#published authors

[braveblackbutterfly]

Professional(?) authors/writers on here, I need some advice

I'm a writer...not a paid writer. But I have a passion for writing (stories, poetry, essays, etc), and really want to pursue it as a career. But I know realistically I can't financial support myself by only writing.

I'm currently working part time as a reading tutor for elementary school students, but I'm planning to look for a full time job soon because of personal, "I need my own space/place" reasons. But I have zero idea of what kind of jobs to apply for when I don't have a lot of job experience and deep down, all I want to do is write.

Can anyone provide me with some advice? Or tell me your experience as a writer and supporting yourself financially.

#bbb butterfly #writing #writers #professional writers #professional writing #authors #published authors

[aquitainequeen]

Alarm bells being rung by Maureen Johnson on AI and the Big Publishers

#I've already got academics wanting it put into their contracts that their work CAN'T be used to train AI #This is a scary time #ai MUST be regulated #on publishing #wga strike #sag aftra strike #sag-aftra strike #AUTHORS UNIONIZE

[avaantares]

Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP

(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)

An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:

(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)

I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:

IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.

You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:

HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:

First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.

Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.

Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.

In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.

In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:

I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.

In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.

Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.

Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!

NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!

#fanfiction #ao3 #piracy #dmca #pirated fanfic #please signal boost #i'm mad but also laughing that my dmc fanfic is now a 'number one best selling novel' lol #i'm also a traditionally-published author #so this is both hilarious and deeply insulting to me

[nicosraf]

As per my last post, if yall arent aware — Cait Corrain, the author of the upcoming Crown of Starlight made a bunch of fake accounts on Goodreads to review-bomb other debut authors, almost entirely BIPOC, with 1 star while 5-starring her own book. She also added traditionally published debut authors to a list derogatorily labeling them as "self-published" hacks. She went after random books that are Greek mythology retellings, like her own is, and again targeted BIPOC authors. She even targeted my good friend RM Virtues, who is an indie author who writes queer Black Greek myth reimaginings.

Many of those she attacked were people who considered her a colleague and friend. She's tried to spin a lie about how she's being framed by someone from her Reylo fandom days, but Reylos have disproven that already.

Cait allegedly liked to brag about how her publisher treated her like royalty, and she had a massive Illumicrate deal. Her book was also getting favorable advanced reviews and had a beautiful cover, so she had nothing to be jealous of. She's potentially destroyed her career due to racism alone. Do not buy her book and do not support her.

Here is a thread if you want specifics and here is the 31-page doc of evidence.

#havent seen this on tumblr really so #in case you all weren't aware #this is gravely serious #mine #publishing #writing #author #books #cait corrain #crown of starlight

[everythingunderthestarsthings]

All the reasons there are to Blog and Write #2 - Here's why fanfiction writing is so much easier...

As I type this out, I realize that the title of this post by itself is enough to enrage a lot of people, but hear me out. For my second blogging & writing related post, I want to talk about why writing and coming up with fanfiction and AUs (alternate universe fics) are so much easier than sitting with an original idea and developing it. (You can check out the previous post in what I hope is a…

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#all the reasons there are to blog and write #alternate universe fics #aspiring authors #authors #books #budding writers #creative expression #creativity #fanfics #fanfiction authors #inspiration #love for all fandoms #passion #published authors #writer #writers write #writing #writing fanfiction

[emeryleewho]

I keep seeing posts talking about the WGA/Sag-Aftra strike, which yes, good, but in all this "support writers" sentiment I'm seeing no one talk about book writers, which I think is something people should know more about right now.

We are at an all-time high for book bans, namely targeting queer & PoC-authored books. This means that a lot of schools and libraries are no longer stocking diverse YA books, and if you're not in publishing, you may not realize this but school & libraries are by far one of the biggest markets for diverse YA books.

This means that in 2023, YA book sales are down. This is also in part because Barnes & Noble (the largest physical book retailer in the U.S.) is no longer really stocking YA hardcovers. This means that marginalized authors and debut authors are struggling to sell books.

But it's a LOT worse than that. In the past couple of years, marginalized authors are *really* struggling to get new book deals. Most books are acquired by a publisher about 2 years before they release to the public, so this isn't all that noticeable yet, but a LOT of marginalized authors I've spoken to (myself included) have been unable to sell a new YA book since 2020. So while I had a book out last year, even if I sell one right now, you won't see it until 2025-2026. That's three to four years without a new release or the income I get from publishing those books.

On top of that, Big 5 publishers have started closing imprints (namely their diverse imprints) and have started telling their marginalized YA authors to just go. I've had multiple authors tell me their publisher basically said, "eh, we don't care to put in the work for you anymore. You can just go somewhere else". Of the authors who *are* getting offered new contracts, we're being offered pay far below the cost of living and we're being handed contracts that split our payments 4 or 5 ways and require we sign over our work to be used to train AI so they can replace us a few years down the road.

Authors are freelancers who own our IPs, which means we can't unionize the way Hollywood writers can, and despite authors showing up in droves to support HarperCollins employees when they went on strike for fair wages, we're being hung out to dry when it comes to our own rights.

If you enjoy diverse books, especially diverse YA, please understand that many of the authors you loved over the past 3-5 years are being forced out of the industry. We're being exploited, and we have no way to defend ourselves. Our books sales are drying up thanks to anti-queer legislation, our rights are being eaten up by AI, and our publishers are degrading us while profiting of us and refusing to share those profits with us.

Within the publishing industry, we've all been watching this decline happen over the last decade, but outside of it, I know most people have no idea what's going on so please spread the word. And if you care about diverse books especially in YA, please support marginalized authors in any way you can. The industry needs to be reminded that it needs us before we're all eliminated from it.

#Books #diverse books #author #publishing #sag aftra #writers strike #writers #labor rights #workers rights #wga strike

[high-quality-tiktoks]

🤷‍♂️publishing can’t ask us to write bestsellers for them on no money

#video #tiktok #tiktoks #story time #wtf #publishing #book #books #writer #writers #author #authors #iron widow #heavenly tyrant #zachary ying and the dragon emperor #xiran jay zhao #xiranjayzhao

[thebibliosphere]

I was already on a hair trigger today trying not to snap at a mutual for reblogging a "fuck authors who use Amazon" post, but, like, this shit is why some authors can only afford to use Amazon.

They don't have the $75+ to distribute through Ingram Spark. They don't have the $25 it takes to change your files if you need to update them after they've been accepted. They can't afford to take the cost of printing hit to their sales. They can't afford to lose an additional 40% of their income to retailer discounts.

And just so we're clear, Ingram isn't a vanity publisher. They're one of the largest print monopolies in the world. They're used by most mainstream traditional publishers and indie and self-pub authors alike. Amazon uses them when their print demand is too high.

My friend, whose work is published by Gollancz, is printed through Ingram, the same as mine. The difference is their publisher takes the hit for them. In theory. We won't get into dwindling advances here or how publishers are increasingly putting the onus of marketing and sales onto their authors or the fact that their editors can't afford rent or food while the executives get richer and richer.

So what do you do when the mainstream doesn't want you? What do you do when you're told if you can't keep up with the rat race, that you don't deserve to have your work published? What do you do if all you have is the ability to tell stories for a living, and no one wants you?

Well, you could die of starvation. I'm sure there are several people on here who'd be happy if that happened to me. (I know. Because they tell me. Often.) Or, you can shake hands with the devil, knowing it's a bum deal, knowing everything is fucked, but also knowing that every other aspect of this fucking industry is just as fucking bad.

There's no escape. It's relentless.

And you've got people out there posting things like, "Actually, I think authors who charge for their books are part of the problem."

And yeah, in an ideal world, I'd be making art for art's sake.

But we're not in that world. We're in the bad place, and you're actively making it worse. You're encouraging people to steal from people who are struggling just like you and calling it activism against billionaires or putting them in the same moral category as said billionaires as though we're not trapped in this system, same as you. Some of you are fellow fucking authors. And, like, my mind boggles at what it would take to stab a fellow creative in the back like that, but here we are.

Hell world.

#long post #vent post #publishing #author stuff I get #anyone clowning on this post gets put in the wood chipper

[lesbianshepard]

latest book twitter drama is insane. an author (marve michael anson) posted an excerpt from one of her books, which featured a superhero with sun powers. another author (lauren m davis) then dmed her and accused her of copyright infringement and "stealing" her ideas because one of her characters is also sun-themed. she literally thinks she owns the copyright to the sun 😭

#m #theres even more i'll elaborate in a second #im not even IN booktok i dont read the YA stuff either of these authors publish #but holy shit 😭 😭 😭

[mysharona1987]

#Authors #publishing #reddit #books #marriage #creative writing

[jesncin]

I love ur Lois so much!!! Lois has always reminded me of my mom and so seeing your version of Lois, one that faces similar uphill battle when it comes to work and how you can start sanding yourself down to try and get further, is amazing and touching. Can't wait to see more of this Lois, especially as she works up the ranks!

Thank you! I think that part of Lois (becoming less of yourself in order to move ahead in an industry, especially as a woman [of color]) is so underappreciated and should be explored way more.

#askjesncin #superman #clark kent #lois lane #clois #jl remix #i avoided doing a nervous sweating punchline are u proud of me #lois liando's been a nice creative outlet for some of the angst I go through in publishing as an author. the challenges and struggles

[daisyvramien]

#author #book blog #bookblr #booklover #books & libraries #fantasy books #indie author #self publishing #writing #writer meme #writer struggles #writer shit #meme #relatable memes #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #ao3 writer #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3fic

[autumn2may]

GUYS DO NOT GIVE YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO AN AI THIS IS A BAD IDEA ON EVERY LEVEL DON'T DO IT

original tweet from @jamesjyu reads: "We launch Shrink Ray today on Sudowrite! Upload your manuscript and get loglines, blurbs, synopsis, and full outlines automatically. Takes a ton of legwork out of book marketing. Below the tweet are two images of the program."

original quote tweet from @sudowrite reads: "New in Sudowrite: Upload your whole novel/script, get instant longlines (sic), blurbs, synopsis, and outline!"

tweet from @FantasyFaction reads: "Oh jeez! Bad bad, very bad! Writers DO NOT willingly give your manuscript to an AI so it can "learn" by stealing your work! I know blurbs and synopses are hard, but PLEASE do not do this! - JI 🐉

(stolen from ML Brennan & Sravani Hotha so I can include alt text)"

#ai writing #ai theft #ai generated #writing advice #writers block #fantasy-faction #fantasy #fantasy books #reading #booklr #books and libraries #bookblr #book blog #self publishing #self published #author life #fanfic writing #fanfiction #writing #writers #writers on tumblr #writer community #writer challenge #female writers #writer problems #writblr

[drchucktingle]

hey chuckie, how do you get published and also over the fear of nobody liking your work.

my initial way was to trot a SELF PUBLISHED trot, which is pretty dang exciting because anyone can do it. after writing about four hundred books WORLDS GREATEST AUTHOR CHUCK sent a message to a big time publisher name of nightfire and said 'will you publish my horror novel in all stores?' and they said 'yes bud'

so basically to answer first question of 'how do you get published?' it is both simple and difficult. SIMPLE in that i just started self publishing which anyone can do but DIFFICULT in that i did it for a long time and wrote till my dang eyes fell out.

but honestly i do not think this is the real question.

i think what is really being asked is: how can i climb over the greatest hurdle of all, the voice telling me that i am no good?

the way is to understand that YOU ARE GOOD AT BEING YOU. in fact YOU ARE PERFECT AT BEING YOU. there is LITERALLY NOBODY BETTER, not now, not in the past, not in the future. you are a brilliant eruption of rarity in the middle of endless time stretching forever in either direction.

when i say 'i am the worlds greatest author' i HECKIN MEAN IT, but this does not mean that i am better than you. the podium i stand on is not just for one buckaroo, it is for ALL BUCKAROOS. there is plenty of room at the top because YOU CAN BE THE WORLDS GREATEST AUTHOR TOO. IN FACT, YOU ALREADY ARE.

now that you realize you hold this power and prestige, what are you gonna do with it? that is up to you bud. id say you should go out and publish your dang incredible book

#love is real #book tumblr #publishing #self publishing #chuck tingle #worlds greatest author

[vanhelsingapologist]

Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.

They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.

They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.

Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.

On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.

#This is about traditional publishing but there’s pretty privilege and ageism in self publishing too #I can’t think of the last time I saw an up and coming author recording videos who was over thirty #And frankly that’s a shame #It could be that I’m not looking hard enough #but it’s more likely that algorithms are trained the way they are #truly I don’t think they should have to do any of that at all #And forgive me but (and I know it’s rich because I’m an artist on a platform) but art shouldn’t be at the mercy of an algorithm #Now there’s also something to be said about self publishing becoming easier and easier to achieve success in #And doors opening because of influencer status is real and makes publishing wider in a way #But that doesn’t mean it’s accessible #I’m not gonna plaster my health issues over the wall but that life is certainly not accessible to me! #are you healthy enough to write and make sure people on social media still want to like your stuff #are you mentally well enough to be your own pr #I’m sure people who have studied this have more to say and have said it better but this is what I’ve observed #writing #publishing #publishing industry

[writingquestionsanswered]

Just a quick reminder that I will not tolerate bad-mouthing of traditional, indie, hybrid, online, fan-fiction, or any other type of writing and publishing on my blog, in asks, in the replies, or in the reblogs.

Furthermore, anyone who feels the need to disparage any type of writing or publication should take some time to educate themselves and do some self-reflection. What insecurities are these feelings masking? Why are they not confident enough in their own writing or path to publishing to be supportive of all types of writing and publishing? Why do they feel the experiences of some are enough to invalidate the experiences of many?

There is room for everyone in the world of writing and publishing. There's no reason not to be inclusive of everyone, all types of writing, all paths of publishing, and advice from every background and level of experience.

~ with love, WQA

#writing #writing advice #publishing #self publishing #indie publishing #indie authors #indie books #writing tips #writing community #writers of tumblr #writeblr #writing help #snobs need not apply