For a short time after my failure, literary agents, snobby bastards that they are, treated me like I was the carrier of a deadly disease. But they turned around and started kissing up to me as soon as I got my job as editor for the above-mentioned magazine. Until then, during an intense three-month period of shamelessly promoting my book, I had learned my lesson on persuasive bull-shitting.

Suddenly, if you believed my job description, I was not a failed novelist, but an accomplished author, who had decided to share his knowledge with the aspiring writer, to provide advice and encouragement. These days you see my photo in various publications, printed or online, identifying me as a top expert on all aspects of fiction writing. My job included, among many other things, writing about writing without being allowed to write something substantial like, let’s say, a novel.

Another essential part of my work as an editor was keeping up a fantasy world for the tens of thousands of wannabe-writers who made the mistake of subscribing to our magazine or the even more useless online forum.

Let me explain to those not familiar with the publishing business, a writers’ magazine cannot exist without the vast number of delusional writers who will never have the slightest chance of ever being published. In order to have your book published, you need to be talented and, as I was told from day one, the vast majority of our subscribers weren’t.

I was also directed to keep the information in my articles at a fairly superficial level and use ample motivational nonsense to keep our readers happy, everything to convince a dying man that he will live a long and prosperous life.

My personal favorite was an article series on dealing with and recovering from rejections, and you can bet, most of our readers have been rejected numerous times by agents and publishers alike.

Besides advertisement, we made our main revenue through online writers’ workshops, and the depthless articles filling our magazine ad nauseam were the best marketing tools. And for God’s sake, I was not to write anything that might interfere with the dubious business of the sharks that paid substantial fees for full-page advertisements in our magazine.

All that wasn’t difficult for me. As I said, bull-shitting was one of my acquired talents.

Jilly Cooper once said, the male is a domestic animal, which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things. I am living proof to validate that statement.

Well, the bull-shitting life is finally over, and, honestly, I hated every single day. Deep in my soul I am an honest guy. Unfortunately, honesty doesn’t pay the bills.

Fortunately, though, about four weeks ago, my wife Sophie had accepted a job offer for a $150,000 annual salary plus benefits, and I had offered to be a stay-at-home Dad.

Our daughter Magda is now almost two years old, and my wife was itching to get back to her former job as the head of the Human Resources department of a leading insurance company based in Washington, D.C.

I have not yet decided what I will do during the copious spare time between play-group-mornings and afternoon walks in the park. I still maintain my blog and make a few bucks on the side with online advertising, just enough to cover the operating costs. I might start writing paid literature reviews or even start an editing service. With my connections to the publishing and writing industry that shouldn’t post a problem.

Llysha, another aspiring author and a dear friend of mine, had jokingly suggested starting our own publishing business, and she touted BBS, Inc. as the business name. BBS stands for “Baffle them with your Bull-Shit”, and, believe me, the name alone was a guarantee for success in the publishing industry.

To stay with the truth, I am done with writing. I am with Groucho Marx who once said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” Nevertheless, I am burning to take a final hit at the system. It deserves it.

While we’re at it, my name is not Stuart Martin Berry, and events and names have been changed to protect my family, specifically my wife. I will tell you about that grotesque period of three months, during which I tried to find a publisher for my book. My wife had given me totally free rein to do whatever it would take to get a book deal. Her only request was not to share any details of how I got there.

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How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

When developing characters and getting “in the mood”  for your writing, I find that it’s a great idea to listen to music.  Music creates moods in two minutes (give or take a few seconds) that makes writing flow out of oneself easier.

Here are a list of suggestions for artists/bands to listen to for certain genres:

Fantasy and Thriller:  Two Steps from Hell (band that plays epic classical music)

Horror and Dark Genres: Evanescence (“heavy” metal with thought-provoking lyrics that are easy to understand)

Rite of Passage: P!nk (voice of the young people of this era.  She captures our spirit fairly well)

What artists and bands do you find are a great help for your writing?

Ariel Ceylan

Ariel Ceylan is the author of The Assignment and The Power of a Vision, two fantasy novelettes for middle school children.   She is currently studying Philosophy.

If you want to know more about her, click any of the below links:

http://ceylanthewriter.wordpress.com

http://www.youtube.com/users/ArielCeylan

http://twitter.com/arielceylan

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ariel-Ceylan/170866596257289?sk=info

I’ve had my fill of writing query letters. Believe me.

I had sent my Vampire Ascending proposal to an eBook publisher in May of last year. I spent an entire 4 months having the editor playing mind games with me, waiting for her to “get back” to me about seeing the rest of my book. In August—still waiting for her to get back to me—I’d lost my Internet, and when I got back on-line, my email address had changed, and if she had ever said “send it”, it was lost. And I just didn’t want to go through another 5 weeks of waiting for her to respond.

That was fine. I’d contacted Copperhill Media, and they had already given me thumbs up on taking it. I felt as though I’d wasted the whole summer on this one place. Four months waiting for probably a rejection.

So, what do these agents, and editors want? We are at their mercy. The query letter is a one-page take-it-or-leave-it proposition. It used to be sent through the mail. You’d wait for weeks, or months. It took me 2 years to reach 24 agents for another book, and get some lovely rejections.

Now, we at least have the luxury of doing this all on-line, now. I remember having to wait for months in some cases before I’d get the dreaded rejections in the mail. Now you get them in your in-box, sometimes in a week. Whoopee!

Selecting one can be daunting. Who wants what? Do they look at “simultaneous” submissions? Do they take a first chapter? Query only? Do they only take Times New Roman? Will they wince if you use Georgia?

So, you’re hunting for an agent and you go on-line places and read up on what they want. Then something pops out: agent is willing to look at “new writers”. That’s encouraging, right? Wrong. I’ve yet to have one of these agents “looking for new writers” ask to see my manuscript. I’d actually found one that had boasted that they weren’t as “jaded or cynical” as many hard core agents. Well, I beg to differ. If you’re an agent, you’re already jaded somehow. You know what you like, and what you don’t like. It comes with the territory. You also have the inside track as to what you can sell apposed to what you can’t. Rejecting work isn’t about how good a writer is—not really. If the idea is hits them just right, and they think that they could smooth out the rough edges without too much work, and come up with another Rowling, they’d sell their soul for signing you on. I’ll be the cynic here: It isn’t about you, it’s about how much money they can make. How’s that for cynicism?

Another agent I’d found had said in the very first sentence that they are very anxious to see new work. Well, this was either a type-o, or they are very nervous about seeing new work. The correct word would be eager. Unless this is a test to see how many of us writers actually notice this—and you know many of us will. But how many of us have the guts to point this out to them? Uh-uh, not me.

Worse than cynics are snobs in the industry. The industry is full of them.

I remember an article in Writer’s Digest, years back, written by an agent who had collected an assortment of examples of “bad” query letters. Sure some were funny. Some said things I was surprised about. But, still, I thought it was terrible to hang these queries out in public; it was degrading, if you ask me. Some of these queries were pretty wild, (and I’m happy to say, none of them looked familiar).

One of my favorites was from a writer who more or less sounded like me when things seemed really hopeless—but this wasn’t something I would send it off in a professional query letter. I’d write it in my personal journal, where no one would ever read.

They basically couldn’t understand why, after having countless essays and poems published, they couldn’t make money as a writer. They asked if it was because of no contacts, or they didn’t go to Harvard, or if they were too old. But there was one line that caught me and I thought it was funny, but another side of me felt empathy with the poor writer because the desperation just saturated the whole letter. He asked, “Is it my breath?”

Yes, Mr. Smith , your breath is so bad, it was carried on the very piece of paper you sent me through the mail! Please do not send me anything else. We are not accepting anything at this time, or any other time. Sincerely, Acme Literary Agent.

The doomed writer went on and asked, “Am I cursed?”

Well, I’d like to answer that one myself. Yes you are! Just as I am, and any of you out there who bang away at the keys of your computer, or push a pencil/pen on paper to hammer out those great ideas, to quiet the voices in your head. You are cursed to write. This is our lot in life, like it or not.

Whether or not you make any money at your writing has nothing whatsoever to do with your breath, be it sweet as a mint, or sour as a wine-o’s, no one will be able to tell. But if your writing stinks, then you’d better work at that.

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by Lorelei Bell

Sabrina Strong is a Touch Clairvoyant who knows a secret. She knows her mother was turned into a vampire when Sabrina was ten. Now that she is grown up, a powerful magnate in the Chicago business world hires her to reveal the identity of who relentlessly murders vampires in his ultra-modern stronghold of a hotel.

Vampire Ascending is now available at Amazon.Com, Barnes & Noble, the publisher’s website, and any other good bookstore.

For more information on Lorelei Bell see her section on this website.

Fulfill your dreams

As a writer or blogger, you might join a community to network, learn, promote your content, share information, or even make a spot of money on the side.

If any of these is your motivation, then, you’ll have figured out two things by now:
1) you are not alone. There is an offensively large number of aspiring writers out there, ranging from talented to deserve to be shot.
2) many websites exist that claim to make your dreams come true.

Well, as a writer myself, I have sniffed extensively around the internet at the expense of my time and sanity, and done the research so you won’t have to. Below are my experiences of the best and worst on line communities for writers and bloggers…

The Good: Hubpages
Instant gratification! Hits the moment you publish. An active community and obviously an enormous database. Whatever your field of interest, someone is writing about it and someone will comment if you are writing about theirs. Clearly the reputation of Hubpages is so excellent that everyone is keen to read, comment, follow, encourage and share. I am pretty confident that with Hubpages, not only will I drive traffic to my own website, but I may even make some money with Google Ads too.

Hubpages should be your FIRST port of call. Do not make the mistake I did and leave it until last, especially as Hubpages does not like duplications. If you’ve already tossed your great ideas all over the internet, then forget about bringing them to Hubpages.

The Good: Triond

What’s great about Triod is that it commands a network of websites, and will publish your content on  the site that best suits your topic and target audience, thereby earning you maximum readership. Triond’s network includes websites with topics ranging from poetry and literature, to business, sports, travel, health and wellness, and many more.

Plus, as soon as your work is approved and published, it generates revenue from several income sources, such as display and contextual advertising that appears on the pages of your work. Triond shares with you 50% of the revenue generated by your content.

The Good: BlogCatalog
This is a great site if you can ever get the webmaster to approve your blog, which is totally hit or miss, depending on whether he’s busy scratching is belly button.

My blog was approved the first time around and I started enjoying some satisfying interactions with the community. But then I made the dreadful mistake of asking the webmaster a question: can I either change my username or delete my account and start afresh? No response. I asked again. And then again. Finally I resubmitted my blog under my newly desired username and sent another email requesting my old account be deleted. Eventually the webmaster deleted my old account (without bothering to let me know of course), and after an even more frustratingly long wait, my new account was approved.

In spite of the bone idle webmaster, I give BlogCatalog a huge thumbs up, thanks to the active, responsive and impressively well informed community. This is a mine of useful information for writers, with everything from how to promote your website or blog to how to make money online. Don’t be shy about asking questions, everyone is keen to share their extensive knowledge here.

The Good and Bad: Facebook
If you want to catch up with old school friends from when you were five, then Facebook is for you. But if you plan to network, build a community and promote your work, then good luck to you.

Facebook places a limit to how many friends you can make (5000 total), the speed at which you can request those friends, how many pages you can like, how many groups you can join and how many blogs you can follow. There are probably more limits not listed here, but what is clear is that Facebook does not want you doing your own networking. And why should it, when it has an expensive advertising package to offer you instead? Facebook is driven by greed, so if you have a book to promote or a blog to share, then by all means post it on Facebook, but don’t expect much.

Having said that Facebook does have a huge upside, a weakness in their armor, you might say, called NetworkedBlogs. On the surface it’s just another place to post and link to your website or blog. But there is more to NetworkedBlogs. Visit their discussion forum, where everyone is literally begging one another to ‘follow me and I’ll follow you.’ Yes it’s an orgy of button pressing, but it also exposes your writing to hundreds, possibly thousands, and if you really stick at it, tens of thousands of eyes. The Like or Follow button is today’s measure of success, with the power to promote your website and get you better rankings on Google. NetworkedBlogs gets you those Likes.

For more on the power of the Like button, refer to these articles: (http://cfwebprofessionals.com/blog/the-power-of-the-like-button/) (http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/25/facebook-to-release-a-like-button-for-the-whole-darn-internet/).

And it gets sweeter. As everyone on NetworkedBlogs’ discussion board is looking for ways to propagate their work, if you happen to have a referral link to another blog or website-promoting site, then you can earn greater Adsense revenue just by sharing that information on the NetworkedBlogs discussion forum.

It’s a win-win situation. Well perhaps not so much for Facebook, so you might want to keep this under your hat, lest they pull the plug on this one ‘flaw’ in their greedy master plan for world domination.

The Good and Bad: Writer’s Digest
Great community, fun people all sharing a common cause (to become published writers), but not so self absorbed as to be unable to hold a forum conversation. I’ve enjoyed great interactions, tips, advice and a general feeling of warmth here.

One major downside to Writer’s Digest is their aggressive advertising. Writer’s Digest is not merely a forum for aspiring writers, rather it’s greater purpose is to sell writing related tools. They host tens of conferences throughout the year, using attractive lingo such as Get Published, they sell books entitled Attention Grabbing Query and Cover Letters and they host webinars. This costs you and earns them money. How good are these products? I don’t know. The advertising is so aggressive that I haven’t dared part with my money, lest Writer’s Digest be exploiting desperate writers for its own financial gain. The community frequently complains about this in the discussion forums, but our hosts are deaf to our suggestions that their hard-sell advertising is more off-putting than effective.

The Bad: Xomba
Tiny community, you’ll get a couple of initial responses to your articles at first and then it will all die down. As for driving traffic to your own website or blog, if no one’s checking it out, then no one’s around to click on your links. And forget about ever trying to make money from your articles. Xomba isn’t even listed in Wikipedia.

The Bad: Zimbio
Unless your sole interest in life is to write about celebrities, don’t waste your time. Nuff said.

The bad: Squidoo
Unless I am using this website incorrectly, WHAT AN UTTER WASTE OF TIME. Firstly Squidoo claims to be “home to millions of pages of the best content, advice and recommendations online.” That can only be a lie, as only a site that edits and rejects can claim to be “the best.” On Squidoo anyone can publish anything.

Secondly, of all the communities I have joined, Squidoo has generated the least hits. You are even supposed to be able to make Adsense revenue here, but that won’t happen if your readership is zero.

The bad: Scribd
Writers talk up this website, but I have no idea why. Scribd claims to be “the world’s largest social reading and publishing company.” But seriously I haven’t figured out what this site does. Your content appears like a JPeg image of a word document, it’s not even appealing to look at. Here too, there is no gatekeeper, absolutely anyone who can switch on a computer, can publish content to this site.

The Bad: Yelp
You give, they take. Yes, I know that yelp is a review site, but with millions of subscribers and no limits to how many friends you can acquire, Yelp is also an excellent source of eyes and ears, and a great place to show off your writing. If the readers like your style they will often tell you, and they might even click on your links. But here’s the rub: in your reviews and even in your Yelp profile, you may not link to ANYTHING, lest god forbid, it might be self promoting.

To quote the tight-fisted jerks at Yelp: I’m writing to let you know that your account was flagged by the Yelp community, and our Support team has determined that there are promotional aspects to your account which currently violate our Terms of Service. Personal accounts cannot be used to promote another business, website or blog. As such, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could amend your profile headline, so that it no longer promotes your blog by Thursday 16th Sept ’10, otherwise we may have to close your account.

Then close it, you mean bastards, there’s only one of me, only 24 hours in a day and right now I don’t have time to waste, writing reviews for you and getting nothing in return.

The Bad: Twitter
We’ve all heard it: if you have a website or blog, you must open a Twitter account. So I did. The only way to describe the Twitter experience is that it’s like millions of individuals taking it in turns to run into a room, yell out a sentence and then rush out again. No one is interested in what anyone else has to say. Sure you can get followers, but they aren’t following you out of interest, they merely want you to follow them, and unlike Facebook’s NetworkedBlogs, you’ll gain nothing from this pointless interchange.

In conclusion
Many online communities exist that promise overnight success and enhanced readership, but the reality is that no one website has the power to make you famous, not while they are making every one else famous at the same time. Even if you do well using these sites, it takes years of hard work and persistence.

Manage your expectations. Every site has its own agenda, so just get what you can out of it, but don’t assume that it holds the key to your dreams. It does not.

Meantime sign up to Google Adsense. Do this before joining any online communities and publishing your work, then as soon as you get your Adsense ID, you’ll be ready to not just enhance your readership, but also earn revenue on the side. Again this does not happen overnight. Think about it; if it’s hard to get people to read your content, imagine how much harder it will be to get them to click on your ads. Keep your day jobs people, the whole Adsense business is a fun cherry on the cake, but you will most likely earn in cents, not dollars and it certainly won’t pay the rent.

Most importantly, always remember to include links to your own website, whether in your profile, in the discussion forum or within your published content. Don’t spam though. Engage the community. However do not even bother to sign up to any website or community that does not allow you to post links. Life is way too short!

Happy writing everyone, and don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your dreams.

Annabelle

A Life Lived Ridiculously
When a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder falls in love with a sociopath, she must fight for her sanity and her life.
http://www.ridiculouslife.net/

Imagine an overpriced product with no obvious value to the consumer and a brand name with zero reputation in the market. Add to this situation a mere hundred-thousand-plus competitors of whom most damage the product’s reputation with their amateurish marketing campaigns. And by the way, your annual marketing budget cannot exceed a few hundred Dollars.

What a formidable challenge, you might think. I can imagine a great number of experts in the market rubbing their hands in excitement, eager to get their hands on that project. After all, if you master this Mission Impossible you will have gained an impressive arsenal of marketing weaponry enabling you to sell any product ranging from Coca-Cola to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI) devices.

Here are the simple parameters for the project: You write your first novel (Don’t worry; that takes only a few years), and then you self-publish it.

Been there, done that, and I’m having a ball! Honestly, I wrote my first novel without the expectation of becoming the next Dan Brown, John Grisham, or Stephen King. My mere intention was to get a look and feel of the current writing and publishing industry. Selling a few hundred-thousand copies of the book would have been the icing on the cake, but that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, I still have a great time doing what I do when I don’t have to attend my 40+-hours-per-week job, and in my mind that is sufficient payment.

As a background information, I run my own publishing business on the side. Since 2005 I have written and published four technical books on dry topics such as Controller Area Network, Servo Motor Sizing, etc. My books are distributed through Ingram, the largest distributor in the United States, with listings on all major Online bookstores including Amazon.Com and Barnes & Noble. Non-fiction literature is easy to sell, and profit margins are reasonably higher than for fictional works. The steady income through book sales is sufficient to keep the business going.

Back in 2008 I decided to write and publish my first novel. At the same time, thrown between self-publishing and finding a traditional publisher, I engaged into some serious research of the fiction publishing industry, and the result was nothing short of bizarre. I have summarized my findings in another document titled Writology, the Silent Religion, subtitled And How Corporate America Makes It A Billion Dollar Business.

Without repeating all the details, let me just say, the document’s chapters are numbered by the seizures I had during my research. Yes, I did number my seizures. When, according to established industry standards, you are diagnosed as an aspiring, but most likely untalented writer, you either have seizures, or, due to absence of effective medication, you fall back into religion. I, personally, chose seizures, because my God told me not to have other gods besides him. The other god would have been myself (see Seizure #366).

Needless to say, my initial instinct told me that self-publishing was the better choice of two evils, and that feeling was confirmed through my research. All in all, my business sense is not compatible with the ineffectiveness of literary agents and traditional publishers and their profound lack of business sense. I freely admit that their track record outshines mine by several dimensions, but I do contribute that primarily to the difference in marketing budgets.

Another self-inflicted obstacle came with the choice of product. As a business man you’d like to create a strong product because, obviously, it sells better. In terms of a novel there is the choice of topic and, not to underestimate, the title. A strong title, I learned, is essential for good sales numbers, and it can, to a certain extend, compensate for poor quality of the product.

In regards to sales success it would have made sense to go with the current mainstream taste. One idea was a novel titled Dead of Night, the story of Isabella Mayer who moved to Conway, Massachusetts where she is the only regular person interacting with vampires and werewolves. Another promising project would have been The Monty Python Code, describing the adventures of Professor Hubert Ringtone, America’s top specialist on religous sects, who becomes an unwilling conspirator in a plot to reveal the deepest secrets of the Thetan Society, which could prove devastating for the movement’s message of abstinence, or might even destroy its very foundation. You get the picture…

Maybe the great number of seizures had some impact on my neural system, but I chose another topic, completely off the mainstream taste. The title of my first novel is The Bleeding Hills, and it is (inspired by a passion of my Irish-American green-eyed red-haired wife) about the Irish Troubles, past and present. Writing the novel was an exciting adventure. I am a history buff, and the topic required extensive research. Benjamin Disraeli once said, “The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it,” and I can vouch for that statement.

As I mentioned previously, the vast success is still to come. The Irish Troubles are not a great seller, even though the story line of my novel bares striking resemblances with recent terrorist activities in Northern Ireland that occurred after the writing. Eight months after the release I am still excited about every copy I sell, but I can also look back on experiences made and lessons learned. I am looking forward to the release of my third novel (I haven’t skipped the second one; see remarks below) which, I am sure, will be a great success.

The following represents my conclusions on how to promote an unattractive product such as the first novel of an unknown writer. The list does not take into account the quality of the product.

• The most important rule of all: Don’t expect success. See the marketing of your novel as a challenge, even a sport!
• As a general rule, business success comes only with blood, sweat, tears, and time. Well, a ton of time when it comes to writing novels. Working 25 hours per day helps. You get there by skipping your lunch hour.
• The best marketing tool for your first novel is the release of your second. The more products you release the better is the chance of brand recognition. The investment for writing and publishing a novel are minor (if you do it the right way). All it really takes is time. Well, talent helps, too.
• The saying is that most authors and their publishers start making profit with the release of the fifth novel. I am running a small, thus more effective business, so I think I can get there with my third novel. In consequence, rather than losing money on my second novel American Male Prostitute, I have posted it as a free read on this website. American Male Prostitute is the story of an author who promotes his first novel with sex, lies, and deceit, which represents another business plan that came to mind, but I realized I am lacking the good looks.
• There are some traditional marketing tools that simply don’t work for promoting a novel. Forget about Google Ads; you spend easily thousands of Dollars, which are not covered by the annual marketing budget, and their success is questionable to put it diplomatically. Forget posters, flyers, and bookmarks; nobody wants them. Traveling through the neighborhood between Boston and San Francisco to promote your book at local bookstores and libraries (officially called event marketing) can be effective if you have the time. I myself have a regular job, and on top of that I am an introvert.
• The best marketing tool is still an author’s blog. To put it in a nut-shell, the most important attributes for a blog are content, content and … content. A blog needs to be updated frequently in order to create web traffic and to attract search engines. Use it to build a reputation. My personal blog FrogenYozurt.Com, for instance, receives growing attention (220,000 web site hits in May of 2010 with a current growth rate of roughly 50% per month), and I will use that attention to promote my third novel.
• Amazon.com is the best sales channel for every author (I personally do like B&N, but their business model is not quite as aggressive). For paperbacks, make sure your book supports the “Have A Look Inside” feature. The best sales channel within Amazon.com is the Kindle store. It frees you from the most pressing handicap, the printing price. To date I sell more eBook versions of my novel than paperbacks.
• For your first novels don’t plan to use more than 60,000 words which is the recommended minimum in the industry. In the self-publishing world you go with Print-On-Demand (POD), and the printing price of your book depends primarily on the number of pages. Play with book and font sizes, and try to stay under 300 pages, otherwise you will be unable to compete with the pricing of traditional publishers (They use high-volume offset printing).
• Make sure your blog posts are posted on websites like digg.com, reddit.com, Google Buzz, Yahoo Buzz, and others.
• Get a Facebook and a Twitter account and promote your blog posts.
• Do not sign up or participate in online writers’ forums. Writing about writing and being read by other writers won’t do anything for your success. Focus your energy on your own website.
• Don’t subscribe to writers’ magazines, especially not Writer’s Digest. Their content is usually about motivational efforts, and if you need motivation, maybe you shouldn’t be writing. Again, focus your energy on business measures that matter.
• Familiarize yourself with online press releases, but don’t hire a service to write them for you. After all, you are a writer. Press releases, paid or free, are the most effective tool to create traffic to your website.
• There are further, costly marketing actions such as multi-media (video trailers), paid interviews, and paid reviews that I haven’t tested at this time, but I have the feeling that their impact is minimal.
• E-Mail marketing, even though promoted by some marketing “experts”, does not work at all when it comes to novels. We all get enough spam mail as it is, and you don’t want to annoy potential customers.
• Another marketing tool is a subscription newsletter, but it only works when you have something to write about on a regular basis without boring your readers. I personally believe that my Facebook account is better than any newsletter. On top I have a Twitter account (which I don’t take seriously at all) and an RSS feature on my website. If someone wants to stay up-to-date with my blabbering there are enough methods to do so.

There is a multitude of websites available that offer opportunities for making money from home by writing articles, and Demand Studios is one of the businesses offering such a service (Sorry, I refuse to offer a hyperlink to any of the websites I mention in this post). The question is, is the Demand Studios service a scam?

My take is, no, it is not a scam, but what they promise through their advertisement is misleading to say it in the least. The truth is, the majority of their writers don’t even make enough money to pay the monthly grocery bill (I got this piece of information through my favorite most useless magazine Writer’s Digest.)

The way it works with Demand Studios is that you first need to pass their approval process. In my very personal opinion, I don’t believe they put great efforts into the process, meaning they will accept pretty much everybody who is skilled enough to apply a spell-checker to their writings. In other words, the approval process is more or less a formality. Once approved, a writer can pick up to ten articles per day, which are required to be a few hundred words long, and Demand Studios pays between $5 and $20 for each article.

Doesn’t sound bad, doesn’t it? You’ll pick ten articles per day, you make at least $50 per day, and your monthly income could exceed $1,500 easily. Well… Wrong!

Reality Check:

Demand Studios claims they have sufficient articles for your special niche, may it be politics, environmental topics, history, and all the wonderful stories that will help improve a writer’s reputation. In reality the majority of articles are in the nature of “How to…”, meaning you can write about repairing dish-washers, changing the spark-plugs on a John Deere lawnmower, and more of the same nature.

Okay, let’s assume you are willing and have the talent to write about pretty much everything. The next reality check is about time. How long will it take you to write an article? The way it works is that you receive the topic and some references (usually hyperlinks). You familiarize yourself with the subject, and then write something intelligent about it. If you are skilled (after all, if you do this for a while, you get better at it), you can write an article in less than an hour. Be aware, copying and pasting is not necessarily an accepted method. So, forget about a part-time job!

Next reality check: Consider the competition! If, after all, you are willing and able to put in the time it takes, there is no guarantee that Demand Studios can provide you ten articles per day. I don’t have an exact number of how many “authors” work for Demand Studios, but it is safe to assume there are many of them, probably thousands. I seriously doubt that Demand Studios is able to assign as much as ten articles per day to each of its authors.

I will not advice against Demand Studios when it come to creating income through writing, but I strongly recommend checking out further similar services to produce additional opportunities for income. As a fair warning, it is mandatory to apply some intense research before signing up with another service. There are too many sharks out there, who will charge you for signing up, and in the end they don’t have any work for you.

Demand Studios’ Semi-Scam Status:

It is an established fact that Demand Studios is “hiring” writers to produce articles for its clients. In the same sense, Demand Studios is hiring writers to write wonderful stories about… Demand Studios! Through my research I found numerous websites – mostly blogs – that had only wonderful things to say about Demand Studios. And they all assure the reader, “No, Demand Studios’ service is not a scam!” All this comes in a tone, like “You work only part-time while sipping drinks at your swimming pool, and your money just flows into your checking account.” It boggles the mind that people still fall for obvious crap like this.

Let me just point to a few, very obvious examples.

This screen shot was made from the LootSwoop website. They display a vast list of “legitimate stay-at-home online jobs.” My advice is to stay away from that website, unless you are in the business of giving away your money. Their website if full of links to scammers of the worst kind. I found LoopSwoop through my research regarding Demand Studios, i.e. I found an article on their web site praising the Demand Studios services. The same article also included hyperlinks to yet another dubious business, FreelanceHomeWriters. Demand Studios may not be responsible for content on the LootSwoops website, although I cannot say that with all certainty. I believe, that Demand Studios, in the least, paid for the article. Whatever the connection is, the fact remains that Demand Studios is not shy to use any questionable resource to promote their business.

As I mentioned previously, one of the links on LootSwoop pointed to FreelanceHomeWriters. I was not afraid signing up on their single-page website. After all, you can pretty much enter any e-mail address you like. A single home page with absolutely no links to other pages and no more detailed information about their services was the first red flag. It turns out, in order to finish the sign-up process they ask you for your credit card information. The charge is supposed to be only $2.95. Fool, if you think that may be the only charge. This scheme looks like the one used by the so-called Google Profit Library. Initially, they charge a small amount, but at the same time you sign up for an additional $140 service. You can cancel the service per phone within three days, but what good is it when nobody answers the phone?

This last example is a good one! They also promote the Demand Studios business, and they call themselves DemandStudioSecret. They will sell you a “121 page book that encompasses every aspect of Demand Studios from applying to writing to consistently making big money. It costs just $19.99, which is what you could make in less than an hour with Demand Studios.”

And yes, this is yet another great example on how make money through the Internet. You familiarize yourself with a very popular topic and sell your findings as a PDF file.

As always, I do invite comments, may they be in favor of my writing or not. However, with a tricky subject like Demand Studios at hand I do reserve the right to monitor responses and delete them if I suspect foul play.

Supplement – March 18, 2010

Recent Comments:
There was a comment by a writer who makes some good income through Demand Studios. Apparently I was wrong about the number of available articles – I just posted my own experience with Demand Studios. The commenter had a few things more to say that I still do not agree with. Please read the comments following this entry to get the whole picture.

Another View On Content Mills:
Content Mills is the term used for businesses such as Demand Studios. Let me quote Angela Hoy  of WritersWeekly who responded to a writer complaining about the content mill he worked for: “You are working for a content mill, also known as a writer’s sweatshop. You are likely earning far less than minimum wage. You’d probably make more money working at a fast food joint. Also, working for a firm like this enables them to stay in business, and to victimize other writers as well. You, my friend, are part of the problem.”

She also points out: “At WritersWeekly.com, we post real jobs and paying markets for free every Wednesday. Remember, nobody is forcing you to work for less than minimum wage. You put yourself in that position.”

See the full article at http://www.writersweekly.com/ask_the_expert/005939_03172010.html.

Supplement – March 21, 2010

Just in case I am yet again being abused of superficial research:

“We have been profiling content mills and companies that have revenue sharing / pay-per-click programs. You know the type. They either offer insultingly low rates for articles (and often take all rights)…or you work your butt off to fill their site with content, and promote their site to get lots of clicks and/or ad revenue. They then earn money on ads placed on your content pages and you usually end up earning less than minimum wage, if anything at all.”
Reference: WritersWeekly.com

“Content aggregators like Demand Studios represent the lowest rung of freelance opportunity. It doesn’t take a lot of journalism training, writing experience or time to put together the kind of evergreen how-to articles these types of sites thrive on, which is one reason why the pay’s so low. Another has to do with supply and demand. When there’s a large supply of writers, professional or otherwise, willing and able to do the work, sites like Demand Studios don’t have to offer higher rates to attract the labor they need.”
Reference: WordCount

“Thousands of other filmmakers and writers around the country are operating with the same loose standards, racing to produce the 4,000 videos and articles that Demand Media publishes every day. The company’s ambitions are so enormous as to be almost surreal: to predict any question anyone might ask and generate an answer that will show up at the top of Google’s search results. To get there, Demand is using an army of Muñoz- Donosos to feverishly crank out articles and videos. They shoot slapdash instructional videos with titles like “How To Draw a Greek Helmet” and “Dog Whistle Training Techniques.” They write guides about lunch meat safety and nonprofit administration. They pump out an endless stream of bulleted lists and tutorials about the most esoteric of subjects.”
Reference:  Wired

Supplement – April 13, 2010

Today I received the following message through my contact form (contact’s name removed) :

“I’m wondering if there is some bias in your writing about online writing sites such as Demand Studios. I noticed that you are a businessman in the industry and I understand how a new paradigm of a business model is sometimes rejected outright by the traditional industry. I am a new online writer and have been writing for a few sites and I’m not making much now but I have emailed many other authors on some of these sites and they seem to be honest about how much they make doing this. They all say that it is hard work until you’re established but over time they seem to be making a decent living. I am researching both sides and I am interested how much research you have done in the online market.”

My answer:

“I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should answer you, but, after all, I deem it polite to answer everybody who contacts me. In your message you accuse me of being biased, outright rejecting new business models, and lack of research. I don’t expect anybody to agree with me, but I do expect a certain level of professionalism. I wish you good luck with your research.”

Yet again, please feel free to contact me or leaving a response to this entry (see entry form below), whether you agree with me or not. A polite and professional tone is appreciated.

Supplement – May 5, 2010

As always, it is recommended reading Angela Hoy’s newsletter – See WritersWeekly.com – Content Mill Complaints.

Just a brief excerpt: “I just signed up to write for (a content mill). I increased my writing skills over the past year and felt confident about working for them. I wrote one article. It was accepted the same day. Then I wrote another and was asked to rewrite. The whole article took me about three hours with research the first time. I rewrote it and sent it back. It was rejected, saying that my writing was not clear. I then wrote another one about the same time and it was also sent back for a rewrite and rejected after that.”

The same scenario, i.e. multiple rejection due to overzealous editors, applies to Demand Studios (We don’t know if the above comment refers to Demand Studios or another content mill). See the description at http://www.makemoneywithdemandstudios.com/forum. This seems to be a good resource to check out the Demand Studios’ reality.

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The Bleeding Hills

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.

I have just finished a document that describes my view on the current writing and publishing industry (see bottom of this page for the download button). This document contains a series of entries from my blog at FrogenYozurt.com plus a few new ones. Please excuse that my comments sound a bit sarcastic at times, but I have been through the tiresome and frustrating process of writing, publishing, and promoting my first novel. I have learned the hard way that promoting a novel is one of the most difficult tasks in the business world. Add to this a great number of dubious businesses preying on the unsuspecting, aspiring writer.

Let me quote author TK Kenyon: “Writing, especially fiction writing, is a tough business to get into and a tougher one to stay in. Generally, neither authors nor publishers make a significant profit until an author’s fifth novel is published. Over 195,000 novels are published by traditional publishers in the U.S. every year. Of those, 70% sell fewer than 500 copies.”

Today’s writing and publishing world is shrugging off the old “exclusive-club” mentality, but it is, by any means, not a friendly place for an aspiring writer. As a matter of fact, the industry has turned into a shark tank. When I refer to “the industry” I mean, among other businesses, the traditional publishers, most of who are struggling these days, but they are not the actual problem. The “shark tank” is dominated by new startups in the industry, mostly vanity publishers, who produce significant profit without delivering the results they promise. It seems that scammers possess a much keener business sense than the traditional publishing businesses, and they are taking the better part of a multi-million Dollar business.

Unfortunately, too many writing sites and especially writers’ magazines (I exclude Poets & Writers specifically from this statement) are too busy spouting wonderful stories about the industry. They live from advertisement and a readership that is represented mostly by unsuccessful writers, the number one target for scammers. These days the best paying advertisers are primarily the previously mentioned vanity publishers, because – Duh! – they do have the means to purchase full page ad space.

In turn – to keep their advertisers happy – the magazines’ task is in motivating their readers to “hang on, because we are confident you will find success eventually.” They continue presenting the good in everything and everybody, and they give you the inspirational tour on a regular basis. My advice to everybody who believes in this motivational nonsense would be to start your own religious sect and call it… Writology. Go and worship yourselves. You’re good at that!

Yes, it is true; perseverance is imperative for the aspiring writer, but I question the reason to provide motivation. Their mission is not about helping writers, otherwise they would post warnings, which they – believe me – do not. It’s all about making profit. There is nothing wrong about making profit as long as you do it with professionalism and dignity, but today’s management is only about profit, profit, and profit without an iota of passion for their readership.

Everything you find in this document is based on my own experience with the writing and publishing world, and any statements made are based on my very personal opinion. I would like to emphasize that my writing is not based on anger, but keen observation of the industry. My narrow view is without a doubt not representative for the entire world of writing and publishing, but I am sure that many new writers had similar experiences.

Click the button to download the PDF file (Will open a new window).

Most of us aspiring writers sign up for Online forums, either to pitch new ideas and wait for feedback, or to ask for advice, but foremost to “build a platform.” “Building a platform” is based on a very basic principle: If nobody knows you, nobody will buy your books.

I always put the term “building a platform” in quotation marks, because, in my very personal opinion, there is a lot of nonsense connected with the idea, especially when it comes to forums. Yes, it is imperative for each new – and even the established – author to maintain a web site and create some attention for his/her work. But forums, with very few exceptions, have close to Absolute Null impact on a writer’s career. Nobody else but other aspiring writers will read your entries. After months of playing with various forums I have decided to cancel all but one of my accounts – I’ll keep the one at AuthorNation.com, because it’s actually fun being there (unless their server breaks down, which it does frequently).

But even on AuthorNation.com you will be pestered by what I call the “forum sharks.” Forum sharks “attack” each single new member and ask to be their Online friend, forcing them to read their – usually useless – blabbering about their books and other writings, may it be about infertility treatment, attracting money with your mind, new paths to riches, or even poems that don’t rhyme (Sorry, maybe I am just plain old-fashioned, but, in my world, good poetry rhymes).

You recognize the sharks by the vast number of “friends” they have, a number close to the total number of members on the forum. Their initial message is usually like “Welcome to the forum, and, by the way, please buy my newest novel…” They literally spend several hours a day to send their “friend requests” (without results that would justify the efforts, I may add – I checked them out).

Forum sharks usually do not participate in member communications, meaning they don’t read other members’ inquiries or offer advice, unless the forum is based solely on member communication. In the latter case, each newcomer will be greeted by a great number of members wishing you well in your efforts to become the next Hemingway, and while some of these greetings may be from the heart, most are designed not only to create readership, but foremost to place yet another hyperlink to their web site.

Again, we’re “building our platform,” and search engines love hyperlinks, and an increased number of hyperlinks will help increase awareness of your web site in the Internet community. Well…wrong! Any SEO (search engine optimization) expert will tell you that the mere number of hyperlinks doesn’t count when it comes from the same source, the same web site. Secondly, depending on how the forum is set up, search engines might not even be able to access member communications and thus not see the hyperlinks.

In another forum, that I signed up for and abandoned after a while, you could only insert hyperlinks into your posts after writing at least twenty-five entries. Ergo, some users invented the “word game.” I write an entry containing a single word, you respond with another, related word, I response with yet another, related word, and so on, and so on. Needless to say, but games like this one do not help to increase the quality of the Online forum, but the original purpose of the forum is not important to forum sharks.

Another forum categorizes you by the number of entries, starting at “New Member” (less than fifty entries) up to “Premium Member” (more than 500 entries). So, let’s get our hands at that computer keyboard and write something to improve our rank.

Then there are the semi-gods, members who either have participated for several years (and at the same time wasted their time writing literally thousands of entries), or they are real, accomplished authors. Some forums are sponsored by one of the sharks in the publishing industry, and some of them hire accomplished authors to “mentor” the newcomers. The advice they offer is, naturally, in line with their sponsor.

In my very personal opinion, the worst writers’ forum in the business is the one sponsored by Writer’s Digest, my favorite, most useless magazine. Writer’s Digest is specifically in the business of maintaining a dream world for aspiring, yet (hopefully) unsuccessful writers. Their Online forum, at the time when I signed up, was dominated by two elderly semi-gods, both with a reputation of a long writing career. At the same time, both were incredibly Internet-illiterate and, consequently, were opposed to radical ideas such as self-publishing. They wouldn’t offer any advice in that direction other than not to self-publish. I once dared to challenge their views, and their tone became increasingly aggressive, even insulting. In one post, one of these semi-gods stated that 99.9% of all aspiring writers – including myself – have no talent at all, which I thought was the wrong message to be sent to the forum’s members.

At another occasion (at another forum) I inquired regarding the effectiveness of paid review services for an author’s career, and one of the semi-gods blasted me for even posting such a ridiculous question. The last line in his entry was “Cut the crap!” His claim to fame was the publication of a Karate-Kid-replica novel that sold decently well on Amazon.com.

On a personal note, I was shocked by the lack of writing skills that far too many forum members, even the published authors among them, demonstrate in public, not necessarily in regards to style, but especially when it comes to the basics such as proper grammar and spelling. I don’t consider my own writing as perfect, but my excuse is that English is my second language.

My advice to the novice writer: First, browse the Internet for information, but avoid forums. Secondly, don’t buy books on writing; they’re just plain useless. Most importantly, read, read, read, and… read. Read Online newspapers, read Hemingway, or even Sarah Palin (Yikes!), everything works. This will be time well spent, and, if managed properly, will cost very little money.

Then, after all, write, write, write, and… write. Write about everything that comes to mind, especially topics you are passionate about. Put these writings on a blog. Continuous reading and writing will improve your writing style.

If you are talented and persevere, you will find success eventually. As a logical consequence, if you are not talented (nothing wrong with that), you will not find success. Online forums play no part in either scenario.

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AMERICAN MALE PROSTITUTE
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss 

How I (Almost) Got A Book Deal Through Sex, Lies, And Deceit

Today’s publishing world is divided into two principle sections. First, there is the exclusive pool of traditional publishers, and, second, the help-yourself shark tank represented by the so-called vanity publishers.

Vanity publishers have a significant edge over traditional publishers in regards to brutality, business sense, and profitability. They ruthlessly pursue the infinite supply of aspiring writers who, in turn, are rejected by traditional publishers or literary agents. Ironically, in the world of traditional publishing, authors are rejected not necessarily due to lack of talent. Vanity publishers accept everybody and everything. No questions asked. Just pay your bill, but don’t come crying to them when you can’t sell a copy of your book.

The question remains, what does it take these days to get a book deal with a traditional publisher? What do you do when, hypothetically, you are running out of time and mere talent is not the be-all and end-all?

Stuart Martin Berry has found the answer: If you can’t impress them with your talent, baffle them with your bull-shit. [Read more, including an excerpt]

I just received the latest issue of my favorite most useless magazine, Writer’s Digest. Why I still receive it, I don’t know; I don’t keep track when my subscription ends, and it will hopefully end some time soon. It took me an annoying five minutes to page through the magazine to find there was nothing in there that would even remotely interest me. The only purpose I found in this publication was to investigate the fascinating, yet odd world of writing and publishing.

This last issue of Writer’s Digest, however, made me smile. It is a new year, and, accordingly, Writer’s Digest is taking the opportunity to initiate yet another motivational campaign for all those who are trying – unsuccessfully, I may add – to have their book published. Writer’s Digest’s motivational effort, however, is not a samaritan approach to help aspiring authors getting a book deal. Their business model is based on the assumption that there is a mind-staggering number of untalented writers out there – these times, more than ever – who are buying their magazine.

The equation is easy: No talent, no book deal. Ergo: If you give up, you won’t buy our magazine anymore. So, let’s step up the motivational efforts.

Accordingly, the articles in the February 2010 issue are titled Why Inspiration Matters, Essential of the Writing Life, Wake Up That Subconscious, and more of the same utter nonsense. Let me just add that I get inspiration and motivation every time I go to church, and I’d rather listen to our priest.

One article in particular, Why Inspiration Matters by Fred White, caught my attention, yet I have to admit I didn’t read it. However, the article’s seven reasons why inspiration matters caught my attention. They are:

1. Inspiration transforms us from creative readers to creative writers.

2. Inspiration heightens our senses.

3. Inspiration develops our understanding of human nature.

4. Inspiration improves our capacity for appreciating nature.

5. Inspiration helps us achieve mental discipline.

6. Inspiration intensifies our spiritual connection to our craft.

7. Inspiration reinforces our commitment to writing.

Wow! While I do not challenge Fred White’s conclusions, I am flabbergasted by the author’s intensity used to describe a simple matter like writing. In my child-like thinking, if you don’t feel inspired, if you are lacking mental discipline, or if you lack the commitment to writing, maybe writing isn’t your forte.

Maybe it’s just that I am the simple-minded guy. I go with James M. Berrie, who once said, “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” If writing is work, and you need to read this inspirational nonsense to write your next novel or poem, maybe you shouldn’t be writing.

My advice to Writer’s Digest, and everybody who believes in this motivational nonsense, would be to start your own religious sect and call it… Writology. Go and worship yourselves. You’re good at that!

Please excuse my sarcasm, but I don’t believe in the nonsense that this magazine publishes on a regular basis. As I said, I am simple-minded. I just sit and write.

American Male Prostitute - A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

It is time to take another swing at the sharks in the publishing business. As part of some research for a new novel, American Male Prostitute, I had decided to work through a number of older issues of my favorite most useless magazine, Writer’s Digest.

In the following I am referring to the March/April 2009 issue, page 11, which contains a full-page advertisement by Outskirts Press. In the ad, Joseph De Sena, author of four children’s books, is quoted as follows: “I have published three children’s books with Outskirts Press and I can say without reservation that each experience has been a pleasure. The quality of each book was spectacular. I am writing my fourth children’s book and Outskirts Press will be handling all the publishing details. I couldn’t be happier.”

Good for him! However, let’s do a reality check. As of today I found four of his books on Amazon.com. Three of them come with a price tag of $19.95. His latest publication is priced at $27.95. Needless to say, but this kind of price range, in view of the competitive market, makes it almost impossible to sell the books, and it shows in the sales ranks.

Publishing with Outskirts Press, in my very personal opinion, is a lose-lose situation. Initially, you, the author, pay substantial fees to Outskirts Press to have your book published. Then you have no choice but to set a high sales price per book, which limits your chances for success substantially. In order to make any profit you need to set the sales price above printing costs plus the Outskirts Press sales fee. Let’s assume you spent about $1,000 with Outskirts Press (You can easily end up much higher than that). Let’s further assume your sales price includes a mere $2.00 profit for you, the author. In order to reach a return of investment you need to sell 500 copies. This may sound easy, but, yet again, it is impossible with a price tag of $19.95 for a children’s book.

Let’s have a detailed look at Mr. De Sena’s “The Love Bug And The Light Of Love”:
Pages: 64
Price: $19.95
Sales Rank: #3,127,942 in Books (as of October 19, 2009)

The sales rank indicates that Mr. De Sena sells in the neighborhood between 1 to 2 books per month – if that much – through Amazon.

64 pages in full color translates into printing of a little over $8.00. Again, let’s do some math: Let’s assume the printing costs are exactly $8.00. Also, let’s assume Outskirts Press grants a 55% resale discount to Amazon (A 55% discount is standard in the industry). This makes for a minimum sales price of $17.78 with no profit added. Going with Mr. De Sena’s $19.95 price tag, he makes a profit of $2.17 per book. In reality, the profit is closer to $2.00, since the print costs will be higher than $8.00.

It also struck me as strange that two of Mr. De Sena’s books come with a single customer 5-star-rating written by either Mr. De Sena himself, or his illustrator, Mr. Dennis Anfuso. (A word for Mr. De Sena: First, ask friends to write a review. Secondly, Amazon provides a blog service enabling authors writing about their books.)

All books, but one, show rankings above 2,000,000. His book “Little Sammy Sunshine And The Frightful Forest”, published in October 2008, has not sold a single copy through Amazon as of the writing of this article.

Let me say that I am well aware how difficult it is to market and sell a book, especially fiction and children’s literature. I also believe, judging by the books’ titles and the nice illustrations, that Mr. De Sena is a talented writer. Unfortunately, Mr. De Sena trusted Outskirts Press, and he has spent a substantial amount of money (I assume a minimum of $4,000, probably  more). The way it looks at this moment, he will never make any profit, and to emphasize it again, his only mistake was to trust Outskirts Press. For his sake I hope they gave him a break by appearing in their ad.

Shame on Outskirts Press to come up with a misleading advertisement like this, and shame on Writer’s Digest to cooperate with the sharks in the publishing business.

A tip for children’s literature authors: Do not self-publish!

Self-publishing involves Print-On-Demand (POD), which allows the print of small volumes. However, compared to the traditional offset-printing process, POD printing costs are higher. This is especially true for books with colored interior, and children’s literature is usually colored. The POD printing costs for children’s literature will automatically push you outside a competitive range in a market where children’s books are priced significantly lower. The traditional offset-printing process, however, demands a print-run of several thousands of books before it becomes profitable, and this can only be accomplished by going through an established publisher.

Outskirts Press is a Vanity Publisher!

Per definition, a Vanity Publisher is a publishing house that publishes books at the author’s expense. A Vanity Publisher does not have any interest in the success of the authors they represent. Their main income comes from the multitude of aspiring authors who choose to publish through Outskirts Press.

Be aware, there are a ton of sharks out there, Outskirts Press being one of the worst, prying on the vast number of wannabe-authors who will never have a chance to sell their work, but are nevertheless naive enough to spend their money with useless services. It is a shame that a magazine such as Writer’s Digest is in business to support these dubious businesses.

There are other, more trustful sources for self-publishing. Just to name one: Check out CreateSpace.com, a service provided by Amazon.com. Also, look at Booklocker.com, a small publishing  business out of Maine.

Advertisement

The Bleeding Hills

A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.