Jules Jones

Nail Gaiman's blog post with the letter from Teresa Nielsen Hayden listing lots of useful links about the writing business and how not to get scammed:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/01/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about.asp

"Follow the Money" -- TNH's analysis of a new model of vanity press scam exploiting POD technology to conceal the sting:
http://www.nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002692.html

In the middle of a discussion about a vanity press, a quick discussion of how bankruptcy law makes those bankruptcy clauses in publishing contracts effectively worthless if you're relying on them to get your rights back:
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002703.html#22227
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002703.html#22244
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002703.html#22253
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002703.html#22280

Scrivener's Error on the differences between commercial publishing, self-publishing and vanity publishing. The second link has a nice little table that shows you how to classify a publisher.
http://scrivenerserror.blogspot.com/2003/07/now-observer-has-gotten-into-whole.html
http://scrivenerserror.blogspot.com/2003/07/continuing-from-wee-hours-of-this.html

And that last one is the one I was looking for when I started collecting links to post in various places today if needed. Because if the books belong to the publisher as they come off the press, and the guaranteed capital outflow on publishing date is away from the author, then it's a vanity press. Doesn't matter what the publisher tries to tell you about only passing on fees from the printer, it's still a vanity operation if they own the books as they come off the press.

As you've probably noticed by now, the meme de jour in the writing-orientated section of the blogosphere is scam literary agent Barbara Bauer's latest attempt to intimidate and silence those who discuss her business ethics or lack thereof. The moral of this story is "do not meddle in the affairs of geeks, for they are unsubtle and will Googlebomb you". Trying to take down a very popular site used by thousands of people who are or who wish to learn to be capable of influencing others by the use of language is a really bad move. When a number of those people are long time netheads who know how to spread the word, and are armour-plated against take-down attempts directed at them in turn, it is suicidal stupidity. There are now hundreds of blogs with links to the Writer Beware list of the twenty worst literary agents, the one on which Barbara Bauer's name is featured. Nice going, Barbara.

To add to this little tale of woe, it would appear that the webhost owner may have had an ulterior motive in caving so quickly to Bauer's threats. She's decided to bring her own writers' forum website back up, one that might find Absolute Write competition. This is, of course, entirely unconnected with her decision to pull Absolute Write on an hour's notice. I'm deliberately not linking at this point, but you can find the gory details in the Making Light coverage.

There's no reason to doubt that Barbara Bauer did threaten her, as Bauer has a track record of making such threats. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, part of Barbara Bauer's response to the initial posting of the writer Beware list of the twenty worst literary agents was to try to get Tor editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden sacked by making a false accusation that tnh had libelled her on a Tor company website. She has also sent threatening communications to at least one other writers' forum in the past, and has harrassed bloggers who posted the list when it made its first appearance. She's going to be kept very busy this time around.

I'm still annoyed. I've never posted on Absolute Write myself, as far as I can recall, but I've lurked there for years and I have found much useful information in the forums. It was, and with any luck will be, a valuable resource for the writing community.

That list in full as posted to Absolute Write is under the cut, just in case you've missed it so far. Besides, we might as well add to the woes of the other nineteen scammers on that list. :->

( 20 worst agents )