Here at ReadReviewer we don’t just read books we write them too (pretty much exclusively during NaNoWriMo), as such we’ve of course had our dreams of getting our works published. However, the world of publishing can be a scary place with people lurking around every corner just waiting to take advantage of you. From agents that charge reading and evaluation fees to publishers that make you buy a thousand copies of your own book up front. How do you navigate these treacherous waters? Luckily for you, and me, there are people out there like Victoria Strauss who want to make sure her fellow writers are protected from the evils waiting to snatch them up.

Victoria runs Writer Beware! a very popular publishing industry watch group. She also blogs at the Writer Beware Blogs! Both theses sites maintain up-to-date information on predatory agents, editors, and publishers and act as an excellent resource for information on the many and varied forms of dishonest publishing out there that the young and inexperienced writer could fall in with.

The Writer Beware! site has sections for timely alerts about new schemes to avoid, case studies of situations others have gotten themselves into, advise on copyright, information on print-on-demand and self-publishing services, and gobs of more great information. Writer Beware Blogs! also offers a running blog (well duh!) of the latest and greatest ploys the vanity and fee based publishing world are running. It’s an excellent blog to follow if you’re currently trying to get a manuscript published and need to make sure you’re talking to reputable people.

In addition to the resources at Writer Beware! there are other helpful services out there such as AgentQuery, a database of reputable agents. The Absolute Write forums where you can discuss with other aspiring writers and get advise from published authors on the dos and don’ts of publication. And of course Publishers Weekly, an industry news site with tons of info on who’s doing deals and whats selling.

The industry is full of people looking to take advantage of you but with these resources you can avoid the pitfalls — they’re really quite obvious when you know what to look for — and find yourself a great publisher and be on your way to being the next J. K. Rowling in no time! Good Luck!

Over on one of my favorite blogs, io9.com, today there’s an interesting post by urban fantasy author Stacia Kane about getting published and the sacrifices you might have to make to your written art in order to find someone who will publish you. As someone that writes for fun but secretly dreams of someday getting published I found it quiet interesting to see a published authors view of the subject.

What changes would you make to your work to get yourself published? I don’t write girly ‘Twilight’ style fiction but I would if I knew it would net me Stephenie Myer money…

How much should you compromise your vision to get published?