASIN: 0996254145 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.95
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** Image ID #916735 Unavailable **
Avoiding Writing Scams!
You've probably heard about online writing scams and told yourself, "I'd never do anything as stupid as that. How could someone not know that this literary agent (or publisher) wasn't a scam?"
Newbie writers think, even after reading the fine print, that they're dealing with legit publishers, especially when vanity/subsidy publishers claim that new writers are rarely accepted and make regular publishing look like a lost cause and impossible. There are no shortcuts to getting legitimately published and getting paid for your writing.
To guard against being cheated, you'd have to investigate all the prospective publishers, check out customers (satisfied and unsatisfied), call the Better Business Bureaus and attorney generals in their home states, have an attorney check out their contracts... and even then, you could get taken. Is it worth the risk?
But what can writers do to protect themselves from scams, online and offline?
Here are some things to beware of...
• Requests for up-front fees (i.e., any money due out of the writer's pocket before a book is actually sold -- this includes all "expense" or "marketing" fees).
• Referrals to paid services, such as editing.
• Recommendations to use the agent's/publisher's own paid editing services
• Offer of a "co-publishing" contract.
• Being asked to buy something (such as a certain number of copies of your book) as a condition of publication.
• Offers of representation/publication that come after reading just a synopsis and a few chapters.
• An agent who won't reveal details of his/her track record of book sales, or claims his/her client list is confidential.
In addition, make sure any publishers an agent claims to have worked with are real ones and those you can easily find on bookshelves. Perhaps most important, don't let your desire to be published overcome your good sense. Join a local or national writer's organization and see if they have a list of known writing scams. Get involved in an online writing newsgroup, forum or message board; if you have a question about an agent or publisher, you may get answers there.
• Always have a lawyer look over a contract with an agent or publisher before signing it.
• Avoid agents/publishers who come to you first.
• Edit your manuscript yourself or join a local writer's group to get feedback on your work.
• Keep sending your manuscript out, even if you get a lot of rejections. If your work is good enough, it will eventually find a "home."
• Never, ever pay any money; as someone once said, "Money flows to the writer, not away from them."
Always remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it is!
Thank you for taking the time to read. Happy Writing!
darkin
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Here are some items I found while traveling the highways and byways of Writing.Com!
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| ASIN: 0997970618 |
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Amazon's Price: $ 14.99
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A question for my readers. Is there a subject that you would like to read more about? Something that you feel hasn't been explained well enough for you? Then please drop me a line and I'll be happy to do a little research and write an article about it in one of my upcoming newsletters! |
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Mystery: November 02, 2005 Issue [#688]
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