Simon & Schuster's Vanity Press Launches NaNoWriMo Writing Contest to Exploit More Writers - The Digital Reader

Because Panzer is helping with the baking for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, he made a very short trip into the Catosphere today. Our flour covered kitty made a quick stop at The Digital Reader site. With hardly any digging at all he found a post about Simon and Schuster and National Novel Writing Month.

Listen. This is bad, bad, bad.

According to the post by The Digital Reader site owner Nate Hoffelder, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) participants (like Panzer and me) need to be particularly careful about a contest run by publisher Simon and Schuster. Archway Publishing (Simon and Schuster's vanity publishing subsidiary) is running a contest called Hot Books, Cold Nights Romance Novel Writing Contest for NaNoWriMo Winners. (You're a Winner if you write 50,000 words during the month.) According to The Digital Reader post, if you've never heard of Archway Publishing, they're an expensive high pressure sales pitch publishing company. This post should be required reading for every writer, not just NaNoWriMo participants.

Panzer says, "Why is NaNoWriMo having anything to do with this company?"

Note: This is a medium post. Bring a cup of hot cocoa and a chocolate chip cookie (biscuit) for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Simon and Schuster

Books-a-Million Outsourced Its Self-Pub Unit to an Iffy Services Company - The Digital Reader

Today's trip into the Catosphere took Panzer to The Digital Reader site. There our kitty boy found a post about Books-a-Million's BAM Publishing.

Self-publishing really is complicated.

According to a post by site owner Nate Hoffelder, Books-a-Million's BAM Publishing now contracts it's author services through a vanity publisher. Apparently, this isn't obvious at the BAM Publishing site and takes some sleuthing to find out. Mr. Hoffelder quotes a post at the Indies Unlimited site as reporting that although BAM uses the FastPencil software platform, their other services now go through vanity publisher Infinity Publishing. There's a link included in the post to the original Indies Unlimited post.

Panzer says, "Hmmm ... Maybe they just don't want you to know who they use."

Note: This is a medium post. Bring a cup of tea and a muffin to read today's selection or, if you plan to follow the link to the second selection, bring another cup of tea and muffin.

To read the post, tootle over to Books A Million

David Gaugham on Author Exploitation

Don't mess with me!

 Panzer found an important post at David Gaughran's Let's Get Digital blog he wants you all to read and re-blog.

Gaughran is posting about Author Solutions and the other scummy vanity presses. He paints a picture of their business and financial practices involving would-be writers. He tells how Author Solutions and their brethren are the users of hopeful naive new writers who are trying to make it into the publishing world. He has links to articles and lawsuits to illustrate his points.

Worst of all, these same vanity presses take advantage of writers and hide behind the screen of the traditional publishers that own them. Yes ... you read that right. Traditional publishers have been diving into the mucky end of the pool and snapping up the vanity presses.

Panzer says, if you want to know who owns who ... and who you need to avoid, tootle over to The Author Exploitation Business.