Today’s writing and publishing world is shrugging off the old “exclusive-club” mentality, but it is, by any means, not a friendly place for an aspiring writer. As a matter of fact, the industry has turned into a shark tank. When I refer to “the industry” I mean, among other businesses, the traditional publishers, most of who are struggling these days, but they are not the actual problem. The “shark tank” is dominated by new startups in the industry, mostly vanity publishers, who produce significant profit without delivering the results they promise. It seems that scammers possess a much keener business sense than the traditional publishing businesses, and they are taking the better part of a multi-million Dollar business.

In another entry on this blog I couldn’t find anything good about literary agents and their apparent lack of business sense. At the same time I was very impressed by the business model and the professional attitude of the Writers Literary Agency. Rather than dealing with a single, overworked and unorganized literary agent (agents always complain about the number of queries they receive), I found it refreshing to deal with a team of professionals where each member took on a certain aspect in the process of finding a publisher. However, with what I learned today, I am happy I didn’t sign the contract they had sent me. As it turns out the whole thing is a scam.

I just received the latest issue of my favorite most useless magazine, Writer’s Digest. Why I still receive it, I don’t know; I don’t keep track when my subscription ends, and it will hopefully end some time soon. It took me an annoying five minutes to page through the magazine to find there was nothing in there that would even remotely interest me.

My version of writer’s block comes in form of not having worked on my second novel for several weeks. I spent some useless time on writers’ forums, and even tried to make some money through my blog. To put the result up-front, forums are a terrible waste of time, and I made $15 in two weeks by writing one lousy article on my blog. On the other hand, my novel American Male Prostitute is about making a career as a writer, and I will take the liberty of adding my experiences to the story of the main character, Stuart Berry.

I felt, I should be writing an update on my novel American Male Prostitute. I am still in Germany (see also my blog entry The Lonely Cold Hotel Room), and traveling here, plus the preparation, took all my attention away from writing. I am finally in the right mind set, and whenever I have time to write I make good progress, usually between 2,000 to 3,000 words per writing session.

For truth is always strange; stranger than fiction.
- Lord Byron
Okay, things are getting a little weird. I am putting in a lot of work to promote my novels and, consequently, my web site, but I did not expect the e-mail inquiry I received today from Bruce in New York in regards to my new novel
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As a business man I am appalled by the lack of business sense literary agents display to the public, especially when it comes to rejecting writers not because they’re not talented but due to primitive reason such as violation of the submission guidelines.

The winner is clearly American Male Prostitute. First, the title itself is the best marketing tool, because it is provocative, and I have already written more than 7,500 words. Writing American Male Prostitute is fun, and I am not saying that writing The Fellow Utopian isn’t.

The most important advice for any author and publisher at this time is to check the Scribd.com web site. Search for names and titles. Chances are your work is not listed, but if it is write an e-mail to copyright@scribd.com with the following content.

The following is a – growing – list of activities on my part to raise the awareness of the scribd.com copyright infringement issue.