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October 6, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 110 Comments

The Laws of the (Amazon) Jungle—Eight Rules Authors Need to Know to Stay Safe

The Laws of the (Amazon) Jungle—Eight Rules Authors Need to Know to Stay Safe

by Anne R. Allen   Everybody tells authors we must use social media to have successful careers in the E-age, but nobody talks much about the dangers that lurk here. Here’s the thing: the Internet is still the wild frontier. And it’s so huge nobody’s quite sure how to police it.  Big, loosely regulated social […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Self-Publishing, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection Tagged With: Amazon Review Guidelines, Amazon rules, Awesome Screenshot, Bob Mayer, Cyberbullying, Facebook, Goodreads, Google+, How not to spam, How to stay safe online, Kirkus, nasty book reviews, Stephen Marche

September 1, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 33 Comments

Anthologies are Hot: How to Tell a Great Opportunity from a Pay-to-Play Scam

Anthologies are Hot: How to Tell a Great Opportunity from a Pay-to-Play Scam

  by Anne R. Allen   The Oxford dictionary says the word “anthology” comes from a Greek phrase meaning a collection of flowers. I love that image. An anthology is a place to display literary or musical works that have been chosen to work together—like a floral bouquet. I’ve had the privilege of contributing to […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Anthologies, C. Hope Clark, Charity Anthologies, Indiestructible, Jessica Bell, Paul Fahey, Poets and Writers, Publishing scams, Sarah Weinman, Sisters in Crime

July 21, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 59 Comments

Social Media Secrets Book Marketers Don’t Tell You—Part I: How to Avoid Twitter-Fritter and Facebook-Fail

by Anne R. Allen   First: many thanks to Indies Unlimited, which named this blog to its 10 Blogs and Websites Every Indie Should Know. If you’re an indie, or thinking of going indie (self-publishing or small-press), do follow them for great tips and news from a very savvy team of writers. Most writers these days […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: A.J. Sykes, Facebook, How to be Googleable, Indies Unlimited 10 Best Blogs for Indie Authors, Kristen Lamb, Marketing, Porter Anderson, Social Media Marketing, Twitter

May 5, 2013 By Anne R. Allen 64 Comments

Gangs of New Media: Twitchforks, the Hive Mind, and “Social Lasers of Cruelty”

Gangs of New Media: Twitchforks, the Hive Mind, and “Social Lasers of Cruelty”

by Anne R. Allen   I spend a lot of time here telling writers how and why to use social media, but I don’t often address the dangers. Yeah, they exist. I don’t know why, but otherwise sensible people can morph into irrational brutes when they’ve got their fingers on a keyboard and a connection […]

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Filed Under: E-Books and Technology for Writers, Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Writing Life Tagged With: Anne Rice review, Barry Eisler, Cyber-bullying, Groupthink, Hive Mind, Jaron Lanier, Joe Konrath, Kristen Lamb, Nathan Bransford, Porter Anderson, SheWrites, Social Lasers of Cruelty, Twitchforks

October 14, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 27 Comments

Beware the Seven Deadly Writing Scams

We first ran into Lila Moore’s scam-alerts at The Passive Voice. We visited her new watchdog site, PopularSoda.com and were impressed with all her savvy advice. Indie publishing has generated lots of new money-wasters and scams. Popular Soda adds an indie-focused viewpoint to other author-advocate voices like Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, the following tips can […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Alexa Ratings, Author scams, Duolit, First Rights, Lila Moore, paid reviews, PopularSoda.com, Preditors and Editors, RG2E, Social Media, The Passive Voice, Writer Beware, Writing scams

March 18, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 56 Comments

When Should an Author Hire an Editor?

When Should an Author Hire an Editor?

by Anne R. Allen     First: This week marks the anniversary of that fateful day three years ago when I started this blog…and then promptly lost it. But luckily I found it a few months later, and this blog now gets an average of 12,000 hits a month on its four monthly posts and […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business, Writing Craft Tagged With: book doctors, book editing, Edit Ink scam, Freelance book editors, how much should you pay a book editor, Kristin Lamb, Natalie Whipple, proofreading, slow blogging

June 19, 2011 By Anne R. Allen 34 Comments

E-Book as Query Part 2: 10 Tips for Spotting Bogus and Predatory Agents.

E-Book as Query Part 2: 10 Tips for Spotting Bogus and Predatory Agents.

by Anne R. Allen As I reported last month, the self-published e-book is fast becoming the query of choice for many New York literary agencies. Rather than slog through mountains of slush, agents are closing their offices to queries and shopping for new clients in the Kindle bestseller lists. Why not? That’s where they’ll find unrepresented […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Business Tagged With: agent scam, Anne R. Allen, bogus agents, indie authors, Kindle authors, query, Query Tracker, Ruth Harris, self-published e-book, Writer Beware

April 10, 2011 By Anne R. Allen 47 Comments

What if Somebody Steals Your Plot?

What if Somebody Steals Your Plot?

by Anne R. Allen   I often hear from new writers who are afraid their plots will be stolen if they talk about their books online or in critique groups. But I tell them to rest easy. Writers have a lot to be wary of these days—faux agents, bogus publishers, e-book pirates, content mills, James Frey—but […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business, Writing Craft Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Homer, Kathleen Duey, Kindle Nation, memes, no new stories, Quotes4Writers, Richard Dawkins, steal your plot, Victoria Strauss, Virgil

February 13, 2011 By Anne R. Allen 25 Comments

Do You Know How to Spot a Bogus Literary Agency? 8 Red Flags to Watch For

Do You Know How to Spot a Bogus Literary Agency? 8 Red Flags to Watch For

by Anne R. Allen I’m working on a couple of new projects—watch this space for exciting developments—so I’m running a New! Improved! version of an oldie-but-goodie. The original post garnered a visit and an approving nod from agent Janet Reid—the Query Shark herownself. ****** I belong to the generation of women who were told we […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Absolute Write, AgentQueryConnect, bogus agents, Janet Reid, Jenna Glatzer, newbie advice, Preditors and Editors, Query Shark, Query Tracker, scams, The Street-Smart Writer, Writer Beware

January 21, 2010 By Anne R. Allen 10 Comments

OMG I’M A GUEST BLOGGER ON NATHAN BRANSFORD’S BLOG!

OMG I’M A GUEST BLOGGER ON NATHAN BRANSFORD’S BLOG!

by Anne R. Allen   This has been hard to keep under my cyberhat all week, but Nathan asked that winners keep the info off the internets until the big day. Which is TODAY. So here it is: I’m one of the three winners of Nathan’s guest blogger contest. You can read my post on […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: agent blogs, Anne R. Allen, Nathan Bransford, scams, Trafalmadore

July 11, 2009 By Anne R. Allen 20 Comments

Beware Bogus Literary Agents

Six Tips to Avoid Getting Scammed by Anne R. Allen   I belong to the generation of women who were told we were more likely be shot by terrorists than find husbands. Several decades later, we’re all writing books about our fabulous single lives—as desperate now for literary representation as we once were for the […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers Tagged With: advice for writers

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writers digest 101 best websites for writers award

Anne R. AllenAnne R. Allen writes funny mysteries and how-to-books for writers. She also writes poetry and short stories on occasion. She’s a contributor to Writer’s Digest and the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market.

Her bestselling Camilla Randall Mystery Series features perennially down-on-her-luck former socialite Camilla Randall—who is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong, but always solves the mystery in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.

Ruth Harris NYT best selling authorRuth is a million-copy New York Times bestselling author, Romantic Times award winner, former Big 5 editor, publisher, and news junkie.

Her emotional, entertaining women’s fiction and critically praised novels have sold millions of copies in hard cover, paperback and ebook editions, been translated into 19 languages, sold in 30 countries, and were prominent selections of leading book clubs including the Literary Guild and the Book Of The Month Club.

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