Predator Publishing Service @Authr

   I recently read this article posted by www.epublishabook.com found here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5D4AR7/www.epublishabook.com/2012/07/16/need-an-advance-for-your-book-get-your-future-readers-to-fund-you/.

It was an interesting read about helping indie authors. The article then listed a few websites. The one that caught my attention was the authr.com reference - a website dedicated to helping authors by allowing them to pre-sell incomplete books. (For the record, epublishabook did update their post warning that there is a monthly fee, and it is to my belief that they did not intend to be misleading or is an affiliate of authr.com.) I thought it looked interesting and curiosity got the best of me, so I clicked on the website and read over it. I was appalled at what I discovered.

   Authr, @authr, www.authr.com offers a publishing service enabling authors to take donations and pre-sell their books at a monthly fee of $14.95. They ask authors to target family, friends and fans. They also offer a free page on their website, and they claim their page can be used as a marketing tool. The founder of Authr is none other than Eric Bowman who also writes books on Marketing and Social Networks. He certainly has done his fair share of marketing research. That's for sure.

   Here’s the run down. Authr.com is targeting new authors who most likely haven’t published a book yet or those ‘hopefuls’ out there who think their book is a best seller and want some upfront cash. Here’s the problem, most new authors don’t do that well. Every author believes their novel is great and best seller potential, but the reality is, it rarely works out that way. Basically they’re preying on authors who don’t really understand the publishing world by making it sound like they can make easy upfront cash. They even try to sell authors on the idea that their page acts as a marketing tool. Okay great, but there’s a problem with that. Their website is designed to attract new authors, not readers.

   Now we come to the ethical side of it. They’re asking authors to take donations and pre-orders on unfinished work. These ‘authors’ aren’t authors either. That means there is no guarantee that the work will even be finished. This puts the aspiring author in a really bad position by having them ask friends and family to donate/order unfinished work. What happens if they never finish it? This could cause some serious personal problems. Being an author myself, I know how tough it is to get that first novel written. Some take years and most never see the light of day. Meanwhile, the author has to maintain their service fee to keep those donations and pre-orders active.

   Here’s how I see it. Debut novels don’t usually do very well especially from an unknown Indie author. Every author hopes and dreams they will do great, but the reality is that they most likely won’t. It takes a ton of effort and exposure to even sell one book. If you need the extra money, borrow it. Please don’t use authr to reel in your close network of friends and family for promises you may or may not be able to keep. Realistically, you won’t sell enough pre-orders to justify the fees, and those fees add up quickly over time. If Authr truly wanted to help you out, they’d do like the rest of the established publishing world and take a cut from each sell. A monthly fee is the first indicator that any ‘publishing service’ is a predator. That’s publishing 101. Take some time and research predatory publishing. What’s even worse is that authr.com has taken predatory publishing to an all-time low. They are charging for services for a product that doesn’t even exist. Companies like these will always be trying to find new ways to separate authors from their money by offering big money quick schemes.

   If that isn’t enough, there’s a nice little hidden feature. They say you have to give these ebooks/paperbacks out yourself. That’s all on you. If you’re sending out ebooks, they make it sound very simple. You just gift it using amazon’s ‘send a gift’. Sounds simple right? Wrong. You have to PAY for those gifts. You may be the author, but those ‘gifts’ are not free nor are the paperbacks. This could be a major problem once you have to shell-out the money for those books to your family and friends. Authr’s business model is not author friendly. They make it sound easy and that you’ll get quick cash, but heed the warning, it’s never easy. This model may work for a few select authors – ones with a solid fan base, and who have a track record of completed work.

   Here are some key features that they are operating under the illusion of big money while actually offering a predatory service. These lines were taken straight from their website (They may have changed them since the time of this post.).

About Us (authr.com) Page:

1. First, you set up your project at Authr telling people about you and what your book is all about.

2. Your Authr page is set up for Fundraising to accept donations from friends, family and fans excited to support you and your book concept.

   Key words here, Friends, Family and Fans. News Flash: New Indies don’t have fans. This costs $14.95 a month or $118.95 (I shudder at the thought) a year. If you're new to the internet (sarcasm), PayPal allows you to take donations for FREE.

3. Once your fundraising goal is met, your project then automatically transforms into a book pre-order sales page.

   This alone states that they are targeting authors with incomplete work. Customers and authors should both take this as a warning. There is no actual product.

4. Finally, after your book is written and published, your project transforms again into an ongoing sales and marketing page with links to online stores where readers can purchase your book.

   Let’s be frank here, authr.com is not the place you want to pay for an ongoing marketing campaign. Their business model is designed to attract new authors, not new readers. This also indicates they want you to keep paying a monthly fee thinking that this site is a marketing tool for you. I’ll be the first to tell you, it’s not. Spend that money elsewhere where it gives you exposure to actual buying customers.

Authr.com Mission Statement, first sentence:

“Our primary goal is to help aspiring authors…”

   They are targeting new Indies that don’t have experience in publishing. This entire website is built on the illusion that new authors will receive easy money and marketing. Even their slogan says it all: Authr: Get Paid To Write Your Book. Selling books is not easy. Trying to get donations and sell pre-orders on unfinished books from an unknown author is insanity – good luck. Save yourself the headache and money and don’t sign up.

   Feel free to comment below. And for those who may not agree with me and feel that authr does offer something rewarding for authors. That’s Terrific! Because I forgot to mention that I was building a bridge. Any and all donations or pre-orders would be greatly appreciated. Just Buy Me a Brick. However, I do feel obligated to warn you that the bridge most likely will never be complete and that any and all donations will most likely go to buying me a beer. Thanks!

Tricks to Avoid Narrative Voice

Let’s imagine that our present tense story was being told as if it were a movie and happening in real time. Movies rarely pause to reflect the thoughts inside somebody’s head – that would be annoying. Instead it just keeps playing scene after scene on an endless reel. Obviously that isn’t true for all movies, nor should be true for all present tense writing. However, there are other ways to reveal information without stalling the action.

Narration tends to be an obstacle for present tense writers. Heck even I’ve tossed in the towel a few times believing that there was no way around it. Over time I began to question the very importance of it to begin with, so out of curiosity, I just completely cut it out of a scene. A tweak in the action here, a bit more emotion there, and before I knew it, I got the same point across by simply rewording the action and omitting the narration. It doesn’t work every time, but sometimes just removing it actually makes the story read and flow better. Give it a try sometime.

There are, however, other creative ways. To have a story feel as if it’s happening at that very moment becomes weird when suddenly a narrative voice hits the pause button and interrupts. Let’s imagine that our star, Jim, is in the middle of a battle scene with another gladiator. His sword clanks and sparks. Sweat sprays from his arm with each cleave. (pause) Now let’s reflect on what Jim’s thinking. Okay… what just happened? That’s what past tense stories do. They pause the story to dig deeper into the subconscious of the character allowing readers to connect with them at a deeper level, or the writer just shoves their voice into the story. As a reader we’re forced to hear those thoughts when meanwhile there’s a real battle happening at that very moment. This is where past tense and present tense divide.

In present tense we want to translate those thoughts through action. Sometimes it can be very tricky to do, so how do we get inside the head of the character without stopping the reel? How do we reflect back on a past scene? It’s not as tricky as you might think. For one, be creative. Have fun with the reader and give them more than just the story. In Darkness & Daemons I wanted the readers to connect with the characters a bit more, but I didn’t want to side track the story to build them up. Nor did I want to default to any narrative voice to translate how this person feels or thinks inside their head. In order to do this I decided to break the story up into sections. I added a Meet (character Name) section before each story that allowed the character to speak directly to the reader. It allowed me to go into more detail about each character and at the same time introduce new information that would have been extremely difficult to do in a non-stop action sequence. However, I didn’t stop there…

In later stories I wanted to bring up past scenes that were kept hidden from the reader. I chose to be careful in how I interacted with the story by cutting in past scenes, so I defaulted back to my Meet approach. I added another section called, Flashback. The Flashback is a story all to itself and is told in present tense just like the rest of them. It basically takes a past story and merges it into the story line without ever actually interfering with the current story. With this new addition I now had 3 sections; Flashback, Meet, and the Story itself. This is why I refer to them as ‘events’. Each event is basically a group of information that when combined complete the story. I can’t call it a story because the story is already within the event.

These are just a few of the ways we can use present tense writing to work for us and at the same time provide a fun and engaging experience for the reader. Just take a moment and try to imagine a way you can present your information in a unique and exciting way without breaking the action. Thank you for reading this article and please feel free to respond. I’ll add more insightful tips as I continue to explore the world of Present Tense Writing. Please note that I’m not nor claim to be a professional when it comes to writing. My views, tips, and opinions are mine alone and based off my own personal writing experience.