Normally, I find a "learning" for any picture or anecdote, but I confess that today's link is a bit tenuous. It is that I wish Vanity publishers would be as up front about their vanity as I am about mine. I keep hearing stories of people being sucked in and not having a clue what's going on.
Remember Golden Rule number one: the person entitled to earn money from your writing is a) you (first) and b) the people who work to help make your book into a proper book that anyone might want to read. If the so-called "publisher" offers you neither advance, royalty nor fee, EVER, it is not a publisher and you will not be published. You will simply be wrapped in a tacky cover that people will be amazed at for all the wrong reasons. (Oh, and btw, the fact that it's "Arts Council funded" doesn't tell you anything relevant.)
Edited to add: I just came across a very informative site by Johnathon Clifford, who gives a lot of pretty clear advice about how to tell what's a Vanity press or not (including how to spot the GOOD ones, for there are good ones and perfectly valid reasons why you might choose this method for certain books that could not be commercially published.)
Lynn Price and Jane Smith (through her guest blogger, David L. Kusminski) have also been thinking about the ways that unwary authors can be deceived by various scams and promises. As always, they bring you important insights. In fact, it was reading Jane's guest post that reminded me how annoyed I am by the traps that catch unwary authors.
So - cue learning point - keep on your toes: even if they are pointy and pink and somewhat decadent.
10 comments:
If you tell me that you wore those shoes, I'm going to have to rethink our friendship. No sensible, brilliant woman wears shoes like this. Do they? I'm wincing here...
Yep, and I stood in them for nearly five hours, including some walking. I did, however, refuse to stand on a chair to do my speech. Vanessa took a pic of the feet in the shoes, which she has threatened to put on her fidra blog as soon as she's recovered from the indignity of having to kneel at my feet (oh YES!) to take the picture. It was very amusing hearing her mutter, "I can't believe I'm doing this." (It was, however, her idea...)
If that's who I think it is, it's the writers' workshop that's Arts Council-funded, not the 'publishing' arm.
Oh dear, poor Vanessa. As much as those shoes are making me wince too, they are fabulous. Glad the launch went well :)
BuffyS - you think I'm thinking of YouWriteOn, I think? Ah, I'm thinking of something else entirely! In the course of some googling and researching I came across a number of companies whose approach worried me, and one Arts Council funded one was Chipmunka. If only they DID have a "writers' workshop"!
On you, I'm sure those shoes were fabulous. I would have broken a bone. Chipmunka...haven't laughed at a website in ages, and they certainly provided much mirth. Sadly.
Nicola, those shoes are fantastic but only for reclining in, or kicking people with. And Buffy, while Nicola might not have been thinking about YouWriteOn, and while the Arts Council insisted it had only funded the peer review side, in December 2008 the Arts Council gave YWO £5,000 to help fund it's publishing venture. I'm sure you can guess how I feel about that.
(By the way, Mrs Morgan, I'm glad all went well and that you didn't break your ankle in those lovely shoes; we've had enough broken bones around lately and we don't want any more!)
Lovely shoes, though I can barely walk in heels-never had the practice.
I was 5'11" by the time I was 14, and everyone was already SO much shorter than I was. (Most of them still are, but I've long stopped caring.) The fact remains, though, that I feel horribly unsteady on anything higher than 2 inches.
I suppose I'll have to live vicariously through someone with amazing shoes. Wonder where I'll find such a person...
Sarah, actually the picture is misleading - they're only 2.5 inches. I'm 5' 8" so another couple of inches is very welcome. I suppose I'm middling height, so I don't usually notice people being taller or shorter. They are surpirsingly comfortable too!
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