Don’t get me wrong: I like Writer’s Digest and Publishers Weekly, and many of the other paid periodicals and free forums aimed at writers. They often have tips I can use, or inspiring stories and interviews. Publishing industry periodicals give those of us outside the NY environment an invaluable glimpse into the industry. When I read them I don’t feel quite as alone in my writing life.
However, there’s a dark side to most of these periodicals, which newer writers often don’t learn about until it’s too late:
The advertisers found in such publications.
Magazines need advertisers to help defray the cost of production and distribution. A periodical aimed at writers is logically going to host advertisers trying to reach those writers. Such services can include commercial and vanity publishers, editors, literary agents, cover designers, self-publishing services, special interest industry group memberships, book packagers, writers’ guilds and groups, writing contests, and workshops and retreats.
Reputable and responsible publishers, editors, literary agents, and other publishing professionals do hang out their shingle and advertise in writers’ magazines and online forums. But they usually have enough work from existing clients, client recommendations, and prospective clients who know how to professionally network and research.
Meanwhile, new and relatively unskilled ‘professionals’ may use such periodicals to find new clients who may be just as ignorant about the market. Predatory agents and publishers, bogus workshop operators, and fake contest scammers often seem to make up a large proportion of other advertising space, and may even be listed in more-professional columnists’ interviews and profiles, or as members of otherwise legitimate industry groups. It’s not necessarily because the publication/group is run by ‘evil’ people. Just busy ones, who may not have time to do anything but take an advertiser’s credentials (and cash) on faith.
So it’s safer to apply ‘Trust, but Verify’ to any advertiser in a writers’ magazine, whether print or digital. (The same goes for books promoted by local interest or regional magazines and newspapers, but that could be a whole new post.)
A chilling example just popped up on my radar today, in the latest digital Publishers Weekly email.
For over a year, the vanity-publisher Author Solutions has been fighting three former clients and a NY law firm, who allege Author Solutions knowingly defrauded these and thousands of other authors by offering bait & switch service packages, substandard editing, no marketing, and the deliberate introduction of published errors to drive up correction costs to authors. A judge already famous in other publishing industry cases ruled last week that the most serious charges are legitimate, and that the case can go forward (though probably not starting until 2015).
In a startlingly-neutral article, Publishers Weekly discusses the case this way: “The complaint recalls self-publishing’s dark past: the days of the Vanity Press…”
Publishing professional and blogger David Gaughran, in the comments section of the article, takes issue with Publishers Weekly’s lack of transparency concerning Author Solutions:
“No, the complaint recalls *publishing’s* dark present. Here are the Author Solutions-operated vanity imprints at several large publishers (who should all be ashamed of themselves):
Archway (for Simon & Schuster), Partridge (for Penguin), Westbow (for Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins), Balboa Press (Hay House), Abbot Press (Writers’ Digest/F+W Media), Dellarte Press (Harlequin).
And let’s not forget that Publishers Weekly sells advertising space to Author Solutions – ads which are then re-sold to customers at eye-watering prices (up to $16,499 a pop!), using the exact same methods outlined in this class action suit.
When is Publisher’s Weekly going to do the right thing and follow The Bookseller’s lead in banning advertisements from Author Solutions?”
Author Solutions and its large competitors are not the only questionable advertisers in publishing industry magazines, but they are easily the most visible. They invest large sums in online and print advertising, appear at local and regional book fairs with professional-looking booths and presenting ‘authors’, and regularly attempt to smear their detractors as ‘unsuccessful authors’ or former clients ‘with a grudge’.
What can a new author do?
Take no appearance of authority for granted. Not mine (I’m just a writer.) Not David’s (So is he.) Just because you see an ad on TV, the internet, or in a writers’ magazine, do not assume that advertiser is automatically legitimate. You’re safer to assume the opposite until you do diligent research that proves otherwise.
How do you research? I have some hard-earned shortcuts at this blog post from last year.
The vast writers’ forum AbsoluteWrite, unable to completely block the ‘free’ topical ads popping up on its page headers, has done a public service by warning readers: A publisher or agency using Google ads to solicit your novel probably isn’t anyone you want to write for.
At least, not until you know a whole lot more about that company.