The Writer Never Pays

Available at Book View Cafe and Amazon.

Do NOT pay anybody calling themselves 'publishers' to publish your work.

Do NOT pay anybody calling themselves agents to represent you.

Got that?

Yet another cautionary tale here.

This was a woman who seemed to be legitimate, who seemed to be the Real Thing.

You know when she stopped being real? The moment she asked writers to pay expenses. Read the article. Understand it.

You may decide to pay an editor to help you get your book ready to submit or publish. If so, do due diligence and research them.  You may pay someone to create a cover if you self-publish.

Those are different issues.

Do NOT deal with any 'publisher' or 'agent' who asks you for up-front money. Not if it's $25 or $10,000.

Period.

Wait, you say. Only $25... that isn't a big deal. If somebody is going to represent me and sell my book, I wouldn't mind paying that every month or every quarter.

Here is the problem with that. An agent who has to ask his or her authors to cover his expenses while he operates a business is not a successful agent. That agent is supposed to be able to cover expenses out of profits. That's operating a business. And REAL agents don't ask their authors to front money to them to cover expenses.

You know who does that? People who prey on other people's dreams.

Scum-suckers who realize that by asking for a little bit of money, they can make a lot. Because if you're paying $25 a quarter to an agency to cover the expenses of getting your career launched until you actually, you know, sell something and have a career? You can bet a lot of people are. And that somebody is sitting there collecting those fees and making a nice little [or big] bundle off of it.

And they are not legitimate agents because legitimate agents don't operate that way.

Legitimate publishers don't ask you to pay for your own publishing expenses, either.

Never.