Category: Guest Posts

The Top 10 Ways to Prevent Being Scammed by a Publisher (by someone who did the opposite!)

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedGuest Post
by Sophie Jonas-Hill

Suddenly, after months, or years, of feeling like you were getting nowhere, a publisher wanted me. I jumped right in when I should have asked myself – do I want them? I should have looked that gift horse in the mouth, because it turned out to be a donkey. Yes, I made the mistake of publishing with an indie publisher without doing my research first, and boy, did that go wrong for me. Here’s some simple advice I’d urge you to consider before signing up. Continue reading “The Top 10 Ways to Prevent Being Scammed by a Publisher (by someone who did the opposite!)”

How To Avoid Publishing Predators

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedGuest Post
by David Gaughran

I have been campaigning against exploitative services like Author Solutions for a few years now, and it’s clear that the business model of such predators is to target the inexperienced and uninformed.

Some blame the victims, suggesting they didn’t do enough research, but this is more than a little unfair. These companies are extremely skilled at targeting writers before they discover the self-publishing community, and use a variety of deceptive means both to ensnare writers and to ensure that they don’t discover genuine reviews.

Also, the lines between traditional publishing, self-publishing, and vanity publishing are more difficult to define every year. Part of the reason is that vanity presses have now rebranded themselves as “self-publishing service providers” and they are often owned by traditional publishers.

Confusing already, isn’t it? Here are five ways you can cut through the crap and avoid predators: Continue reading “How To Avoid Publishing Predators”

Creating a Worthy Adversary

Author Laurie StevensGuest Post
by Laurie Stevens

One of the questions I get asked in regards to creating characters is “how do you deal with the mindset of a villain?”

Certainly nobody enjoys going to a dark mental place where, we have to assume, a lot of nasty characters reside. Still, if you want to remain true to putting a human face on a villainous character, you have to give him or her a lot of thought.

My wonderful writing mentor Ronald Jacobs always advised me that the best adversaries in a plot are worthy adversaries. In order to make an adversary worthy, there should be a spark of humanity there, a reason why he does what he does. This way, the reader can relate somewhat with the antagonist and interest is created. The more human the villain is, the more impact he has.

Then I had the opportunity to talk with a famed forensic psychiatrist who stunned me with his answer to a question I asked him. Continue reading “Creating a Worthy Adversary”

If you really must walk on Planet Self-Publish…

Lupa by Marie MarshallGuest Post
by Marie Marshall

Last week I read Martin Crosbie’s article entitled 5 Reasons Why You Should STILL Be Self-Publishing.So far, I have held back from self-publishing. I currently have five books published by the traditional route (three novels, two of which are for YA/older children, and two collections of poetry). From my point of view, getting someone else engaged in publishing my writing was part of the endeavour and the achievement.

Now, as an intro, that may sound as though I’m assuming a position of superiority. Not at all. I don’t mean to belittle anyone else’s high quality writing (I know that is a difficult thing to define anyway), but whether we like it or not, there IS a hell of a lot of rubbish (also not easy to define) out there on Planet Self-Publish, and it is amongst the generality of that overcrowded planet’s population that good self-published writers have chosen to walk. The rubbish will proliferate, and it will probably proliferate at a faster rate than the good stuff. The way I see it, it is necessary to introduce voluntary ‘best practices’ in order to raise at least the quality of presentation. I’m sure this has been said many times before, but I am going to say it anyway. Continue reading “If you really must walk on Planet Self-Publish…”