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victoriastrauss

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He also accused critics of feeling threatened. Where have we heard that response before?

For anyone who's wondering about the vanity publisher mentioned in the "Insights" portion of the article--it's Melrose Books. I recognize the pitch.

- Victoria
 

Old Hack

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Interesting article in The Times today about vanity publishers, which includes a reference to the debacle with Brit Writers, their competition and the fact that they're now offering publishing services. Interestingly the only publishers identified as being involved with them are Legend Press (who long term readers may remember from their association with YWO) and Infinite Ideas (who published the first competition winner).

If anyone doesn't know about YouWriteOn, I suggest they search my blog for that tag and prepare themselves for a long catching-up session.

I note that Infinite Ideas has said that it will not be publishing Brit Writers winners this year.
 

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For purposes of posterity, I've gotten ahold of one of the mass-emails Brit Writers sends around.

Pasted below, in its entirety:
Dear Writer,


All authors know how difficult it is to get their work noticed and taken seriously. To have an internet and media presence is becoming increasingly important and necessary. Even the best written and most exciting works need a concerted publicity, marketing and placement campaign. Every writer knows their work’s unique selling points and most interesting characteristics.

What kind of book do you have, and given complete freedom how would you promote and position it within the market place? How would you ensure that you and your product, as a package, reaches its greatest potential and widest target audience? What is the most important aspect of your writing? What if you were able to speak to your readers directly?


Do you believe your writing and story are powerful enough to create a new international publishing sensation?


Writers can maximise internet and media exposure for themselves and their book, thereby creating an internet presence and profile. This will enable them to be heard by their readers and directly speak to industry experts, writers, agents and publishers. To this end, Brit Writers is offering a new package which is multi dimensional with a unique approach that you can utilise to maximise your potential. This will give you a platform and a launch pad to enable you to create, maintain and increase not only your internet presence but also your profile within the publishing industry.

The Platform


1) 1 of 20 writers, in their genre, will be promoted in the new author section of the BWA website for 12 months. Therefore your work will be promoted within your particular genre rather than being lost in the sea of chaos that currently exists on the internet and in the world of publishing.

2) There will be a link to your website, if you have one, or directly back to your email for any interested parties. This will include SEO (Site Engine Optimisation) such as meta tags etc.

3) Your work will be promoted regularly at least once a month through Brit Writers extensive networks.

4) A short biography, blurb and interview will also appear on the Brit Writers new author section. This may include sample chapters should you wish it.

5) At regular intervals your work will also exclusively appear on the Brit Writers home page. Your work with its title, author and blurb is highlighted and promoted for 1 hour in every 100 hours on a rotating basis. This will continue for the duration of the whole year.

6) Your work will have a hugely increased chance of being seen by your readers, picked up by an agent or by a potential publisher. All of these groups are already regularly visiting our website.

Pre-Publication Interest Form


a) Your work will be available for potential readers to express an interest in purchasing your book if and when it is published. There will be a facility on your section for people to complete a pre-publication interest form. In the case that you achieve 2000 completed forms, Brit Writers will help you to get published. In this eventuality, a new agreement will be made to form a new contract between you and BW. This will be the case where Brit Writers arranges publication for you. However, if you were to deal directly with a third party then whatever contractual arrangements you make with them is your decision and between you and the third party.

b) You will be given an opportunity to participate, at an appropriate level, in a writers’ workshop or event at least once in the year.

c) You will also receive a free ticket to the 2012 BWA Gala Awards Evening.

Please click here to download the form.

Overall Impact


Brit Writers will ensure that you receive at least one face-to-face meeting with an agent or publisher within the year. This will last approximately 30 minutes, facilitating you as the writer and best advocate of your work to get a fair and complete chance to pitch your writing to industry professionals.


All of the above in combination will result in potential media coverage at a local, national and international level. This will create and raise your profile as a writer through potential interviews and exposure in the media. Therefore, if utilised correctly, in combination with your best efforts this may result in much greater awareness of you as a writer and your work in the world of publishing, so that you may achieve your aims.

Criteria


1) You must have a manuscript; this may be fiction, non-fiction or poetry, in Word format.

2) You must be able to provide a blurb about your writing and give an interview and picture of yourself.

3) You must be able to make yourself reasonably available in order to accommodate with the timetable of workshops, agents and publishers.


The cost of this complete package for one year is £995. This is payable in full and will be provided only on a first come first served basis. Please note there is limited availability.

Terms and Conditions


1) Must be over 18 or must have a signed permission of authorisation from a parent or guardian.

2) This package is available to all writers except those who are already participating in the Brit Writers Publishing Programme.

3) The work must be original and your own.

4) You must represent yourself truthfully at all times.

5) Any subsequent arrangements made between you and a third party are your responsibility alone and Brit Writers will take no percentage of your income from those agreements. However, Brit Writers will also not accept any responsibility for any adverse outcomes that may occur as a result of your agreements or dealings with any third parties.

6) This package is precise and clear in what it offers and we believe it to be an extremely good deal for writers who choose to make use of this opportunity. Therefore no complaints will be entertained unless there is a material breach i.e. Brit Writers fails to deliver on any of the above. The term of this package will run between 1/1/12 to 31/12/12.

7) All payments are non-negotiable and non-refundable.

8) Brit Writers reserves the right to refuse any applications and all decisions made by Brit Writers within the above given parameters are final.

9) Although this package is open to writers from across the world, Brit Writers would like to reiterate that it is strictly available on a first come first served basis.

10) Completed application form and payment is to be made in full and will be processed on a first come first served basis.


Regards


Brit Writers

Brit Writers DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this e-mail along with any attachments are confidential.

It is intended for the named individual(s) or entity who is/are the only authorised recipient(s).

This e-mail should not be reproduced, disseminated, disclosed , modified or distributed unless expressly authorised by the sender.

If this message has reached you in error please notify the sender immediately and delete it without review.

Email send using Prolific Emailer
Forward this email to a friend. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe Instantly.

I'd like to note, for the record? "Forward this email to a friend" is express permission to share the contents -- in direct contradiction of the amateurish attempt to claim confidentiality (an attempt to assert control over the contents of someone else's inbox that's already been tossed out of both UK and US courts).
 
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Momento Mori

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Brit Writers Spam: (BOLDING MINE)
This package is precise and clear in what it offers and we believe it to be an extremely good deal for writers who choose to make use of this opportunity. Therefore no complaints will be entertained unless there is a material breach i.e. Brit Writers fails to deliver on any of the above. The term of this package will run between 1/1/12 to 31/12/12.

Except for the fact that it doesn't talk about which agents or publishers might view/agree to meet with you and only lead to unspecified "potential media coverage" which could be anything or nothing (and I know which I think it will be).

Don't be fooled like this - anyone paying for it is paying for services by a company that have at best a vague benefit.

You can promote a book anywhere on the net or establish an internet presence for free - look at Twitter or FB as obvious examples, or start a journal on Wordpress, LJ or a host of other providers. Hell, you can do it free by adding a signature with a link. But internet present alone will not get you a book deal if you don't have a publishable manuscript - even those bloggers who got book deals had to adapt their blogs.

Paying almost a grand for the privilege of being promoted on BW's site - a site that doesn't identify the agents or publishers it says it works with - is of dubious benefit. You can do writers workshops for free around the UK - look for a local writers group. If you want to pay for a course, then Arvon does residential courses for about 600 quid, full board with professional identified tutors (and there are bursaries available for students or those on low income to reduce the cost). Agents can be contacted by researching your genre and seeing if there are professional/other writing groups - e.g. SCBWI has an agent's party every year which will cost you about a tenner or it invites publishers/agents to speak to it (again, the cost is about a tenner).

MacAllister:
"Forward this email to a friend" is express permission to share the contents -- in direct contradiction of the amateurish attempt to claim confidentiality (an attempt to assert control over the contents of someone else's inbox that's already been tossed out of both UK and US courts).

Yup - the invitation to forward to a friend would arguably be construed in English law as a contradiction to the assertion of confidentiality and if these are mass emails then I think a judge would have a very good chuckle about any attempt to assert confidentiality given that the contents have been sent to many, many people. Also, if these emails have been sent unsolicited, then there's also a potential argument that they run counter to anti-spam law in the UK as well so I'd be interested to know where BW got the email addresses.

MM
 

Terie

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This e-mail should not be reproduced, disseminated, disclosed , modified or distributed unless expressly authorised by the sender.

(snip)

Email send using Prolific Emailer
Forward this email to a friend. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe Instantly.

:ROFL:

Honestly. Do they think that 'Forward this email to a friend' doesn't constitute express authorisation to reproduce, disseminate, disclose, or distribute by the sender?
 

Old Hack

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a) Your work will be available for potential readers to express an interest in purchasing your book if and when it is published. There will be a facility on your section for people to complete a pre-publication interest form. In the case that you achieve 2000 completed forms, Brit Writers will help you to get published. In this eventuality, a new agreement will be made to form a new contract between you and BW. This will be the case where Brit Writers arranges publication for you.

My bold.

"Brit Writers will help you to get published"? Am I the only person who thinks this sounds as though Brit Writers might be planning to start up a publishing venture?
 

ckingwriter

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Yes, It does sound rather like that doesn't it, OH.

We shouldn't be surprised. They've clearly spotted a big pool of people willing to hand over fat wodges of cash in return for rhetoric and vanity publishing.

Not surprised, but still disgusted. :Shrug:

Meanwhile over on their facebook page they say:

"Bestsellers don't make themselves such as Harry Potter & Dan Brown."


Putting aside the grammar, as usual, I have to agree. Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster had a major hand in making those books and that author bestsellers. Funny they cannot find other authors and books to quote that are more in keeping with their own publishing scope.
 

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When people submitted their work to Brit Writers' now-infamous Agents Division email which you and I each blogged about, the response they received from Brit Writers included this little gem:

Please do not have it edited at this stage, as this is not required. If you would like us to arrange this for you, please let me know immediately.

A good publisher makes such a difference to how well a book does: but it's important to remember that without good writing and good revising, a book won't get published in the first place.

A good trade publisher will publish a book at no cost to the author: which is why I find this snippet from that same Facebook post that you quoted, Claire, to be worrying:

With the right PR, marketing and publicity as well as time and effort from the writers and, yes, unfortunately money also, only then will a few of you have a remote chance of turning your novel into a bestseller.

Writers: don't spend your money on marketing your book before you've even got a publisher or agent. It's just not required, and it's very unlikely to be money well-spent. If you want to hire a publicist once your book is published that's another matter, but I'd still proceed with caution. A marketing campaign is not going to get you a publisher: a well-written book and a clear submission package might.
 

frimble3

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My bold.

"Brit Writers will help you to get published"? Am I the only person who thinks this sounds as though Brit Writers might be planning to start up a publishing venture?
Not just a publishing venture, but the kind of publishing venture that only publishes after you have signed up 2000 people willing to, at least theoretically, buy the book.
Friends and family plan, much?
 

Richard White

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My bold.

"Brit Writers will help you to get published"? Am I the only person who thinks this sounds as though Brit Writers might be planning to start up a publishing venture?

Shades of the old Publish America mailing lists, eh? Yeah, it sounds like Brit Writers is morphing into an agency that will publish books too. Wow, sort of a mad love child between Bouncing Bobby and Publish America.

*goes for the brain bleach immediately*

Strange, when my novel was published, I didn't have to pay a cent. In fact, the publisher paid me and handled all the distribution of the book at their own expense. The fact that I went to conventions and signings and was able to meet people was absolute gravy.

Sure, I paid for some of my expenses (travel/hotel), the conventions picked up part of them (free admission and table) and the publisher gave me free books to distribute/sell at the show. But, I was going to be going anyway to these conventions, and I was able to write off those expenses on my taxes (win/win).

Those expenses fell under "promotion" . . . not "production". That is the publisher's expense, not the writers.

Any publisher/agent/promoter or whatever the heck that starts talking about money on the production side is someone to run screaming into the night away from. They do not have a writer's best interest in mind.
 

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I'll read it with great interest, Victoria.
 

victoriastrauss

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I've seen that solicitation--it's a Kindle formatting and publishing service called New Age Publishers that BWA describes as being run by one of its partners. In addition to the initial fee, you can also pay for things like cover design.

KDP is free, so obviously you don't need to hire someone to do it for you--but there are people who aren't computer savvy or just don't want to DIY, so such services aren't uncommon. Not all of them are competent, though. Plus, it seems to me that it's really inappropriate for Brit Writers to promote a fee-based service from one of its partners.

The person to whom New Age Publishing's URL is registered is a lawyer who also runs a parking fine contesting service, and used the KDP program to publish her own book. Beyond any conflict of interest issues, the level of expertise here is definitely a question, IMO.

- Victoria
 

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Brit Writers' latest project:

Today’s Publishing Consultant Training™ – Intensive Course in association with Brit Writers

For tomorrow’s publishing world

They're offering a two-day course which, for a cost of £425, will train people to become "publishing consultants".

They claim that the course will provide "intensive training sessions with experts from the publishing industry" but don't name any of those experts.

But they do suggest that this training will enable people to "Launching yourself into the lucrative publishing consultancy market."

I'm tempted to go along myself. I'd love to know what they're teaching people.
 

victoriastrauss

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I think this is absolutely irresponsible. Other BWA initiatives are directed at writers and their own writing. But this one is supposed to enable people to present themselves as experts and advise others. And it's being specifically targeted to people who know nothing about publishing:
Who should attend the Today’s Publishing Consultant Training™?

  • You do not need any previous training in publishing to attend this course. You do not need a writing, editing or literary background, just a healthy interest in books, publishing and marketing. Please note: this is not a writing/literary course. If you are already a writer, business consultant, teacher or trainer in another industry with transferable skills and fancy something new, this could be a career change, a great way of subsidising your income or simply to gain a deeper insight into the industry.
In what universe can someone who knows nothing about publishing and has no writing background become qualified to provide feedback on others' writing, and advise would-be writers on how to get published, on the basis of a two-day training course--no matter how good the course is? (And in established BWA style, the faculty isn't named, so there's no way of knowing what qualifications they have.)

I just really hardly know what to say about this. It's atrocious.

- Victoria
 

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Muslim Writer's Awards

I have some feedback about the Muslim Writer's Awards, though I know nothing about BWA.


First of all, I'd like to say at face value, the MWA seems like a really great thing. There are no other awards to for Muslim writers. Though the "award" is merely recognition and a small trophy, there is no entry fee. So entering was pretty much a no-brainer. I was actually very surprised to be short-listed because my ms addresses a very "controversial" issue and when I looked at the MWA's partners, they weren't exactly "progressive" type organizations.

So I was really surprised to be shortlisted...and didn't think much about it until I found out that the judging panel was actually pretty prestigious. And mentioning the short list in my queries was getting me a lot of nibbles. I was told at the awards ceremony I would have the opportunity to mingle and network with Big 6 Editors, Agents and fellow writers. I also found out the venue was the Globe Theater. So what the heck, I flew out to London (from another continent!) for the ceremony.

So I arrived at the venue with my +1 and it was gorgeous. I was really excited to meet and talk to people. However, upon arrival no one from MWA greeted me. The 300 or so guests all sort of flooded in and we got badges with our names and reason for attending but the print was so small you'd have to be about 3 inches away from someone's chest to figure out if they were an agent...or a fellow shortlister? A journalist? A +1? So basically, their idea of networking was to randomly walk around a fancy room (carrying a champagne flute of juice) and randomly asking people "Hey, who are you? Why are you here? Oh you're just a +1? Nevermind."

So much for that.

The show was well done. The food was YUM. The bar (of sodas) was a mess and it took 30mins to get a glass of water.

After my category was announced I was able to stalk my judge (the presenter) off the stage and corner him. Tell me about my book! Ok I didn't say that. Pretty much because I wasn't the only one who'd been stalking. See during his speech as he announced the winner (not me) he'd said it was a super tough decision between two novels and it had *almost* been a tie. So someone else from my category was also hot on his tail to find out if that #2 was him, me, who? The judge (an exec from a big 6 house) took one look at our hungry expressions and said "oh whoops look at the time, got to get to the Humanitarian Albanian Awards...There's another one of your judges over there! cheerio!"

So together we stalked other judge and she said #2 was me (hooray!) and she also sort of stammered and tried to remember what any of our books had been about. "Yours was lovely," she assured me. "I liked, uh, the characters." Actually, she remembered a bit more than that. But it was clearly a painful moment for her. I don't think anyone warned her that there was going to be "networking" at the event. But compared to what she had to say to the other stalker dude, I was pretty happy with my feedback from her. She actually wrinkled her nose when he mentioned his title.

Pretty miffed at this point, I went over to my +1 to vent. However, she had been making friends with the person she'd been sharing a bench with. Getting London hookah cafe recommendations. When the hookah lady overheard my vent, she's like, "Oh I know the guy in charge of MWA, he's my bestie. I'll introduce you!" So I met him. He was pretty much what you would expect. He's a marketing guy.

I told him, in as polite a way as I could that their idea of "networking" was a joke. And I also felt it pretty rude to brag that contestants have flown in from around the world to attend and then not even have a single person from MWA greet them when they arrive. He agreed with me. In his way.

He also promised to send along my judging feedback (which was all I really wanted anyway).

True to their word, they sent me the feedback. They also asked me for feedback about the event and I didn't pull any punches. They apologized to me and said they are still learning. And they hope to do better next year. I wish them the best. And I would enter again without reservation. Mostly because I love London. But also because the event was something to be proud of. And if they can improve upon it, it would be just an amazing thing to be a part of.

I emailed big 6 judge with follow-up questions about my judging feedback and he was gracious and very encouraging.

So, it was kind of a weird experience. But all in all, I think the MWA are doing a good thing. And hopefully learning as they grow.
 

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Oh I forgot to say, they also gave me a free copy of Censoring An Iranian Love Story in my goody bag (which won best published novel category) and it was just a great book. For that alone, I forgive them their hot mess awards ceremony.
 

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What is a publishing consultant? From the 'training' offered it seems like it's a mish mash of different publishing roles. It talks about helping writers with submissions to agents and publishers, but it also says something about developing PR and marketing campaigns for authors and positioning and packaging books for their target market?
 

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'Twas only a matter of time before they'd jump the Atlantic. Merging into Brit/Muslim Writers' thread.
 

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