The Writer's Essential Tackle Box by Lynn Price

Author:Lynn Price
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781933016993
Publisher: Behler Publications, LLC
Published: 2011-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Victoria Strauss - Writer Beware

No, this is not déjà vu all over again, and yes, Victoria is a busy woman who wears many hats. In fact, she was honored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA®) with a 2009 SFWA Service Award during the Nebula Awards® Weekend. Victoria received the award for work she had done with Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group which “shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes and pitfalls.”

Since she one of the most hooked-in people in the industry, I asked her to discuss her other site, Writer Beware.

1. Why did you start Writer Beware?

People often ask me if I got involved with Writer Beware because I myself was scammed. The answer is no—my publishing experiences have mostly been positive. Naively, I thought I was typical. When I first went online in the mid-1990s and began checking out writers’ forums and message boards, I was amazed to see how many writers had gotten mixed up with disreputable agents, publishers, and freelance editors. It was a whole slimy publishing underworld I'd never suspected existed. I began to follow the scam stories, and to take note of the names of agents and publishers that popped up over and over again.

I'm a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Like many genre-focused professional writers’ groups, SFWA is concerned not just with issues that affect professional authors, but with the problems that face aspiring writers. When I learned that SFWA was looking for a volunteer to create a page of warnings about literary scams for the SFWA website, I jumped at the chance. At around the same time, Ann Crispin, another SFWA member, was working on establishing a Writing Scams Committee. Neither of us had any idea what the other was doing until a mutual acquaintance put us in touch. Our activities dovetailed perfectly, and we decided to join forces.

The Writer Beware website and blog are the public face of the Writing Scams Committee. The website provides warnings about common schemes, scams, and pitfalls (there are sections on literary agents, vanity publishers, independent editors, contests, print-on-demand, electronic publishing, writers’ services, and copyright, as well as a page of writers’ alerts, a series of case studies of actual scams, and our famous Thumbs Down Agent and Publisher Lists), advice on how to avoid them, and links to helpful online resources. To complement the website's general warnings, the blog covers breaking news of interest to writers and warns about new scams and schemes. Its reports are often picked up by other bloggers or the media.

Behind the scenes, the Writing Scams Committee collects documentation on questionable agents and others (right now we have files on nearly 400 agencies, more than 250 publishers, and assorted editors, publicity services, contests, vanity anthologies, magazines, websites, and writers’ services). We provide a free advice service to share this information with writers who contact us with questions about agents, publishers. We also assist law enforcement in civil and criminal investigations.

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