Tag: lawsuits

Avoiding Unintended Consequences of Your Self-Publishing Life

author, you are firedI saw a recent article with the headline The Atlanta fire chief who wrote the homophobic book has been fired. When I read this, I thought it might be a good time for a post about some of the unintended consequences that can occur from your self-publishing life, if you don’t use a little forethought when publishing.

Clearly this fire chief wrote the book and intended to keep his job after writing it. However, things went awry because his job considered his content to be in violation of their standards for employees. While I don’t want to debate whether forethought could have prevented the situation that resulted here, I think the case serves as a reminder that the things we write can have unintended consequences if we’re not careful. Continue reading “Avoiding Unintended Consequences of Your Self-Publishing Life”

Yet Another Reason to Be an Indie

Who me? I would *never* do anything like that!
Who me? I would *never* do anything like that!

Do you secretly dream of being traditionally published?

When someone you know is offered a contract, do you experience a moment of intense envy? Do you smile, and say ‘congratulations’ while silently screaming ‘why not me’?

Don’t worry, your dirty little secret is safe because….yes, hand-on-heart, I too share your shame. Despite everything I have learned about the traditional publishing world in the last two years, I still haven’t completely quashed the romantic notions I used to hold about the Big Six. I guess it’s like the dream of finding Mr Right and living happily ever after, it never completely dies.

But to quote the Bard, “All that glitters is not gold…”

Every contract we sign, whether it be with Amazon, or one of the New York set, will contain a warranties and indemnities clause, and the language is remarkably similar. In effect, this clause absolves the ‘publisher’ from any blame or financial responsibility if the book breaks any laws. That is, if the poop hits the fan, the author is responsible for the clean-up. Continue reading “Yet Another Reason to Be an Indie”

Preditors and Editors Needs Your Help

We were very pleased to learn that Indies Unlimited has been listed as recommended by Preditors & Editors (P&E) in the site’s Promotional and Marketing Services section.

For those few who may not yet know, Preditors & Editors is a valuable resource for writers, representing something along the lines of a Consumer Reports for the publishing world. Before you shop your manuscript, it pays to check with sites such as P&E. If nothing else, check them out before you ink any deals with anyone.

On a personal note, I will relate that P&E helped keep me from making what could have been a costly mistake. When I first finished my novel, I shopped it to every agent I could find. The only two who responded with interest were listed in P&E as NOT RECOMMENDED.

Both these “agents” saw a lot of promise in my manuscript if only I was willing to invest a little money in editing, formatting, marketing, cover design, publicity, carpet cleaning, etc., and fortunately, they happen to provide exactly such services. Continue reading “Preditors and Editors Needs Your Help”