Lately, people have been including things like "will only pay $120 for this project" or "pay rate is $0.10 per word." This would be great if the employers were honest. The problem is that I have found many of these projects to be a bait and switch scheme. You see, the prices they are offering are decent. Now, some freelancers (especially ones who are newer or not as good) will accept any pay rate. They will bid on any job. You may end up with a poorly written, poorly researched manuscript that will need tons of excess money to fix, but you save a buck up front.
Then there are the middling freelancers like me, who charge a moderate rate, but struggle to get people on freelancing websites to pay more than that. We care about our work, but live hand to mouth. Every bid we submit takes time, so we try our best to submit bids that are for projects with a good fit.
Then you have the people who make big bucks. These people choose only the jobs where they can get top dollar, they are professionals at not only writing but also marketing themselves. They have no problems asking every employer for positive feedback, testimony, and referrals from others in their business.
None of the big bucks guys would bid on one of these people offering moderate pay. But those in the middle do, and usually bid for exactly what they stated they were willing to pay. The problem is that these people really do not want to pay that amount. I have bid for it, and then the employer contacts me and asks me if I am willing to accept something "more reasonable" as pay. What? Um, I asked for something reasonable and if you didn't want to pay it, you shouldn't have put it in your post.
Ironically, most of these employers seem to have forgotten that they were offering that much. Did they simply cut and paste someone else's post? I have no clue, but it is getting to the point where I am going to begin ignoring posts that contain a specific dollar amount.
These employers are wasting my time and theirs. My time filling out a bid and responding to their demand to come down. In most cases, the decent pay seals the decision to bid. But they are also wasting their time. They have to read my bid, and then try to finagle me down.
So let's give these employers the benefit of the doubt: what if I bid and another good freelancer bid and both of us used the same final amount. The employer decides that whomever he can get the project from for the lower amount will have the project. The problem is that trying to haggle two equal freelancers lower is not going to help your project. Some freelancers will work for lower just to have work, but the problem is that when you are being underpaid it is very difficult to do your best. There are many other things that should help you decide which one to choose--check their samples and see who has ones that are closest to the project. Or, choose the one with work you personally like best. It would even be better to flip a coin.
But the fact of the matter is that these employers are not hiring anyone. They probably lost their best prospects by trying to haggle them down. Do if you are posting a job and you want to add how much you are going to pay (something that is fine to do as long as you will really pay it), then just remember how much you said you would pay and don't argue with a freelancer who says they will work for that much.
P.S. This seems to just be a newer fad. I have had people hire me in the past for what they posted in the project listing.
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
The "Small Editing Test" Trap
I don't know why I do it. The job post states that a "small editing test" will be required, and I apply anyway. This is the second time I have done this, and I know I am a complete idiot.
I am not an idiot because I am a bad editor. I have already taken Guru's editing tests and done well on them. I am an idiot because I wasted my bid. The people who demand an "editing test" have no clue what they are doing. The test is not written by a person with a terminal degree in English. The test is written by a high school graduate who may have taken one college level English class in college.
These tests cannot be passed by anyone with actual knowledge of the English language. For one, everyone knows that some things are hard grammar and some are soft grammar. Scratch that--everyone who has something more than a basic high school education in grammar knows it. Hard grammar is the stuff like subject-verb agreement. Soft grammar is the stuff like serial commas.
Every single real publishing house in the world has a style guide. Period. The problem is that as a freelancer, no real publishing house is going to ask you to take their "simple test." They simply look at your editing skills in your samples and can tell right there if you know what you are doing, or they look at your score on the Guru tests.
Guru has a rule that you cannot ask for free samples, but some of these people get through. If they issued fair tests, it wouldn't be a problem, but NONE of them have clean tests that only look at hard grammar. The one I just took included a legitimate (but awkward) spelling: "eying." That word would be marked wrong by most spell checkers, but it is an alternate spelling given in the dictionary. So what in the world am I supposed to do? Well, if I had a style guide, I would know. Style guides spell out which dictionary and which spelling to use. ALWAYS. But I don't have a style guide and the "publishing company" giving me the test probably doesn't have a style guide and probably hasn't ever read even one of the pre-existing guides.
Then, to make matters worse, I am working my way through the "spelling" section after leaving a note on the alternate spelling of eyeing, and notice it is filled with PUNCTUATION errors. Am I supposed to correct or ignore those? Who am I kidding? As a real editor, I CAN'T ignore those! They are blatant ERRORS. So, I begin punctuating (again with comments).
It is at this point I realize: I am going to fail this test as I have failed every other "editing" test I have taken on Guru from people who think they are smart. These people wrote a sentence with a dangling modifier in the "Fix these punctuation errors." I can bet they have never even heard of a dangling modifier and when I correct theirs (because I CAN'T ignore it as a REAL editor), they are going to react in one of two ways. (1) They have never heard of a dangling modifier, so I must be crazy and making things up. (2) They have never heard of a dangling modifier, so they Google it. They discover I am correct, but they think I am being a smart aleck, and they instantly hate me. Neither of these are positive in light of my chance of getting hired.
Why did I do it? Well, it apparently has been too long since I have applied for a job demanding a test. Once I opened that test up, it all came rushing back to me. As a freelancer, just follow the rules. Don't take a test. It's not worth the stress. Even if I did get the job, I would be working with people who don't know a period from an ellipsis. This doesn't bother me when I am working with actual people and not fly-by-night companies, because I can teach an actual person one-on-one. With a company, I will simply be pushing out editing that may or may not be accepted based on the whims of the person over me.
Update: I was contacted shortly after posting this and to my amazement I was told I passed the "test" with flying colors and that I would soon hear from them about the job. One month on and I still haven't heard from them. No big surprise there. They probably made the changes I listed and are now using the test and my answers (which they got for free) as their new "test" for other unwitting freelancers.
I am not an idiot because I am a bad editor. I have already taken Guru's editing tests and done well on them. I am an idiot because I wasted my bid. The people who demand an "editing test" have no clue what they are doing. The test is not written by a person with a terminal degree in English. The test is written by a high school graduate who may have taken one college level English class in college.
These tests cannot be passed by anyone with actual knowledge of the English language. For one, everyone knows that some things are hard grammar and some are soft grammar. Scratch that--everyone who has something more than a basic high school education in grammar knows it. Hard grammar is the stuff like subject-verb agreement. Soft grammar is the stuff like serial commas.
Every single real publishing house in the world has a style guide. Period. The problem is that as a freelancer, no real publishing house is going to ask you to take their "simple test." They simply look at your editing skills in your samples and can tell right there if you know what you are doing, or they look at your score on the Guru tests.
Guru has a rule that you cannot ask for free samples, but some of these people get through. If they issued fair tests, it wouldn't be a problem, but NONE of them have clean tests that only look at hard grammar. The one I just took included a legitimate (but awkward) spelling: "eying." That word would be marked wrong by most spell checkers, but it is an alternate spelling given in the dictionary. So what in the world am I supposed to do? Well, if I had a style guide, I would know. Style guides spell out which dictionary and which spelling to use. ALWAYS. But I don't have a style guide and the "publishing company" giving me the test probably doesn't have a style guide and probably hasn't ever read even one of the pre-existing guides.
Then, to make matters worse, I am working my way through the "spelling" section after leaving a note on the alternate spelling of eyeing, and notice it is filled with PUNCTUATION errors. Am I supposed to correct or ignore those? Who am I kidding? As a real editor, I CAN'T ignore those! They are blatant ERRORS. So, I begin punctuating (again with comments).
It is at this point I realize: I am going to fail this test as I have failed every other "editing" test I have taken on Guru from people who think they are smart. These people wrote a sentence with a dangling modifier in the "Fix these punctuation errors." I can bet they have never even heard of a dangling modifier and when I correct theirs (because I CAN'T ignore it as a REAL editor), they are going to react in one of two ways. (1) They have never heard of a dangling modifier, so I must be crazy and making things up. (2) They have never heard of a dangling modifier, so they Google it. They discover I am correct, but they think I am being a smart aleck, and they instantly hate me. Neither of these are positive in light of my chance of getting hired.
Why did I do it? Well, it apparently has been too long since I have applied for a job demanding a test. Once I opened that test up, it all came rushing back to me. As a freelancer, just follow the rules. Don't take a test. It's not worth the stress. Even if I did get the job, I would be working with people who don't know a period from an ellipsis. This doesn't bother me when I am working with actual people and not fly-by-night companies, because I can teach an actual person one-on-one. With a company, I will simply be pushing out editing that may or may not be accepted based on the whims of the person over me.
Update: I was contacted shortly after posting this and to my amazement I was told I passed the "test" with flying colors and that I would soon hear from them about the job. One month on and I still haven't heard from them. No big surprise there. They probably made the changes I listed and are now using the test and my answers (which they got for free) as their new "test" for other unwitting freelancers.
Friday, November 29, 2019
M-Att.
I haven't talked about my employers in a while, so I figured I would let people know who I am working for without letting them know. One of my repeat customers is an international lawyer, M-Att.
This employer's jobs are all translating jobs--primarily translating legal documents into English. If you have been following me, you know I only translate from Italian, French, and Spanish into English and not the other way. She once asked me to check a translation into Spanish, but I try to avoid those. Nothing is more stressful or upsetting to me than when an employer whom I have been happily translating things into English for suddenly decides to ask me to go the other way in translation. Written translating is usually a one way street. Even my mother-in-law who is German only prefers at this point in her life to translate INTO English because she has been living in America most of her life. This does not mean she is no longer proficient in German or unable to translate it. To translate well both ways, you have to actively participate in the culture into which you are translating (i.e. Living on the border of two countries where you need to continuously use skills in both languages or living in a country where you are in a group of people who speak one language but the language of the country is different).
Translation errors are frequently responsible for wars, so even people whose sole job is to translate important documents, who have obtained certification, and who spend much time translating can still get it wrong. Why? (1) They are not familiar with the culture only the language (2) They don't leave footnotes that explain alternate translations. (3) They insist on word-for-word translations instead of looking at the meaning of phrases.
Translation errors are frequently responsible for wars, so even people whose sole job is to translate important documents, who have obtained certification, and who spend much time translating can still get it wrong. Why? (1) They are not familiar with the culture only the language (2) They don't leave footnotes that explain alternate translations. (3) They insist on word-for-word translations instead of looking at the meaning of phrases.
A couple projects ago, M-Att. sent me an awful job. The first problem is that it was that it was a huge court transcription written entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS. The second problem is that it was seriously lacking in punctuation. Why is this a problem, well try reading the following humorous examples from the Internet in English:
HUNTERS PLEASE USE CAUTION WHEN HUNTING PEDESTRIANS USING WALKING TRAILS
Was that "Hunters, please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails." or "Hunters, please use caution when hunting. Pedestrians using walking trails."? Now imagine this was written in a foreign language and you were trying to translate it into English. Which punctuation would you use? In this case, most of us would choose the second option because the first one does not make ethical sense. Some translators would use the first as an option. The problem is that in the court document I had, there wasn't an ethically ridiculous choice versus a probable choice. It was two probable but entirely different meanings, and this wasn't one incidence but many incidences per page of the 27+ page document. Totally not fun.
Needless to say, this document was probably the most difficult thing I have ever translated. And it should show that if you want to get your point across no matter what you are writing (including comments on blogs and in online forums), you should never use ALL CAPS for the entire thing and you should also attempt some punctuation.
Was that "Hunters, please use caution when hunting pedestrians using walking trails." or "Hunters, please use caution when hunting. Pedestrians using walking trails."? Now imagine this was written in a foreign language and you were trying to translate it into English. Which punctuation would you use? In this case, most of us would choose the second option because the first one does not make ethical sense. Some translators would use the first as an option. The problem is that in the court document I had, there wasn't an ethically ridiculous choice versus a probable choice. It was two probable but entirely different meanings, and this wasn't one incidence but many incidences per page of the 27+ page document. Totally not fun.
Needless to say, this document was probably the most difficult thing I have ever translated. And it should show that if you want to get your point across no matter what you are writing (including comments on blogs and in online forums), you should never use ALL CAPS for the entire thing and you should also attempt some punctuation.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Know What You are Doing Before You Hire a Freelancer to Help
This should be a given, but I cannot count the number of times people post projects, and they do not know what they want. There are the standard people, who post a job for a proofreader when they really want a developmental editor, but generally that kind of mistake won't get you in too much trouble.
I am talking about the people who post jobs on Guru for a "book agent to market my book" or a "script agent to market my script." These people clearly have no clue what an agent is or how to find one. This really upsets me to the point of wasting a bid to explain to these people what an agent is. As I have stated on this blog in previous posts, you do not pay for an agent an upfront fee. Real agents all work on commission. In addition to that commission, you might have to pay a very minimal fee for copying your manuscript (think along the lines of what it would cost to go to Office Depot or Staples and get a copy). Since Guru specifically states that commission only jobs are against its terms of service, that right there would tell anyone looking for a real agent that Guru is not the place to find one.
Still, these people post their "projects," and there are plenty of people working on Guru who are willing to take advantage of this based on the number of quotes they get. I know that Googling "Agent" will turn up a plethora of results from websites promising to help you get one or from non-reputable agents who want you to use them for a small up-front fee--but again, these are scams. Real literary agents have thousands of people sending them their queries each year, they do not need to send advertisements or sales e-mails to people. They do not need to work through Guru or any other freelancing website because they already have plenty of work.
There should be books about literary agents in your library that better explain what an agent does. The Writer's Market usually has a section devoted to them, as well. You should not simply embark on finding someone to be your agent until you know exactly what an agent is and how to find a real one. There are plenty of people out there willing to take your money and do nothing. If you have money you want to give away, I have a pay pal link up at the top for donations. :) But like other reputable teachers, I would rather give you advice on how to make money than try to scam you out of the money you have.
I am talking about the people who post jobs on Guru for a "book agent to market my book" or a "script agent to market my script." These people clearly have no clue what an agent is or how to find one. This really upsets me to the point of wasting a bid to explain to these people what an agent is. As I have stated on this blog in previous posts, you do not pay for an agent an upfront fee. Real agents all work on commission. In addition to that commission, you might have to pay a very minimal fee for copying your manuscript (think along the lines of what it would cost to go to Office Depot or Staples and get a copy). Since Guru specifically states that commission only jobs are against its terms of service, that right there would tell anyone looking for a real agent that Guru is not the place to find one.
Still, these people post their "projects," and there are plenty of people working on Guru who are willing to take advantage of this based on the number of quotes they get. I know that Googling "Agent" will turn up a plethora of results from websites promising to help you get one or from non-reputable agents who want you to use them for a small up-front fee--but again, these are scams. Real literary agents have thousands of people sending them their queries each year, they do not need to send advertisements or sales e-mails to people. They do not need to work through Guru or any other freelancing website because they already have plenty of work.
There should be books about literary agents in your library that better explain what an agent does. The Writer's Market usually has a section devoted to them, as well. You should not simply embark on finding someone to be your agent until you know exactly what an agent is and how to find a real one. There are plenty of people out there willing to take your money and do nothing. If you have money you want to give away, I have a pay pal link up at the top for donations. :) But like other reputable teachers, I would rather give you advice on how to make money than try to scam you out of the money you have.
Monday, October 28, 2019
SafePay --the Safest Way to Protect Yourself From Job Scammers
I have spoken before about the need for freelancers to be careful when applying for jobs. This is especially true when a HR person states they must contact you through Google Hangouts. This blogger actually documented the process these scams take.
Still, even the most knowledgeable and wary freelancer can succumb to a scam or even lose money because an employer does not pay him or her. As of yet, I have not been "scammed" but I have lost money from non-payment. This is why I am a strong advocate of methods of pre-payment like Guru's SafePay. The employer is required to verify their bank and deposit funds with Guru before you begin working. When the job is finished, you get your money from Guru. That said: If you are hiring a freelancer and you need a job done ASAP, make sure your accounts are set up and verified so you can immediately transfer funds into the escrow.
It took me two times before I made SafePay a mandatory part of my contract. In the first case, I had written a book with an employer and they hired me to write a second one. I had no problems getting payment for the first book, so I did not require an upfront deposit for the second one. In addition, I had done my research, and this was a valid company. I turned in the product, and the person who hired me said they would send it off to review and get back with me for any changes I needed to make (just like the first book). Two weeks passed, and I had heard nothing. However, some employers are like that. I waited a full month (which was the "up to" amount of time I had been told, even though it had only taken two weeks the first time). By the time I contacted the company, I discovered (1) The person who hired me was no longer with them (2) No one knew anything about the manuscript I had submitted to her and (3) that meant I wasn't getting paid. This showed me that even a legitimate company may not pay you for your work, and you really don't have any recourse since the person who signed your contract was no longer with them.
The second one was a Christian publishing company. Yes, I know, my grandma would be like "any business can SAY they are Christian." I had been dealing with them off and on over small projects for a couple months. They were based in the Caribbean and had sent me $25 projects. Then, I was told I needed to write an entire book based off a person's live sermons in one week. This was a huge (expensive) project, but they were willing to pay. Of course, I had to start immediately to complete it. Then, I was supposed to contact the minister. The minister was not a nice guy. I would explain how the book needed to be done and what I had done with the chapter, and he wanted me to make all these changes--which took a lot of time. I was writing the book for him, but he wasn't my boss. The guy who hired me then told me to stop talking with him and just finish the book. He believed the minister was trying to deliberately hold things up. So, I did. I finished, and, I never got paid. The guy who hired me kept telling me that he was having trouble transferring the money to Guru. Sigh. In my mind, it is easier if I just believe the minister never paid them for the work and that is why I never got my check. But, that was the end. Everything must go through SafePay now, no matter how many times I have worked with an employer.
I know UpWork offers a similar payment protection escrow. That is why they are the only other online freelancing website that I recommend. Working with a payment protection is the only way to prevent scams, too. When you tell a scammer that you are not going to give them your bank account, but they can send the check or direct deposit to Guru, you will get resistance. You might cringe at the paying Guru or UpWork a commission on everything you earn, but if they save you from being scammed, it is worth every penny.
Still, even the most knowledgeable and wary freelancer can succumb to a scam or even lose money because an employer does not pay him or her. As of yet, I have not been "scammed" but I have lost money from non-payment. This is why I am a strong advocate of methods of pre-payment like Guru's SafePay. The employer is required to verify their bank and deposit funds with Guru before you begin working. When the job is finished, you get your money from Guru. That said: If you are hiring a freelancer and you need a job done ASAP, make sure your accounts are set up and verified so you can immediately transfer funds into the escrow.
It took me two times before I made SafePay a mandatory part of my contract. In the first case, I had written a book with an employer and they hired me to write a second one. I had no problems getting payment for the first book, so I did not require an upfront deposit for the second one. In addition, I had done my research, and this was a valid company. I turned in the product, and the person who hired me said they would send it off to review and get back with me for any changes I needed to make (just like the first book). Two weeks passed, and I had heard nothing. However, some employers are like that. I waited a full month (which was the "up to" amount of time I had been told, even though it had only taken two weeks the first time). By the time I contacted the company, I discovered (1) The person who hired me was no longer with them (2) No one knew anything about the manuscript I had submitted to her and (3) that meant I wasn't getting paid. This showed me that even a legitimate company may not pay you for your work, and you really don't have any recourse since the person who signed your contract was no longer with them.
The second one was a Christian publishing company. Yes, I know, my grandma would be like "any business can SAY they are Christian." I had been dealing with them off and on over small projects for a couple months. They were based in the Caribbean and had sent me $25 projects. Then, I was told I needed to write an entire book based off a person's live sermons in one week. This was a huge (expensive) project, but they were willing to pay. Of course, I had to start immediately to complete it. Then, I was supposed to contact the minister. The minister was not a nice guy. I would explain how the book needed to be done and what I had done with the chapter, and he wanted me to make all these changes--which took a lot of time. I was writing the book for him, but he wasn't my boss. The guy who hired me then told me to stop talking with him and just finish the book. He believed the minister was trying to deliberately hold things up. So, I did. I finished, and, I never got paid. The guy who hired me kept telling me that he was having trouble transferring the money to Guru. Sigh. In my mind, it is easier if I just believe the minister never paid them for the work and that is why I never got my check. But, that was the end. Everything must go through SafePay now, no matter how many times I have worked with an employer.
I know UpWork offers a similar payment protection escrow. That is why they are the only other online freelancing website that I recommend. Working with a payment protection is the only way to prevent scams, too. When you tell a scammer that you are not going to give them your bank account, but they can send the check or direct deposit to Guru, you will get resistance. You might cringe at the paying Guru or UpWork a commission on everything you earn, but if they save you from being scammed, it is worth every penny.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Book Reviews on Goodreads: Part II
The least effective and worst method I tried for getting reviews through Goodreads was the general reading review groups. There are some review groups sorted by genre, I am not talking about those. Those actually got me the best number of reviews that had the best quality.
In the General review group, you don't have any say in what genre or book you are going to be reviewing. This is a tragedy.
A review group already has a few marks against it because you are meeting with other desperate authors--it stinks to give a poor review but not everyone is an author and even authors need good editors (or at least good beta readers) in order to write well. A good author will be constantly reading books in the genre in which they write--I met indie writers who did not read--at all. You have no way of knowing whether the person you review is a good author or not. This means you may get a book that doesn't even make sense, and you must review it, which puts you in the uncomfortable position of how to be honest in a kind way.
Many people would not have a problem letting someone know that there are problems with their books. However, these same people who do not know how to write may be leaving a review for your work--and they think their books are great. Let me put it more bluntly: would you want a doctor working on you if he had never gone to medical school, never studied under another physician, and never read any medical literature? I am not trying to discourage anyone from writing, but if you want to write, you must read. If you don't want to (or can't afford) college, you must surround yourself with college educated editors who will give you constructive feedback. And finally, you must be prepared to accept that feedback. Some people in the review group will not accept feedback gracefully and some people in the review group might not be able to tell what a good book is like. But if you know nothing about books, you should not be reviewing an indie book. This hurts the indie writers who do know what they are doing and who may have even put money into the book by paying editors or proofreaders.
These are general problems with any review groups. When you join a general review group, the problems are compounded. In a general review group, you may have one person who reads and writes non-fiction dog books, one person who writes erotica, a children's book writer, and one person who writes epic science fiction. A person who has submitted a 20 page children's book for review will not want to read a 1200 page epic sci-fi novel. So, once he finds out the book they must review is 1200 pages long, he already hates it without even turning to the first page.
Now, say the dog person gets the erotica. The dog person signed up for the group knowing full well that he might get erotica because it is a general group, but now that he must actually read it he has decided it goes against his religious sensibilities. But the dog person will get disciplinary action if he doesn't write a review. He made it to page 4 before becoming completely disgusted, so that is what the review will be based on (the first four pages) as well as his dislike of the genre.
On the other hand, the lady who wrote the sci-fi tome gets the dog book. The lady thinks dogs are cute and fluffy, but by page 40 she begins to wonder how anyone could write more than 10 pages about dogs little less read about them. She perseveres and finishes the book and gives it 4 out of 5 stars because she gets that some people might like it. Her written review ends up being: "This was a great book about dogs. I highly recommend it." Not necessarily the kind of review that is going to get much notice.
Finally, the guy who writes erotica gets the children's book to review. He doesn't have kids. He doesn't even remember ever reading a children's book except maybe "The Cat in the Hat." He doesn't care because the book is only 20 pages long- it will be a breeze to run through. But it doesn't rhyme. Since he only has one other kids book to compare to, he begins a three paragraph critique on how this book is not a good children's book because it doesn't rhyme. He says nothing about the plot, nothing about how children responded to it (ideally all children's books should be read to children and their reactions judged before giving a review), and absolutely nothing about the adorable pictures that the author paid thousands of dollars to get so it would have a professional look.
Some review groups will have people who skimp out on their job. That means after reading someone's 1200 page tome and writing a review just so your 20 page children's book will get one, you might not get any review at all. I did not have this problem, but it has become such a problem recently that some groups are asking for alternate reviewers--people who like to review books but don't necessarily have one of their own to submit. I did, however, get several reviews that were in the above categories--didn't know anything about the subject so couldn't really tell if it was a good book or not, didn't read the whole book, wasn't familiar with the genre and therefore had no clue that the things they were complaining about in their review were standard for it, and were just angry they had to read your book when theirs wasn't that long. For me, the general review group was completely useless.
In the General review group, you don't have any say in what genre or book you are going to be reviewing. This is a tragedy.
A review group already has a few marks against it because you are meeting with other desperate authors--it stinks to give a poor review but not everyone is an author and even authors need good editors (or at least good beta readers) in order to write well. A good author will be constantly reading books in the genre in which they write--I met indie writers who did not read--at all. You have no way of knowing whether the person you review is a good author or not. This means you may get a book that doesn't even make sense, and you must review it, which puts you in the uncomfortable position of how to be honest in a kind way.
Many people would not have a problem letting someone know that there are problems with their books. However, these same people who do not know how to write may be leaving a review for your work--and they think their books are great. Let me put it more bluntly: would you want a doctor working on you if he had never gone to medical school, never studied under another physician, and never read any medical literature? I am not trying to discourage anyone from writing, but if you want to write, you must read. If you don't want to (or can't afford) college, you must surround yourself with college educated editors who will give you constructive feedback. And finally, you must be prepared to accept that feedback. Some people in the review group will not accept feedback gracefully and some people in the review group might not be able to tell what a good book is like. But if you know nothing about books, you should not be reviewing an indie book. This hurts the indie writers who do know what they are doing and who may have even put money into the book by paying editors or proofreaders.
These are general problems with any review groups. When you join a general review group, the problems are compounded. In a general review group, you may have one person who reads and writes non-fiction dog books, one person who writes erotica, a children's book writer, and one person who writes epic science fiction. A person who has submitted a 20 page children's book for review will not want to read a 1200 page epic sci-fi novel. So, once he finds out the book they must review is 1200 pages long, he already hates it without even turning to the first page.
Now, say the dog person gets the erotica. The dog person signed up for the group knowing full well that he might get erotica because it is a general group, but now that he must actually read it he has decided it goes against his religious sensibilities. But the dog person will get disciplinary action if he doesn't write a review. He made it to page 4 before becoming completely disgusted, so that is what the review will be based on (the first four pages) as well as his dislike of the genre.
On the other hand, the lady who wrote the sci-fi tome gets the dog book. The lady thinks dogs are cute and fluffy, but by page 40 she begins to wonder how anyone could write more than 10 pages about dogs little less read about them. She perseveres and finishes the book and gives it 4 out of 5 stars because she gets that some people might like it. Her written review ends up being: "This was a great book about dogs. I highly recommend it." Not necessarily the kind of review that is going to get much notice.
Finally, the guy who writes erotica gets the children's book to review. He doesn't have kids. He doesn't even remember ever reading a children's book except maybe "The Cat in the Hat." He doesn't care because the book is only 20 pages long- it will be a breeze to run through. But it doesn't rhyme. Since he only has one other kids book to compare to, he begins a three paragraph critique on how this book is not a good children's book because it doesn't rhyme. He says nothing about the plot, nothing about how children responded to it (ideally all children's books should be read to children and their reactions judged before giving a review), and absolutely nothing about the adorable pictures that the author paid thousands of dollars to get so it would have a professional look.
Some review groups will have people who skimp out on their job. That means after reading someone's 1200 page tome and writing a review just so your 20 page children's book will get one, you might not get any review at all. I did not have this problem, but it has become such a problem recently that some groups are asking for alternate reviewers--people who like to review books but don't necessarily have one of their own to submit. I did, however, get several reviews that were in the above categories--didn't know anything about the subject so couldn't really tell if it was a good book or not, didn't read the whole book, wasn't familiar with the genre and therefore had no clue that the things they were complaining about in their review were standard for it, and were just angry they had to read your book when theirs wasn't that long. For me, the general review group was completely useless.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Book Reviews on Goodreads: Part I
Getting book reviews is one of the most difficult things for an Indie author. You can give books away, but even giving them away to friends who have promised an honest review in exchange for said free book does not get you that review.
So, what are you to do? You can pay plenty of people to give you a stellar (although not always coherent) review, but anyone who agrees to review your book on Amazon for money is breaking Amazon's terms of service unless they disclose in the review that they were paid to give it. If you are paying someone to review your books, make sure they include this disclaimer. If you give people free books in exchange for a review, make sure you have them note that in their review. Amazon has sued thousands of businesses for posting paid reviews without disclaimers.
For those of us who don't want to get into the messiness of paying people for reviews, we often turn to websites like Goodreads to find people willing to review the books we write. I wanted to share some of my experiences with this.
One easy way to get reviews on Goodreads without forcing the reviewer to include a disclaimer on the review is using the Goodreads' Giveaways. At one time, these were only open to people willing to give out paperbacks, but digital content is now accepted. Since the people who enter and win these books do not have to leave a review (it is asked but not forced), they do not have to write any disclaimers about them. In some cases, they may leave a disclaimer, which is also perfectly okay. After all, they simply won the book in a contest that was impartially judged.
When I did this, I got an average return of 1 review for every 10 books I gave away. Not all of these reviews were positive--but the negative ones came from people who didn't seem to understand what they were getting. So, if you do this method make sure to spell things out. List a couple other traditionally published (and well-known) books that are similar to your book in the description. And, be prepared to give away a lot of books in order to get substantial reviews.
So, what are you to do? You can pay plenty of people to give you a stellar (although not always coherent) review, but anyone who agrees to review your book on Amazon for money is breaking Amazon's terms of service unless they disclose in the review that they were paid to give it. If you are paying someone to review your books, make sure they include this disclaimer. If you give people free books in exchange for a review, make sure you have them note that in their review. Amazon has sued thousands of businesses for posting paid reviews without disclaimers.
For those of us who don't want to get into the messiness of paying people for reviews, we often turn to websites like Goodreads to find people willing to review the books we write. I wanted to share some of my experiences with this.
One easy way to get reviews on Goodreads without forcing the reviewer to include a disclaimer on the review is using the Goodreads' Giveaways. At one time, these were only open to people willing to give out paperbacks, but digital content is now accepted. Since the people who enter and win these books do not have to leave a review (it is asked but not forced), they do not have to write any disclaimers about them. In some cases, they may leave a disclaimer, which is also perfectly okay. After all, they simply won the book in a contest that was impartially judged.
When I did this, I got an average return of 1 review for every 10 books I gave away. Not all of these reviews were positive--but the negative ones came from people who didn't seem to understand what they were getting. So, if you do this method make sure to spell things out. List a couple other traditionally published (and well-known) books that are similar to your book in the description. And, be prepared to give away a lot of books in order to get substantial reviews.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Avoiding scams - the Fake Literary Agent
You believe in your book, but man is it hard to find someone else who will even consider it. You have tried blind mailing hundreds of publishing companies, a vanity press or two, and self-publishing, but you are becoming tired. Maybe if you just find a literary agent to represent the book for you, then you could sit back in your easy chair and just wait for the checks to come sailing in.
If you are like most aspiring writers, you begin to do research in order to find a good agent to represent your book. You know all about avoiding fake publishing houses and vanity presses because you know that a traditional publisher will not charge you anything to publish your book. However, even a legitimate "no-fee" literary agent may charge you "fees." How can that be? Well, the "fees" a legitimate agent might charge are actually reimbursements for making copies of your 200 page novel and then sending it to publishers. So how do you know?
Well, first you have to look at how you found the agent. Did you check in a reliable resource such as the most recent Writers Market and then visit the agent's website directly? Or, did you type "literary agent" into Google search and click on the highest ranked sponsored one? If you did the latter, you are in trouble, since real literary agents do not advertise and would not be a sponsored link.
When you get to the website, does the agent list the books it has recently sold? If yes, are these books truly sold to traditional publishers and are they truly recent? You will have to do some research to find this information out, but legitimate agents will list recent books sold to legitimate, traditional publishers.
Does the agent have a street address or is the address online only? Real agents have real places of business.
Once you have queried the agent, and they contact you, do you have to pay money upfront in order to sign the contract? This money could be for any reason: publicity photos, editing, critiques, a website that is designed for you to promote your book--anything. Real agents don't have add-ons that cost money.
So, what kind of fees do real agents charge? Once you have signed the contract, the agent will go to work for you and start sending out queries and copies of manuscripts. At this point, they may ask to be reimbursed for the cost of making these copies and sending them. If your manuscript sells to the publisher, the agent take up to 25% of the money made from sales. If your literary agent is constantly asking you to pay for new add-on services that are more than standard copying/postage reimbursements, then you need to find a new agent.
If you are like most aspiring writers, you begin to do research in order to find a good agent to represent your book. You know all about avoiding fake publishing houses and vanity presses because you know that a traditional publisher will not charge you anything to publish your book. However, even a legitimate "no-fee" literary agent may charge you "fees." How can that be? Well, the "fees" a legitimate agent might charge are actually reimbursements for making copies of your 200 page novel and then sending it to publishers. So how do you know?
Well, first you have to look at how you found the agent. Did you check in a reliable resource such as the most recent Writers Market and then visit the agent's website directly? Or, did you type "literary agent" into Google search and click on the highest ranked sponsored one? If you did the latter, you are in trouble, since real literary agents do not advertise and would not be a sponsored link.
When you get to the website, does the agent list the books it has recently sold? If yes, are these books truly sold to traditional publishers and are they truly recent? You will have to do some research to find this information out, but legitimate agents will list recent books sold to legitimate, traditional publishers.
Does the agent have a street address or is the address online only? Real agents have real places of business.
Once you have queried the agent, and they contact you, do you have to pay money upfront in order to sign the contract? This money could be for any reason: publicity photos, editing, critiques, a website that is designed for you to promote your book--anything. Real agents don't have add-ons that cost money.
So, what kind of fees do real agents charge? Once you have signed the contract, the agent will go to work for you and start sending out queries and copies of manuscripts. At this point, they may ask to be reimbursed for the cost of making these copies and sending them. If your manuscript sells to the publisher, the agent take up to 25% of the money made from sales. If your literary agent is constantly asking you to pay for new add-on services that are more than standard copying/postage reimbursements, then you need to find a new agent.
Monday, August 12, 2019
Avoiding scams - the Work From Home or Freelance Job Scam
Everybody knows that there are good paying, work-from-home jobs out there that will train you.
The problem is that this thing everyone "knows' is actually a false rumor. The letter above is not a legitimate job offer but another scam. I have a resume posted on LinkedIn (with personal information redacted), but never have I gotten a legitimate job offer from LinkedIn. I usually get "business deals" that would require a time or monetary investment from me. In other cases, I get people wanting to be a part of my "network" so they can further promote their own businesses. Most of these things are harmless, but the danger of posting your resume or building a profile on any job search website is that you are jumping up and down, waving your hands, and screaming "SCAM ME! PLEASE!"
In many cases, when you get that call about reducing your student loans (for example), the scammers have no idea whether or not you have student loans. They are simply cold calling you and hoping that you have one. Generic scammers usually don't even ask to talk to a specific person. But when you put up a resume or fill out a profile on a job website, you have already let them know that you need a job. In many cases, you may be desperate for a job since you resorted to an online marketplace to find one.
I am not talking about going to Walmart.com and applying for a job there that you saw advertised in your local store. I am talking about job posting websites such as Indeed and Ziprecruiter and places like that where "applying" is "easy."
I have never heard of anyone getting a legitimate job from any of these places. Why? Because applying is easy. That means, you can apply to hundreds of jobs that you are not qualified to do, and so can millions of other users. No company has the resources to personally sort through all those applications, so they develop computerized filters that kick any application that doesn't meet the specific (narrow) requirements. This means that even if you are qualified for the job, you are more likely to be kicked for something not recognized by the filter (with the millions of unqualified applicants) than you are to be hired.
But these websites are great resources for scammers. The same is true for trusted freelancing websites like Upworks and Guru. The main difference is that if you let the job sit a few days on the freelancing websites, it will probably get flagged as a scam. In addition, freelancing websites allow you to verify payment before working.
But what if it really is the good deal it promises to be? It isn't. So how do I know? Let's look at the "job offer" I received:
Our Recruiting Team viewed your resume and we are pleased with your qualifications, we believe you have the required qualifications to undergo an online interview.Your resume was shortlisted for an online interview with the Hiring manager Mrs Smith via Google Hanqout with the following email address (------------@gmailcom) Add her to your buddy list and send her an IM, she will be online waiting for you ASAP to conduct the interview for you. The pay rate is $50 per hour and you get paid $20 for training, Also leave your digits and email behind. Your verification code is XXX9999 this would serve as your identification number .flexible....
Interview Scheduled : Online.
Time: ASAP
Venue: On line Google Hanqouts
Training is Available
Your swift and timely response matters a lot in this beneficial position.
We look forward to having you on the team.
Hr Department
Empire Ozark Food Brokers
The problem is that this thing everyone "knows' is actually a false rumor. The letter above is not a legitimate job offer but another scam. I have a resume posted on LinkedIn (with personal information redacted), but never have I gotten a legitimate job offer from LinkedIn. I usually get "business deals" that would require a time or monetary investment from me. In other cases, I get people wanting to be a part of my "network" so they can further promote their own businesses. Most of these things are harmless, but the danger of posting your resume or building a profile on any job search website is that you are jumping up and down, waving your hands, and screaming "SCAM ME! PLEASE!"
In many cases, when you get that call about reducing your student loans (for example), the scammers have no idea whether or not you have student loans. They are simply cold calling you and hoping that you have one. Generic scammers usually don't even ask to talk to a specific person. But when you put up a resume or fill out a profile on a job website, you have already let them know that you need a job. In many cases, you may be desperate for a job since you resorted to an online marketplace to find one.
I am not talking about going to Walmart.com and applying for a job there that you saw advertised in your local store. I am talking about job posting websites such as Indeed and Ziprecruiter and places like that where "applying" is "easy."
I have never heard of anyone getting a legitimate job from any of these places. Why? Because applying is easy. That means, you can apply to hundreds of jobs that you are not qualified to do, and so can millions of other users. No company has the resources to personally sort through all those applications, so they develop computerized filters that kick any application that doesn't meet the specific (narrow) requirements. This means that even if you are qualified for the job, you are more likely to be kicked for something not recognized by the filter (with the millions of unqualified applicants) than you are to be hired.
But these websites are great resources for scammers. The same is true for trusted freelancing websites like Upworks and Guru. The main difference is that if you let the job sit a few days on the freelancing websites, it will probably get flagged as a scam. In addition, freelancing websites allow you to verify payment before working.
But what if it really is the good deal it promises to be? It isn't. So how do I know? Let's look at the "job offer" I received:
- The business is the name of a legitimate company in the United States. The English is not legitimate, native born United States English.
- This job was supposedly a translating job--translators (and most professional writers) prefer per word rates instead of per hour rates.
- I am a translator, but my profiles only state that I translate INTO English. This project wanted me to translate FROM English. They clearly did not pay attention to my resume.
- You cannot train someone to be a translator. The person must already have the language skills. Some people will never be able to understand foreign languages. Translating requires more than typing something into Google Translate and cutting and pasting the gibberish you get.
- In addition to the above, the job post said they needed the translator for international safety and accreditation purposes listing official agencies that were requiring these translations, but neither of the agencies do that and no one needs a translator to help "accredit" a food broker.
- In fact, food brokers usually need people familiar with food service who are salesmen and bookkeepers. This food broker is a very small company making the need for a translator even more unlikely.
- The number one thing that should always send every warning bell in your mind off is "ASAP" and "she will be waiting online for you." No American company has someone waiting online 24/7 for you to respond to a job offer. I highly doubt anyone anywhere in the world except a scammer would have someone waiting for you to call them back 24/7. Some translation jobs are urgent, but a food broker looking for accreditation is not one of them. Again, even an urgent job would not have someone waiting for you to call 24/7.
Usually these scam jobs hurt you in two ways: (1) You are required to do immediate work with no chance to set up something like Guru's SafePay. Even when I am taking an urgent job on Guru, I require funds deposited (and cleared) before I begin work. However, part of this scam is getting you to do work before you are paid. (2) After you have done the work, you are sent a check and the typical fake-check-deposited-in-your-bank scam is then done.
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Avoiding scams - the Marketing Phone Call
"Hello, I am XXX from XXX publishing agency. We recently read you book and are very impressed by it. We would like to help you market it..."
Every person who writes a book and self-publishes (or vanity publishes) it wants it to be famous. You think it was great, so it must be right? Then you get a phone call from someone who is in the business and thinks it is also great. This is your dream come true!
Except, it isn't really the dream you wanted--it is actually a scam. Most people who are trying to sell their own books without the help of an established, authentic agency or publishing house, know that it is hard. We rejoice over the 5-10 books we sell each month, even though we put hundreds of hours into getting those books sold and our return for all that time is about $5.00. When someone notices our book, we want it to be true. We want to have finally made it.
Sadly, this is not the way it works. Unless you managed to sell so many books you ended up on the New York Times Bestseller List, don't expect a call from anyone who really is going to help you. To make matters worse, the more you promote your book (and yourself) online, the more you are going to make yourself a scam target.
I cannot tell you how many times these people call me--but I do know why they call me. My son happened to pick up the phone early on, and he was fooled. These people have not read my books. If you really think they have read yours, ask them specific questions about it that they could not answer based on any online summaries or question/answers you have posted. More important, find out what they are selling and how much it is going to cost you upfront.
In the real literary world, you make money. No one pays to have their book published through a real, traditional publishing company. I warn people away from vanity presses because you can find a local printer to print your book for a fee if you really want to see it in print. You can also have it printed for free on Amazon--why would you pay someone who may or may not be reputable to do it for you?
Now, there are certain things you should pay for- professional graphic designers/artists to make your cover, professional editors to make sure your book is free from errors, and finally a professional proofreader to make sure the book is properly formatted for your publishing platform. All these services you can find yourself through Upworks or Guru. Why would you pay a vanity press for these services when they are just going to go to Upworks or Guru to find someone to do it for them and take a cut of the fee they charge you while doing it?
That said, please do not pay anyone anything who calls you on the phone and tells you how great your book is. When I get these calls, I simply say- "No thank you" and hang up. I have in the past told them I wasn't interested in a scam and various other things, but I have way too many real things to do with my life to talk with someone who only wants to cheat me out of money.
The first time I had one of these people call, I knew it was a scam, but again, someone else had taken the message, so I actually looked into it. There are many ways people can scam hopeful authors (for example, sending them checks to cash and then asking them to wire some of that money to other publishers or contests--two weeks later you find out the check was fake and has bounced) but in this case it was far less involved. They would ask you for a fee (thousands of dollars) and "market" your book for you. The person on the phone (when she finally caught up with me) did smash together several jobs- publishing, marketing, literary agent-- which is always a flag, but the gist of it was I paid them to market my book (based on a website under their name that I looked up from the message that was left for me).
I have no clue if this was a take the money and run or if it would have been more involved (they actually buy some of my books with the money I send to make it look like it was working and then ask for more money to keep up sales). But I did feel the need to warn other authors to avoid this.
Whenever anyone contacts you by phone about your book, red flags should always come up. This scam would have taken in several of my family members.
Other things that should warn you: (1) phone numbers on your caller ID that are not in service when you call them back or that go to voicemail (2) people who sound as if they are from a third world country and who misuse or misspell English (3) people who say they are from XXX (major publishing company) but have a different contact information that what is found on the XXX (major publishing company) website--note sometimes these people do their research and use the names of actual people who work at the company.
If you are reading this because you have been scammed, stop right now and contact law enforcement, contact your bank, contact any credit card issuers that you used, contact the credit reporting agencies. Chances of recovering lost money are very low but you do not want to continue losing money. Don't be embarrassed- it is easy to be taken in by these liars.
Every person who writes a book and self-publishes (or vanity publishes) it wants it to be famous. You think it was great, so it must be right? Then you get a phone call from someone who is in the business and thinks it is also great. This is your dream come true!
Except, it isn't really the dream you wanted--it is actually a scam. Most people who are trying to sell their own books without the help of an established, authentic agency or publishing house, know that it is hard. We rejoice over the 5-10 books we sell each month, even though we put hundreds of hours into getting those books sold and our return for all that time is about $5.00. When someone notices our book, we want it to be true. We want to have finally made it.
Sadly, this is not the way it works. Unless you managed to sell so many books you ended up on the New York Times Bestseller List, don't expect a call from anyone who really is going to help you. To make matters worse, the more you promote your book (and yourself) online, the more you are going to make yourself a scam target.
I cannot tell you how many times these people call me--but I do know why they call me. My son happened to pick up the phone early on, and he was fooled. These people have not read my books. If you really think they have read yours, ask them specific questions about it that they could not answer based on any online summaries or question/answers you have posted. More important, find out what they are selling and how much it is going to cost you upfront.
In the real literary world, you make money. No one pays to have their book published through a real, traditional publishing company. I warn people away from vanity presses because you can find a local printer to print your book for a fee if you really want to see it in print. You can also have it printed for free on Amazon--why would you pay someone who may or may not be reputable to do it for you?
Now, there are certain things you should pay for- professional graphic designers/artists to make your cover, professional editors to make sure your book is free from errors, and finally a professional proofreader to make sure the book is properly formatted for your publishing platform. All these services you can find yourself through Upworks or Guru. Why would you pay a vanity press for these services when they are just going to go to Upworks or Guru to find someone to do it for them and take a cut of the fee they charge you while doing it?
That said, please do not pay anyone anything who calls you on the phone and tells you how great your book is. When I get these calls, I simply say- "No thank you" and hang up. I have in the past told them I wasn't interested in a scam and various other things, but I have way too many real things to do with my life to talk with someone who only wants to cheat me out of money.
The first time I had one of these people call, I knew it was a scam, but again, someone else had taken the message, so I actually looked into it. There are many ways people can scam hopeful authors (for example, sending them checks to cash and then asking them to wire some of that money to other publishers or contests--two weeks later you find out the check was fake and has bounced) but in this case it was far less involved. They would ask you for a fee (thousands of dollars) and "market" your book for you. The person on the phone (when she finally caught up with me) did smash together several jobs- publishing, marketing, literary agent-- which is always a flag, but the gist of it was I paid them to market my book (based on a website under their name that I looked up from the message that was left for me).
I have no clue if this was a take the money and run or if it would have been more involved (they actually buy some of my books with the money I send to make it look like it was working and then ask for more money to keep up sales). But I did feel the need to warn other authors to avoid this.
Whenever anyone contacts you by phone about your book, red flags should always come up. This scam would have taken in several of my family members.
Other things that should warn you: (1) phone numbers on your caller ID that are not in service when you call them back or that go to voicemail (2) people who sound as if they are from a third world country and who misuse or misspell English (3) people who say they are from XXX (major publishing company) but have a different contact information that what is found on the XXX (major publishing company) website--note sometimes these people do their research and use the names of actual people who work at the company.
If you are reading this because you have been scammed, stop right now and contact law enforcement, contact your bank, contact any credit card issuers that you used, contact the credit reporting agencies. Chances of recovering lost money are very low but you do not want to continue losing money. Don't be embarrassed- it is easy to be taken in by these liars.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Plagiarism vs. Ghostwriting
According to the Oxford Dictionary, plagiarism is "The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own." On those same lines, ghostwriting is "Write (material) for someone else who is the named author."
Plagiarism is rampant in modern times. The Internet, originally designed to encourage academic sharing of knowledge, has become a cesspool of misinformation and cut and paste articles. Students in high school are told not to plagiarize and antiplagiarism rules fill student handbooks, but many times neither the students nor the authors of the handbooks understand what that is.
One big question involves the confusion between "copyright" and "plagiarism." This is where the question of ghostwriting comes into the picture. Ghostwriting has been seen as an acceptable practice since the invention of writing. Originally, scribes wrote almost everything for everybody and received payment to do so. Today, modern scribes (authors) write everything from books to reviews and are frequently doing it under ghostwriting contracts. That means they write the work and give up all their ownership of it to the person paying them. They also may sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from revealing that they wrote it.
Why does this happen? Well, in our society, we are convinced that everyone is and should be a good writer. The truth is most people are moderate writers at best. We don't expect everyone to be a star football player, but we are delusional in our belief that everyone has the ability to write well if taught correctly. This is false, and the irony is that it usually doesn't take long for people to figure out they are only mediocre at writing, especially at writing effectively.
Some people then turn to developmental editors. These are the people that have good ideas but just need a little boost to express them properly. Developmental editors are borderline ghostwriters, but people who use developmental editors would not fall under people who plagiarize because in general, the work is their complete idea and work that was just not expressed well. The developmental editor (if working in a professional sense and tracking changes), drastically improves the work but does not create an entirely new work.
Many people, however, do not even have the ability to write or organize their own work. They could just be awful authors, but these people may just not have enough time--they could be proficient writers but they are also academic teachers who have full loads of teaching work and are then required to write a certain number of published papers each year. I do not feel badly helping these people, but the truth of the matter is that these people are plagiarizing when they do not add my name to their academic work. (And none do because of the terms of the contract I have with them--I do not actually allow anyone to add my name to his or her work without special written permission, and in some cases I would sue some of my employers for breach of contract if they did add my name because I do not want it to be seen as an endorsement for the work. I also admit I am not proud of some of the work I do writing cheesy copy.)
Would I like the academic recognition? Of course. I would gladly give certain employers my permission if they asked, but they rarely do. This is where it gets tricky--the author doesn't want to be associated with the work, so how is that plagiarism? Well, it is plagiarism because someone else is claiming to be the author(s). To alleviate that, they could state "and anonymous" as the author or claim "anonymous" wrote the work altogether if they contributed less than 25% of the work. They could also ask me for a pen name and publish the work under that if I would agree to it (I wouldn't). Stating an anonymous author wrote it is accrediting it to the proper author and not claiming to have authored something you did not. That or the use of a pen name is the only way to use a ghostwriter without plagiarizing. Now, how often does that happen?
One person complained on a forum that the author sold the copyright to the employer and so it wasn't plagiarism. This is not true. Copyright determines who can use the work and get paid for it. It does not determine authorship. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is in public domain. That does not mean I can claim to have written it. Anyone who buys a work, ghostwritten or not, and then places their name on it claiming to be the author, has committed plagiarism.
Does ghostwriting plagiarism hurt? Of course. In the case of academics, and I am sympathetic to their cause, they are hurting other academics by making the university think they can write the required amount and still continue teaching full loads. In the case of academics, they usually do the research and provide me with copies and I compose the paper, so it is a joint effort. There would be nothing wrong with adding my name, though and making it correct.
The worst case scenario is when a student hires a ghostwriter. There are so many ghostwriting jobs available that it is difficult to determine which jobs are school projects and which are not. To make matters worse, websites selling homework have sprung up everywhere. Since the authors working on those websites do not care that they are encouraging plagiarism and cheating, it is impossible to legally file charges against them. Laws need to be changed to get rid of these websites. Student ghostwriting plagiarism is the worst because (1) the student does not learn (2) the student usually turns in an academic paper written at a higher level than what would be expected--this means teachers and policymakers begin to believe students at that level can write that well (3) other students are judged based on the ghostwritten work (4) teachers who suspect plagiarism find it difficult to track down the true author and once tracked they may find it difficult to get confirmation because of contracts in place.
Personally, I would want to be contacted by the teacher if it were suspected I inadvertently did someone's schoolwork. This would at least alert me to discontinue future business with that employer.
Plagiarism is rampant in modern times. The Internet, originally designed to encourage academic sharing of knowledge, has become a cesspool of misinformation and cut and paste articles. Students in high school are told not to plagiarize and antiplagiarism rules fill student handbooks, but many times neither the students nor the authors of the handbooks understand what that is.
One big question involves the confusion between "copyright" and "plagiarism." This is where the question of ghostwriting comes into the picture. Ghostwriting has been seen as an acceptable practice since the invention of writing. Originally, scribes wrote almost everything for everybody and received payment to do so. Today, modern scribes (authors) write everything from books to reviews and are frequently doing it under ghostwriting contracts. That means they write the work and give up all their ownership of it to the person paying them. They also may sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from revealing that they wrote it.
Why does this happen? Well, in our society, we are convinced that everyone is and should be a good writer. The truth is most people are moderate writers at best. We don't expect everyone to be a star football player, but we are delusional in our belief that everyone has the ability to write well if taught correctly. This is false, and the irony is that it usually doesn't take long for people to figure out they are only mediocre at writing, especially at writing effectively.
Some people then turn to developmental editors. These are the people that have good ideas but just need a little boost to express them properly. Developmental editors are borderline ghostwriters, but people who use developmental editors would not fall under people who plagiarize because in general, the work is their complete idea and work that was just not expressed well. The developmental editor (if working in a professional sense and tracking changes), drastically improves the work but does not create an entirely new work.
Many people, however, do not even have the ability to write or organize their own work. They could just be awful authors, but these people may just not have enough time--they could be proficient writers but they are also academic teachers who have full loads of teaching work and are then required to write a certain number of published papers each year. I do not feel badly helping these people, but the truth of the matter is that these people are plagiarizing when they do not add my name to their academic work. (And none do because of the terms of the contract I have with them--I do not actually allow anyone to add my name to his or her work without special written permission, and in some cases I would sue some of my employers for breach of contract if they did add my name because I do not want it to be seen as an endorsement for the work. I also admit I am not proud of some of the work I do writing cheesy copy.)
Would I like the academic recognition? Of course. I would gladly give certain employers my permission if they asked, but they rarely do. This is where it gets tricky--the author doesn't want to be associated with the work, so how is that plagiarism? Well, it is plagiarism because someone else is claiming to be the author(s). To alleviate that, they could state "and anonymous" as the author or claim "anonymous" wrote the work altogether if they contributed less than 25% of the work. They could also ask me for a pen name and publish the work under that if I would agree to it (I wouldn't). Stating an anonymous author wrote it is accrediting it to the proper author and not claiming to have authored something you did not. That or the use of a pen name is the only way to use a ghostwriter without plagiarizing. Now, how often does that happen?
One person complained on a forum that the author sold the copyright to the employer and so it wasn't plagiarism. This is not true. Copyright determines who can use the work and get paid for it. It does not determine authorship. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is in public domain. That does not mean I can claim to have written it. Anyone who buys a work, ghostwritten or not, and then places their name on it claiming to be the author, has committed plagiarism.
Does ghostwriting plagiarism hurt? Of course. In the case of academics, and I am sympathetic to their cause, they are hurting other academics by making the university think they can write the required amount and still continue teaching full loads. In the case of academics, they usually do the research and provide me with copies and I compose the paper, so it is a joint effort. There would be nothing wrong with adding my name, though and making it correct.
The worst case scenario is when a student hires a ghostwriter. There are so many ghostwriting jobs available that it is difficult to determine which jobs are school projects and which are not. To make matters worse, websites selling homework have sprung up everywhere. Since the authors working on those websites do not care that they are encouraging plagiarism and cheating, it is impossible to legally file charges against them. Laws need to be changed to get rid of these websites. Student ghostwriting plagiarism is the worst because (1) the student does not learn (2) the student usually turns in an academic paper written at a higher level than what would be expected--this means teachers and policymakers begin to believe students at that level can write that well (3) other students are judged based on the ghostwritten work (4) teachers who suspect plagiarism find it difficult to track down the true author and once tracked they may find it difficult to get confirmation because of contracts in place.
Personally, I would want to be contacted by the teacher if it were suspected I inadvertently did someone's schoolwork. This would at least alert me to discontinue future business with that employer.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Go It Alone or Getting Advice
I have been speaking about a book of sermons that I worked on with a minister. When you self-publish, you don't have the benefit of an editor to tell you that your book won't sell and this can hurt your sales in the long run.
In traditional publishing, you send your query letter (and sometimes manuscript) to a publishing house and it is frequently rejected. Rinse. Repeat. Until that day when you hopefully get that letter of recognition. For some, they send the first query and get accepted. That is the rare happening, not the normal.
If your manuscript is rejected, you have no way of finding out whether or not it was "good." Out of all my traditional rejections for one of my books, only one kind editor sent me a note stating: "I really liked this and would have accepted it if our publishing house wouldn't be currently booked for two years with manuscripts we are publishing."
Because of this, many authors are often left in the dark about what is wrong with their books and few who self-publish have the money to get professional advice. People who self-publish and do attempt to get outside help, either by paying someone or using beta readers, can run into the vanity press trap: when you pay someone to read your book, they tend to be lax on good advice and heavy on praise. Even beta readers might not want to hurt the author's feelings or may not know what is wrong with the book.
Vanity presses are the worst about this. That is part of the reason why they are nicknamed "vanity" presses. The have the viewpoint that the author is the person who knows best what to do with his or her work. No matter how unsalable you want to make your book, they will gladly print it for you... for a fee, of course, and if you agree to buy those books once they are printed.
It is very important for authors to find a professional to give them good, unbiased advice about their books. This means, as a real author, you must have thick enough skin to know that some people are not going to like your book, and you need to understand when those people are giving you good advice about changes or when those people are stating their opinions and just might not be the right audience for your book.
I can think of one example. One person, we will call him Mr. Big, hired me many years ago to review his "screenplay." He thought it was great and hired about ten other cheap freelancers to also review it. When I bid on and accepted the job, he passed it off as a professionally written, well-edited screenplay in which one production company already had interest and in my freelancing youth, I believed wholly and bid equally low, thinking it would only take a couple of hours to read and review.
The author called me and spent an hour talking about how great his manuscript was and how he was getting it produced by the Navy. This should have made me nervous about the truth of his previous claims. The Navy does not produce movies beyond basic training movies, and Mr. Big had written a feature film. During the course of this conversation, Mr. Big stated that he would be willing to pay me much more if I found something that needed to be fixed, and it took me a little more time to explain.
As might be expected, when I got the screenplay it was a mess. It was mostly formatted correctly, but it had serious issues from typos, to plot inconsistencies, to illogical characters, to rapid cuts that visually would have left any viewer dizzy. Halfway through the film, it changed plots entirely and followed a new set of characters. Most of the characters, despite having different backgrounds, all spoke with the same slang and accent, and most of the dialogue was characters talking about what was happening (i.e. "I have to walk over here right now to pick up these papers on my desk").
The guy had paid me to write a couple paragraphs about the film, but he also seemed deeply concerned that he get the story right. So, I gave an in-depth analysis of what changes needed to be made, puzzled at why none of his numerous other reviewers had pointed these things out.
Needless to say, he called me and cussed me out on the phone. He told me I had no clue what I was talking about. All the other reviewers said his movie was perfect, the character I criticized was another reviewer's favorite, even though I had a theater degree I had no clue what I was doing. He then proceeded to tell me again that the movie was about to be produced by the Navy, and basically that I would eat my words once I saw it advertised on the big screen.
It has been almost ten years since I had this learning experience. I have never seen this movie produced on the big screen or even the small screen. Even if the author eventually took my advice, the script would have needed a serious rewrite by a talented screenwriter.
Basically, this person wanted to pay people to tell him how great he was and how great his screenplay was--sadly that is what most people did. Even traditionally published authors take advice from their editors and make changes for them. It is important to have some input if you want to create a good book.
In traditional publishing, you send your query letter (and sometimes manuscript) to a publishing house and it is frequently rejected. Rinse. Repeat. Until that day when you hopefully get that letter of recognition. For some, they send the first query and get accepted. That is the rare happening, not the normal.
If your manuscript is rejected, you have no way of finding out whether or not it was "good." Out of all my traditional rejections for one of my books, only one kind editor sent me a note stating: "I really liked this and would have accepted it if our publishing house wouldn't be currently booked for two years with manuscripts we are publishing."
Because of this, many authors are often left in the dark about what is wrong with their books and few who self-publish have the money to get professional advice. People who self-publish and do attempt to get outside help, either by paying someone or using beta readers, can run into the vanity press trap: when you pay someone to read your book, they tend to be lax on good advice and heavy on praise. Even beta readers might not want to hurt the author's feelings or may not know what is wrong with the book.
Vanity presses are the worst about this. That is part of the reason why they are nicknamed "vanity" presses. The have the viewpoint that the author is the person who knows best what to do with his or her work. No matter how unsalable you want to make your book, they will gladly print it for you... for a fee, of course, and if you agree to buy those books once they are printed.
It is very important for authors to find a professional to give them good, unbiased advice about their books. This means, as a real author, you must have thick enough skin to know that some people are not going to like your book, and you need to understand when those people are giving you good advice about changes or when those people are stating their opinions and just might not be the right audience for your book.
I can think of one example. One person, we will call him Mr. Big, hired me many years ago to review his "screenplay." He thought it was great and hired about ten other cheap freelancers to also review it. When I bid on and accepted the job, he passed it off as a professionally written, well-edited screenplay in which one production company already had interest and in my freelancing youth, I believed wholly and bid equally low, thinking it would only take a couple of hours to read and review.
The author called me and spent an hour talking about how great his manuscript was and how he was getting it produced by the Navy. This should have made me nervous about the truth of his previous claims. The Navy does not produce movies beyond basic training movies, and Mr. Big had written a feature film. During the course of this conversation, Mr. Big stated that he would be willing to pay me much more if I found something that needed to be fixed, and it took me a little more time to explain.
As might be expected, when I got the screenplay it was a mess. It was mostly formatted correctly, but it had serious issues from typos, to plot inconsistencies, to illogical characters, to rapid cuts that visually would have left any viewer dizzy. Halfway through the film, it changed plots entirely and followed a new set of characters. Most of the characters, despite having different backgrounds, all spoke with the same slang and accent, and most of the dialogue was characters talking about what was happening (i.e. "I have to walk over here right now to pick up these papers on my desk").
The guy had paid me to write a couple paragraphs about the film, but he also seemed deeply concerned that he get the story right. So, I gave an in-depth analysis of what changes needed to be made, puzzled at why none of his numerous other reviewers had pointed these things out.
Needless to say, he called me and cussed me out on the phone. He told me I had no clue what I was talking about. All the other reviewers said his movie was perfect, the character I criticized was another reviewer's favorite, even though I had a theater degree I had no clue what I was doing. He then proceeded to tell me again that the movie was about to be produced by the Navy, and basically that I would eat my words once I saw it advertised on the big screen.
It has been almost ten years since I had this learning experience. I have never seen this movie produced on the big screen or even the small screen. Even if the author eventually took my advice, the script would have needed a serious rewrite by a talented screenwriter.
Basically, this person wanted to pay people to tell him how great he was and how great his screenplay was--sadly that is what most people did. Even traditionally published authors take advice from their editors and make changes for them. It is important to have some input if you want to create a good book.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Niche: Why are you publishing a book?
As expected, the author of the book I talked about in my Target Audience post did want to simply publish his sermons, as is, for other ministers. This brings up another important topic when it comes to book publishing: What need will your book fill?
In fiction, this becomes tricky-there are millions of Romeo and Juliet stories, why is yours unique? It uses vampires? Sorry, that's been done. You want to tell it from the nurses point of view? Yep, done. The question is "Can you do it better?"
In non-fiction, it is imperative that you not only do it better, but it also has to have some uniqueness to it. If you are publishing a book of sermons about marriage (which is not the real topic of the book on which I am working, but that is the topic I am going to use for this blog post), you are one of hundreds of other books on marriage that is available. Couple that with other things this author wants (publishing a series of sermons on the same topic makes it impossible for ministers to use one in a pinch, publishing a full sermon instead of an outline makes it difficult for a minister to adapt it to his congregation's needs, etc.) and again, he is hurting his ability to sell his book.
Marketing, in my opinion, is by far the most difficult part of being an author. If you think otherwise, I really suggest you consider a career in marketing instead of writing. (Marketers still get to write, by the way, they just do it to help sell something.) You need to make sure your book is marketable before you put it in print by not only making sure there is an audience for it, but also by making sure your book will fill a need of the audience.
In this ministers case, he has an audience that is already asking him for a book. People who have listened to his sermons have come up to him and told him they wish they could get their friends to hear the sermon but the friend was turned off to that because of other churches that approached the subject poorly. From these statements, the minister is trying to get his sermons to other ministers so they won't turn people off to religion. The problem is that if he published a book that directly spoke to the people, it would be easier for the friend to pass it along than it would be for them to bring the resistant person to church to hear any minister give a sermon.
The minister clearly saw a need and identified a niche, but his book is not targeting that niche. The niche is providing unchurched people with a guide to a healthy marriage based on Biblical principles. In order to reach that niche, he should publish a book directly for the target audience in that niche. Instead, he is publishing a book in that niche but has misidentified the target audience for that niche.The competition would, of course, be greater if he published a direct marriage book (there are millions of them), but he would have a better chance of marketing it because he already has people willing to buy it. Although there are fewer books (in general) published containing marriage sermons specifically, he has not done sermon outlines but instead chosen to publish full sermons, there is no additional material (such as workbooks) to hand out to audiences interested in this topic and make it worth the investment, and to the best of my knowledge, he does not have ministers asking him for a book on this topic.
In this case, the minister has recognized there is a need for his book. (It fills a niche.) However, he has not properly identified the target audience and the result is that he is not filling that niche with his book any longer.
When you have identified a niche, it is important you fill that niche. Many times authors write what they know instead of finding someone to help them write what they need to write. In this case, not getting advice will hurt this minister's sales.
In fiction, this becomes tricky-there are millions of Romeo and Juliet stories, why is yours unique? It uses vampires? Sorry, that's been done. You want to tell it from the nurses point of view? Yep, done. The question is "Can you do it better?"
In non-fiction, it is imperative that you not only do it better, but it also has to have some uniqueness to it. If you are publishing a book of sermons about marriage (which is not the real topic of the book on which I am working, but that is the topic I am going to use for this blog post), you are one of hundreds of other books on marriage that is available. Couple that with other things this author wants (publishing a series of sermons on the same topic makes it impossible for ministers to use one in a pinch, publishing a full sermon instead of an outline makes it difficult for a minister to adapt it to his congregation's needs, etc.) and again, he is hurting his ability to sell his book.
Marketing, in my opinion, is by far the most difficult part of being an author. If you think otherwise, I really suggest you consider a career in marketing instead of writing. (Marketers still get to write, by the way, they just do it to help sell something.) You need to make sure your book is marketable before you put it in print by not only making sure there is an audience for it, but also by making sure your book will fill a need of the audience.
In this ministers case, he has an audience that is already asking him for a book. People who have listened to his sermons have come up to him and told him they wish they could get their friends to hear the sermon but the friend was turned off to that because of other churches that approached the subject poorly. From these statements, the minister is trying to get his sermons to other ministers so they won't turn people off to religion. The problem is that if he published a book that directly spoke to the people, it would be easier for the friend to pass it along than it would be for them to bring the resistant person to church to hear any minister give a sermon.
The minister clearly saw a need and identified a niche, but his book is not targeting that niche. The niche is providing unchurched people with a guide to a healthy marriage based on Biblical principles. In order to reach that niche, he should publish a book directly for the target audience in that niche. Instead, he is publishing a book in that niche but has misidentified the target audience for that niche.The competition would, of course, be greater if he published a direct marriage book (there are millions of them), but he would have a better chance of marketing it because he already has people willing to buy it. Although there are fewer books (in general) published containing marriage sermons specifically, he has not done sermon outlines but instead chosen to publish full sermons, there is no additional material (such as workbooks) to hand out to audiences interested in this topic and make it worth the investment, and to the best of my knowledge, he does not have ministers asking him for a book on this topic.
In this case, the minister has recognized there is a need for his book. (It fills a niche.) However, he has not properly identified the target audience and the result is that he is not filling that niche with his book any longer.
When you have identified a niche, it is important you fill that niche. Many times authors write what they know instead of finding someone to help them write what they need to write. In this case, not getting advice will hurt this minister's sales.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Target Audience: Why are you publishing a book?
Many people want to publish their own book. In the old days, few were selected. You had to petition a potential publisher after much research into which publishing house was the best fit. You had to craft an enticing letter to convince said publisher to read even a small portion of what you had written. And it helped if you knew someone. After several rejections, if you still were adamant about publishing, you could go to a vanity press and pay them to publish your book. If you took the second route, you would only have a stack of books in your closet to show for it. Marketing is the sole reason to target a traditional publisher, and it is a very good reason. However, marketing is expensive and so traditional publishing companies are necessarily selective.
Today, you can simply go on Amazon and upload anything and call it a book. You can even give digital versions away for free and claim that you wrote a best seller because of all the free downloads. The problem is that if I buy a tiara and scepter and call myself a queen, that doesn't make me one.
There are many things to consider before you publish a book. Here I want to focus on your target audience. {Please note, the details in the following example have been altered to prevent anyone from identifying a specific individual}. One job I had involved a minister (as a Christian, I prefer writing for other Christians). This man wanted his sermon series published as a book. I eagerly approached the subject, converting each sermon into a readable chapter. Unfortunately, this man was a minister and not a writer.
Each sermon had an opening and closing prayer. I had deleted this because they didn't really work at the beginning and end of all 30 chapters. You would read the prayer at the end of the first chapter and then move on to the prayer at the beginning of the next chapter. In many cases, the opening prayers were almost identical. Instead, I placed one prayer in the prologue, and the end of each chapter had reflection questions that reflected what he was saying in his closing prayer.
In some cases, the minister wandered off topic during his sermons. He even talked about things he would later mention in detail in another sermon. Needless to say, I deleted these or moved them to the correct chapter. There was also a lot of repetition that I deleted. There is nothing wrong with these things in a sermon, but for a book, all of this was bogging it down and making it boring to read.
When I presented him with my first chapter he rejected it. He didn't want me to turn his sermons into a book; he wanted me to put his sermons in a book.
Here is where target audience is important. It was my opinion that the minister was targeting the audience that would be listening to his sermons: average lay church goers who might want to take time and ponder what he had told them on Sunday morning. This type of book would appeal to a wide range of people and therefore have the biggest audience.
However, if he just wanted his sermons in book form, he immediately limited his audience. The primary audience would be one person- himself. Now, some of you may protest--what about other ministers who might want to use his sermons? The problems are as follows:
(1) This is a huge sermon series. No one wants to cart around a 750 some page book to preach a sermon from. In fact, I don't think any minister would want someone to know he was using another person's sermon.
(2) Most sermon books are outlines. This allows your target audience to be from most denominations. His sermons were basically transcripts of his sermons. That means they were very specific and would need to be changed if they were to appeal to ministers outside of his denomination.
(3) Sermon books come with random sermons. This is so if the minister is in a pinch- say he had to perform a funeral for a person he was close to and just couldn't focus on creating something original that week- all he has to do is use a sermon outline from a book to preach. This, however, was a sermon series. That means that no one could simply take a sermon out of the book and preach it without preaching the entire series.
When you write a book, you want it to appeal to the largest market available. My husband and I self-published my magnum opus. It is a literary tome similar to the Lord of the Rings and is in need of us to finish the next books that complete the series. It is huge. It uses ancient languages. It is based in a pre-flood steampunk world. Few will ever buy it especially since we don't have a good marketing department behind us. But it was worth publishing because I feel it has exceptional literary value and if some time in the future my other books ever become popular, that is the one that I will always hold as my greatest. Art for art's sake, if you will.
Should everyone choose to do this? No. Everyone can write something, but not everyone is an author. My book has a very small audience-and that audience could potentially grow if my other books do well. In many cases, people do just want to publish the book for themselves. These should not be offered on a public market for free because they simply bog down the market for the few good authors who have not yet been discovered or who, like me, choose not to go through the traditional publishing route.
Think about your audience. Think about who you want to reach. Then write for them. In this case, my opinion is that the minister should choose the church audience. However, I have a feeling he will choose the smallest audience (other ministers) and then attempt to get his Church audience to buy it. This is probably the worst thing he could do sales-wise. Why? Because he will waste all his time marketing to an audience that isn't interested in a book of sermons.
Today, you can simply go on Amazon and upload anything and call it a book. You can even give digital versions away for free and claim that you wrote a best seller because of all the free downloads. The problem is that if I buy a tiara and scepter and call myself a queen, that doesn't make me one.
There are many things to consider before you publish a book. Here I want to focus on your target audience. {Please note, the details in the following example have been altered to prevent anyone from identifying a specific individual}. One job I had involved a minister (as a Christian, I prefer writing for other Christians). This man wanted his sermon series published as a book. I eagerly approached the subject, converting each sermon into a readable chapter. Unfortunately, this man was a minister and not a writer.
Each sermon had an opening and closing prayer. I had deleted this because they didn't really work at the beginning and end of all 30 chapters. You would read the prayer at the end of the first chapter and then move on to the prayer at the beginning of the next chapter. In many cases, the opening prayers were almost identical. Instead, I placed one prayer in the prologue, and the end of each chapter had reflection questions that reflected what he was saying in his closing prayer.
In some cases, the minister wandered off topic during his sermons. He even talked about things he would later mention in detail in another sermon. Needless to say, I deleted these or moved them to the correct chapter. There was also a lot of repetition that I deleted. There is nothing wrong with these things in a sermon, but for a book, all of this was bogging it down and making it boring to read.
When I presented him with my first chapter he rejected it. He didn't want me to turn his sermons into a book; he wanted me to put his sermons in a book.
Here is where target audience is important. It was my opinion that the minister was targeting the audience that would be listening to his sermons: average lay church goers who might want to take time and ponder what he had told them on Sunday morning. This type of book would appeal to a wide range of people and therefore have the biggest audience.
However, if he just wanted his sermons in book form, he immediately limited his audience. The primary audience would be one person- himself. Now, some of you may protest--what about other ministers who might want to use his sermons? The problems are as follows:
(1) This is a huge sermon series. No one wants to cart around a 750 some page book to preach a sermon from. In fact, I don't think any minister would want someone to know he was using another person's sermon.
(2) Most sermon books are outlines. This allows your target audience to be from most denominations. His sermons were basically transcripts of his sermons. That means they were very specific and would need to be changed if they were to appeal to ministers outside of his denomination.
(3) Sermon books come with random sermons. This is so if the minister is in a pinch- say he had to perform a funeral for a person he was close to and just couldn't focus on creating something original that week- all he has to do is use a sermon outline from a book to preach. This, however, was a sermon series. That means that no one could simply take a sermon out of the book and preach it without preaching the entire series.
When you write a book, you want it to appeal to the largest market available. My husband and I self-published my magnum opus. It is a literary tome similar to the Lord of the Rings and is in need of us to finish the next books that complete the series. It is huge. It uses ancient languages. It is based in a pre-flood steampunk world. Few will ever buy it especially since we don't have a good marketing department behind us. But it was worth publishing because I feel it has exceptional literary value and if some time in the future my other books ever become popular, that is the one that I will always hold as my greatest. Art for art's sake, if you will.
Should everyone choose to do this? No. Everyone can write something, but not everyone is an author. My book has a very small audience-and that audience could potentially grow if my other books do well. In many cases, people do just want to publish the book for themselves. These should not be offered on a public market for free because they simply bog down the market for the few good authors who have not yet been discovered or who, like me, choose not to go through the traditional publishing route.
Think about your audience. Think about who you want to reach. Then write for them. In this case, my opinion is that the minister should choose the church audience. However, I have a feeling he will choose the smallest audience (other ministers) and then attempt to get his Church audience to buy it. This is probably the worst thing he could do sales-wise. Why? Because he will waste all his time marketing to an audience that isn't interested in a book of sermons.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
How Greed Ruined Harper Lee's Legacy
I have always loved Harper Lee. Many claim To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Truman Capote, but after reading it and In Cold Blood (and Breakfast at Tiffany's) I claim In Cold Blood was ghost written by Harper Lee. Capote had no legal background. Lee's father was a lawyer who defended cases similar to the one presented in To Kill a Mockingbird (and In Cold Blood). Lee vowed to never write another book again--in part because of the snub and insinuations she had not written her own book. Capote promised another novel that was even better than the previous one, but never produced anything but drivel. Why would Lee need to go with Capote when he was interviewing the criminals for In Cold Blood if she was not involved in writing the book? Truman was a jealous person as reflected in the biographies of him. He admittedly wanted to be in the spotlight. Alice (Lee's sister) stated he started the rumor, and I have no doubt he did. He probably thought by bringing Lee to write for him that he would get an award for writing a semi-true crime account (I have no doubt that idea was his). Instead, his book was interesting but not revolutionary enough to get him a prize.
Fast forward to 2007-- Harper Lee had a stroke and was moved in to a retirement facility. Her sister who was approaching 100 began having trouble being the gatekeeper any longer. In 2011, Alice Lee stopped practicing law and her only partner got unlimited control of Harper Lee. Tonja Carter, who had earlier allowed Harper Lee to confirm signing over her rights to Pinkus (a seedy, fly-by-night literary agent), suddenly decided the deal was not in Harper Lee's best interest and initiated a suit against Pinkus with one of the top literary lawyers in the country. Ironically, 2011 was the first time Tonja could have possibly come across Go Set a Watchman (the rough draft of to Kill a Mockingbird). However, at the trial in 2011, Harper Lee was basically declared incompetent of signing anything. This did not stop her new lawyer, Carter, from starting to give her a slew of papers to sign.
My theory is that Tonja had no problems with Pinkus holding the rights to To Kill a Mockingbird, until she found Go Set a Watchman. Upon the retirement of Alice from the law firm, Carter was now the sole lawyer in a firm who had one primary client, who was older and infirm. I am sure it did not take Carter long to figure out that she needed to secure a more stable income. Being a rough draft, if Carter published Go Set a Watchman it would be too close to To Kill a Mockingbird to qualify for its own copyright. Therefore, in order to publish the "new" novel, she had to get those rights back.
The trial deemed that Harper Lee was too infirm to make her own decisions in 2011 when she initially signed the agreement with Pinkus. How could she then be competent to make any decisions afterward?
Immediately after the court case, Lee started allowing things that she had never before allowed--her book is made digital, despite constantly stating she would never write again, she writes another book and wants to publish it! The problem is that it was Carter people were talking with--not Harper Lee. However, Carter made Lee more inaccessible than Alice did. No one was allowed to interview her and even friends were turned away. The state of Alabama was called in to investigate if Lee's rights were being abused. The problem is that the state of Alabama was not a uninterested party. If To Kill a Mockingbird brought tourism to their humble state, imagine what a sequel would do!
The state determined that Ms. Lee was aware her book Go Set a Watchman was going to be published and had agreed to it. The problem is that the publisher and Carter were promoting Go Set a Watchman as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird and not as the rough draft. And that was not how Harper Lee would have seen it. Of course Harper Lee agreed that To Kill a Mockingbird could be published!!! It already was. She probably couldn't figure out why people were making such a fuss. In her mind, Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird were one and the same--as a rough draft and final book would be in any author's mind. Add to this her infirmities, and I have no doubt she was not aware of the full extent of what HarperCollins and Carter schemed behind her back.
While I can forgive Carter for allowing the book to be published (if she was truly ignorant enough to think it was a sequel), I cannot forgive HarperCollins for promoting it as a sequel. They should have known it was the rough draft. I also cannot forgive Carter for creating a "foundation," naming herself one of two trustees of that foundation and then having Lee sign a will 8 days before her death (keeping in mind she had been declared infirm years earlier) that gives all her assets to that foundation. If Carter wanted to validate the will, it seems she would have had someone who was a long-time friend of Lee be the witness instead of a nursing home employee.
This sad story shows that no matter what you do during your lifetime as an author, someone will always be there to try to take advantage of you and steal your copyrights upon your death. Look at "Happy Birthday to You" or "Kookaburra." The copyright law is a good thing, but in many cases it harms authors. What happens to your work after you die should be your decision and not the decision of people around you when you are infirm. Personally, I want my children and descendants to benefit from any copyrights held at my death or I want my work to enter public domain if I have no descendants to benefit. Authors need to have both the right to their work and the right to push their work into public domain early if they desire, but publishing corporations hate that.
Fast forward to 2007-- Harper Lee had a stroke and was moved in to a retirement facility. Her sister who was approaching 100 began having trouble being the gatekeeper any longer. In 2011, Alice Lee stopped practicing law and her only partner got unlimited control of Harper Lee. Tonja Carter, who had earlier allowed Harper Lee to confirm signing over her rights to Pinkus (a seedy, fly-by-night literary agent), suddenly decided the deal was not in Harper Lee's best interest and initiated a suit against Pinkus with one of the top literary lawyers in the country. Ironically, 2011 was the first time Tonja could have possibly come across Go Set a Watchman (the rough draft of to Kill a Mockingbird). However, at the trial in 2011, Harper Lee was basically declared incompetent of signing anything. This did not stop her new lawyer, Carter, from starting to give her a slew of papers to sign.
My theory is that Tonja had no problems with Pinkus holding the rights to To Kill a Mockingbird, until she found Go Set a Watchman. Upon the retirement of Alice from the law firm, Carter was now the sole lawyer in a firm who had one primary client, who was older and infirm. I am sure it did not take Carter long to figure out that she needed to secure a more stable income. Being a rough draft, if Carter published Go Set a Watchman it would be too close to To Kill a Mockingbird to qualify for its own copyright. Therefore, in order to publish the "new" novel, she had to get those rights back.
The trial deemed that Harper Lee was too infirm to make her own decisions in 2011 when she initially signed the agreement with Pinkus. How could she then be competent to make any decisions afterward?
Immediately after the court case, Lee started allowing things that she had never before allowed--her book is made digital, despite constantly stating she would never write again, she writes another book and wants to publish it! The problem is that it was Carter people were talking with--not Harper Lee. However, Carter made Lee more inaccessible than Alice did. No one was allowed to interview her and even friends were turned away. The state of Alabama was called in to investigate if Lee's rights were being abused. The problem is that the state of Alabama was not a uninterested party. If To Kill a Mockingbird brought tourism to their humble state, imagine what a sequel would do!
The state determined that Ms. Lee was aware her book Go Set a Watchman was going to be published and had agreed to it. The problem is that the publisher and Carter were promoting Go Set a Watchman as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird and not as the rough draft. And that was not how Harper Lee would have seen it. Of course Harper Lee agreed that To Kill a Mockingbird could be published!!! It already was. She probably couldn't figure out why people were making such a fuss. In her mind, Go Set a Watchman and To Kill a Mockingbird were one and the same--as a rough draft and final book would be in any author's mind. Add to this her infirmities, and I have no doubt she was not aware of the full extent of what HarperCollins and Carter schemed behind her back.
While I can forgive Carter for allowing the book to be published (if she was truly ignorant enough to think it was a sequel), I cannot forgive HarperCollins for promoting it as a sequel. They should have known it was the rough draft. I also cannot forgive Carter for creating a "foundation," naming herself one of two trustees of that foundation and then having Lee sign a will 8 days before her death (keeping in mind she had been declared infirm years earlier) that gives all her assets to that foundation. If Carter wanted to validate the will, it seems she would have had someone who was a long-time friend of Lee be the witness instead of a nursing home employee.
This sad story shows that no matter what you do during your lifetime as an author, someone will always be there to try to take advantage of you and steal your copyrights upon your death. Look at "Happy Birthday to You" or "Kookaburra." The copyright law is a good thing, but in many cases it harms authors. What happens to your work after you die should be your decision and not the decision of people around you when you are infirm. Personally, I want my children and descendants to benefit from any copyrights held at my death or I want my work to enter public domain if I have no descendants to benefit. Authors need to have both the right to their work and the right to push their work into public domain early if they desire, but publishing corporations hate that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)