Author Email Marketing Rules, Part 1

Today’s post dives into the murky waters of author email marketing–and though it may initially seem a departure from the autumn scam avoidance series, we’re still within that realm. It’s just that today, we’re looking at how authors avoid crossing over to the scammers’ (or, in this case, spammers’) side of the street. In the United States, commercial email communications are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Note: “CAN-SPAM” is an acronym, not a grant of permission, and stands for “Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act.” The CAN-SPAM Act applies to all “commercial email,” which

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Avoiding Subsidy Publishing “Scams”

The autumn scam avoidance series continues today with a look at subsidy publishing. Not all subsidy publishing is a scam–but in today’s publishing world, “vanity press”-style subsidy publishing is a terrible deal for the author. Legitimate self-publishing options have eliminated authors’ need to pay exorbitant fees to see their work in published formats. There’s no longer any need to pay a vanity press unreasonable fees to publish (or market) your work–so don’t do it. Let’s look at some tips for identifying (and avoiding) “vanity presses” and unreasonable subsidy publishing deals. 1. Legitimate presses almost never approach an author directly. Yes, exceptions do exist, but a publisher approaching

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He Wobbles…But He Won’t Fall Down–and We Won’t, Either.

During my keynote at last weekend’s Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold Conference, I told the story of one of my special needs seahorses…little Weeble. He’s now a healthy, happy seahorse, “one of the gang”–and has no idea he’s different from the others in any way. Wherein lies a lesson (actually, many, but only one I’m going to highlight here today): When I discovered my writing herd at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, my dreams of a writing career were lying, curled and broken-tailed, on the bottom of my own proverbial tank. I’d worked and written for over a decade, churning out

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March of the (Kyoto) Penguins

During my recent trip to Japan, I spent a day at the Kyoto aquarium with my son (who was studying in Japan at the time). While there, we had the chance to witness one of the most entertaining zoo-related behaviors I’ve ever seen: the “penguin walk.” I’d heard that some Japanese zoos and aquariums “walk” the penguins to keep them in shape (and also to check for injuries), but never anticipated getting to witness the process for myself. I also had no idea how amusing it would be. Just as we reached the penguins, a trio of keepers entered the exhibit wearing full-length

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Avoiding Writing Contest Scams

Writing contests can offer great opportunities for published and unpublished authors alike. Good contests can provide valuable feedback and even a chance at publication. However, not all contests are created equal, and authors need to be on the lookout for some important traps and pitfalls when evaluating writing contests. Fortunately, savvy writers can learn to identify–and avoid–the common contest traps. Let’s take a look at some of them today: Legitimate writing contests don’t require entrants to transfer copyright ownership to the contest or its organizers.  Here, as everywhere else in publishing (except for clearly identified work for hire situations), authors should retain full copyright

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Parting Words From Colorado Gold

This past weekend, I attended the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ 2015 Colorado Gold Conference in Westminster (Denver), Colorado. As 2015 Writer of the Year, I had the honor of delivering the Friday night keynote speech (photos to come…), and I also taught a Master’s Class and three workshops (one co-taught with my amazing agent, Sandra Bond). I’ll be posting more about the conference in the days to come, but as usual the conference left me exhilarated, inspired, informed, better-educated and more eager to write than I could possibly imagine. I spent time with many beloved friends and made many new ones–and wished I

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Visiting the Home of the Shogun

My second Shinobi Mystery, Blade of the Samurai, involved a murder set on the grounds of the Shogunate. The murder itself took place within the bakufu mansion, the building within the outer walls of the shogun’s compound where the shogun met with visitors and (in some administrations) where official government business took place. I based the shogun’s compound in Blade of the Samurai off of several historical structures, among them Nijo Castle, which was actually constructed after the date of the novel–between 1601 and 162–on the orders of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.*  In the novel, I also describe the shogun’s personal palace,

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Quit Worrying: It’s Cheaper for Agents to Sign You Than to Steal Your Works

Today’s publishing legal post answers a question I received last week by email. Here’s the relevant portion: “I’m following your posts, and worried about my copyright in my [unpublished] novel. I’m going to several conferences this summer, and wonder if I should register copyright in the manuscript before I pitch it to agents, in order to protect my rights?” I answered the email directly, but here’s the answer for the rest of the world as well: No. You do not register copyright in unpublished manuscripts if you intend to seek an agent and pursue traditional publication. Under U.S. law, copyright protection attaches automatically to

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