Writing scams are like old-time snake-oil elixirs. Beware the smooth-talking charlatan.
by Anne R. Allen
A couple of months ago I wrote about some of the weird writing scams that have been showing up in my email inbox. A number of my online author friends have since told me they’ve been getting them too. So there seems to be some new master list of potentially gullible authors put out by the writer-scamming community
In that post I addressed the perennial problem of paid Amazon review scammers, and why it’s even more stupid to buy Amazon reviews than ever.
But we need to be wary of any unsolicited writing, publishing, and marketing schemes. These days, I look at my email inbox the way I do my landline phone. It’s not mine anymore. Mostly it belongs to spammers, scammers, and crooks. 90% of my landline calls are scammers (mostly robots), and it looks as if “Primary” email is headed that way too.
So here’s a sampling of what’s been showing up in writerly inboxes lately.
Pricey Radio Interviews
I had a couple of odd emails from a guy who claims to be famous, although all his Google mentions are on scam vanity press sites.
He’ll give you a 10-minute radio interview for the bargain price of…$2000! He claims he was once on a well-known national radio show and he can get your interview broadcast there. But I can’t find any evidence of these interviews.
Do. Not. Go. There.
Local talk radio is a great (free) place to promote a book to your neighbors—especially nonfiction and memoir. (And here’s a post on how to be a good radio guest.) But unless you can get a sit-down with Terry Gross on NPR, a radio interview is probably not going to generate $2000 worth of book sales.
Always look at the bottom line. Don’t spend more on advertising than you can make back in sales.
Dodgy Book Trailers
Every day I get emails from people wanting to make me a book trailer. Some will make them for as little as $50. Others charge a whopping $2000-$5000 (But they’ll give a discount if I “call by midnight tonight!”)
The expensive guys say I’ll make that money back in a month from new sales of my book. (They always assume I only have one title.) Right. That would be the month when I prove the Tooth Fairy is real and discover a cure for the common cold.
And the $50 ones? I took a look at a sample. Thumpy music behind a photo of your book cover. Then your name in an all-purpose font against an ominous looking background. Then the title of your book. A few more thumps.
That’s it.
Does this stuff sell books? I know advertising wisdom says video is how you sell stuff these days. And big publishers love those book trailers, so maybe they’re onto something.
But here’s the thing: your target audience is READERS. How many readers do you know who would prefer to watch a video that strings out one sentence so it lasts for 10 minutes…rather than read a book? Does anybody really enjoy watching glacially presented snippets of advertising copy accompanied by boinky electronic music?
I don’t know those people.
And where do you show this trailer? On You Tube? Facebook? Instagram? Aside from all the social media friends you beg to watch it, who is going to notice?
In my experience, most people who watch videos on social media would prefer to see actual movement, not a series of stills. Preferably some jumping up and down done by baby goats in pajamas. If these guys can hire those baby goats, maybe it would be worth it. Otherwise, give it a pass unless you’ve got a lot of money to burn.
Fake Freelance Content Mills
I’ve also had emails from writers who have horror stories to report about writing scams by freelance content mills. Those things are at best slave labor, but I realize sometimes writers are so in need of money they’ll grind out articles for a penny a word or less.
But content mills aren’t as profitable for the owners as they used to be, so some are turning to scamming their own writers.
They aren’t even providing low paying writing jobs. They’re charging a fee for “membership” in…nothing. The job boards don’t exist. What’s worse, some scam sites will keep billing a writer’s PayPal account for monthly dues after the writer has cancelled the membership. They end up having to close their PayPal accounts.
Be wary of any content boards with iffy sites, bad content, and “testimonials” rather than solid information.
I’m not going to name names here but there’s a particular scam outfit that’s been making news recently. It is either run by a troll farm or a very busy guy in his mom’s basement. This “company” sends dozens of sock puppets to attack anybody who reports on their spammy shenanigans.
But one sadder but wiser writer named Tamara Gane reported them on Medium last month. She told how she paid for a “membership” in this organization—available by “invitation only.” Her membership entitled her to see “job boards” with supposedly lucrative freelance writing jobs. But there were no job boards. Dozens of victims reported the same thing on Reddit, Absolute Write, and Writer Beware.
The only claims of making money through this company come from their army of sock puppets. The outfit claims to have a staff of a half-dozen or more employees, but the “employee” photos were apparently stolen from other people’s Twitter profiles.
Look elsewhere for job listings. Plenty of free listings out there.
“Break into Hollywood” Writing Scams
Another scheme I ran into last month showed up in the inbox of a fellow Nightwriter. He got an email that started out: “With your deadline to sign up to commission your Book-to-Screen screenplay quickly approaching (it’s this evening at 6 pm PT for phone orders)….
Danger, Will Robinson!
Anything that starts out with an immediate “deadline” in an unsolicited email is waving a red flag.
These people are asking an indie author to pay a huge amount of money to a screenwriter to write a screenplay based on a self-published book.
Then the author has…an expensive spec screenplay.
Everybody in the Greater Los Angeles Area has a spec screenplay. Or twelve.
Spec screenplays are way, way harder to sell than novels. This service may be legit, and the screenwriters may compose excellent scripts, but you’re buying something you have about .00001% chance of selling. Save your money and take a screenwriting class and write the screenplay yourself.
Or buy Bookbub ads. After you’re a bestseller, maybe a real Hollywood studio will approach you.
There’s another “break into Hollywood” scam that involves paying a huge amount of money to some dodgy outfit to “show your book around” to Hollywood producers. They may not have started out as a criminal enterprise, but they have only managed to sell one or two screenplays out of thousands. And they keep those big bux. Ca-ching. Don’t fall for this one either.
Outrageously Cheap Editing
I’ve heard from one company that offers to edit a book for $50. Yes. $50. For the whole book. The only way anybody could make money “editing” or even proofreading a book for $50 is if the editing consists of running it through a grammar and spell checker.
And guess what? You can do that for yourself for free! It’s right there in your word processing program.
And remember that a spell checker isn’t exactly foolproof–as this verse that periodically travels around the Internet shows:
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Editing is hard, painstaking work. It needs to be done by somebody with a vast range of grammar and storytelling skills. Proofreading is not something everybody can do, either. You need a human being with a good education, not a third world robot.
Don’t fall for it.
Vanity Publishers Posing as Hybrid Presses or Publishing Service Providers.
Because of indie publishing, the old vanity presses are reinventing themselves to look like hybrid small publishers or publishing service providers.
Bookbaby his a post this week listing some of the red flags to watch for in self-publishing services.
For ratings of these companies, the Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) has a rated list of publishing services . Always check thoroughly before you sign anything.
Unfortunately some of the old vanity presses got new life when Publisher’s Weekly gave a couple of them legitimacy by listing them in their newest list of independent presses. Victoria Strauss wrote at Writer Beware about this disappointing move from Publisher’s Weekly .
One of these vanity publishers has an ad that appears in my yahoo inbox every so often. It’s been on my radar, because a friend with a well known literary agency worried when his agent submitted to them. I checked, and, wow, were those red flags waving.
How my friend’s agent was taken in I can’t imagine, but I assume this “publisher” has some gifted con artists onboard.
This outfit requires a payment up front, for which they’ve invented the coy term “contributory publishing.” They pretend to be “hybrid” and “innovative,” but their business plan is centuries old. Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware detailed their scammy ways.
The second is a notorious scammer who requires authors to buy 5000 copies of each their own books. Yeah. 5000. They claim that’s what other publishers do.
They don’t.
Real publishers do not require authors to buy anything. Or pay anything up front.
Publishing services do require payment, but they don’t require contracts, ask for rights, or promise anything but a simple service, like formatting, printing, or distribution.
Some publishing services bill themselves as “hybrid” publishers because they may vet authors, provide free marketing and cover design or offer bookstore distribution. But vet these very carefully using the above links, and always Google the company with words like “complaints” and “scam.”
Don’t Offer Yourself up as Prey
Check my earlier reports on writing scams. Here’s one on some of the most common writing scams. And here’s part two.
And always check the SFWA’s Writer Beware before spending your hard-earned money on any kind of publishing or marketing service.
There are a whole lot more people making money FROM authors these days than there are authors making money so be wary and educate yourself.
But don’t get discouraged by all this. Just get savvy. You really can make money writing novels, even in this ultra-competitive market. Elizabeth S. Craig tells you how in this post.
But her success doesn’t involve paying tons of money for overpriced gimmicks (or phony reviews.) It involves writing a whole lot of books and engaging with your readers.
If your email inbox, like mine, is filled with unsolicited emails from scammers, liars, and creeps, just unsubscribe, send to spam, log off the ‘Net and write your next book.
What about you, scriveners? Have you run into any of these scams? What scams are you seeing these days? Any other rip-offs or scams to warn us about? Have you ever bought a book because of its book trailer?
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) June 3, 2018
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Here’s a great write up of Sherwood, Ltd from Debra Eve at the Later Bloomer
Available in ebook from:
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Available in paper from:
***
OPPORTUNITY ALERTS
Owl Canyon Press Short Story Hackathon. FREE! Writers are invited to submit a short story consisting of 50 paragraphs. The contest provides the first and last paragraph. Prizes: $1000, 500, and $250. Twenty-four Finalists will be included in an anthology. Deadline: June 30, 2018.
Nowhere Magazine’s Spring Contest. The literary travel magazine is looking for stories with a powerful sense of place. $20 fee. Fiction or nonfiction. 800-5000 words. Previously published work is okay. $1000 prize plus publication. Deadline July 1st.
ORISON BOOKS ANTHOLOGY$15 ENTRY FEE. They’re looking for spiritual/literary poetry, fiction and essays for their next anthology. $500 cash prize as well as publication in The Orison Anthology. Submit up to three poems, one work of fiction or nonfiction up to 8,000 words. Deadline August 1, 2018
Have you been harassed online? PEN America has launched the Online Harassment Field Manual, a first-of-its-kind resource to equip and empower writers, journalists, and all those active online with practical tools and tactics to defend against hateful speech and trolling.
13 Imprints of Big 5 publishers who take unagented submissions. From the good people at Authors Publish Magazine.
48 Small Presses looking for children’s books. Collated and vetted by Authors Publish magazine. (Great resource!)
UNO PRESS PUBLISHING LAB PRIZE For book-length fiction. Any genre. $18 ENTRY FEE. The University of New Orleans Press is looking for full-length fiction manuscripts, either novels or short story collections, for the fourth annual Publishing Lab Prize. The selected author will receive a $1,000 advance on royalties and a contract to publish their winning manuscript with UNO Press. Deadline August 15, 2018.
When I decided I wanted to see my work in print I made a promise not to dish out any of my cash. It’s a promise I will continue to keep. There are snakes all around us and those snakes are constantly telling us how nice the water is. All we have to do is jump in.
Don’t do it, writers. Research. Ask questions. Listen to your gut instincts.
Bryan–You’re so right about those snakes! 🙂 I’m a penny pincher when it comes to marketing too. I do as much as I can that’s available for free–which is quite a lot.
Wow. Thanks, Anne. Some of these are new to me. Scams are one reason I don’t display my email address online. I used to, and then switched to a contact form instead.
“Always look at the bottom line. Don’t spend more on advertising than you can make back in sales.”
Good advice. It applies to every point you presented.
Kathy–A contact form is a good idea. My address is out there in so many places, I’m not sure that I can “put the toothpaste back in the tube.” But I’m thinking of changing my personal email address.
Lots of new authors aren’t savvy about the bottom line. Instead, they do what they think they’re “supposed” to do, which is spend as if they have an old school Big 5 publishing budget and expect to make old school Big 5 profits. Not how it works. Instead they have to be savvy about digital marketing.
Fortunately I haven’t been hit by any of those. Although I get a lot saying they want to help promote my book. (Usually they pick the oldest title as well.)
Baby goats in pajamas. I bet if you Googled that there’s a You Tube video somewhere…
Alex–Isn’t it amazing how they go to the trouble of finding one of your titles, but they can’t seem to see the rest of them?
The baby goats videos are a big thing. Just hit the live link up there and it will take you to a YouTube video. They are adorable.
Two other scammy areas:
1. Wring workshops
2. Writing books.
There are a lot of fake experts out there, trying to teach everyone how to write. Honestly, you should be able to go on Amazon and find their fiction. And it should be recently published. And there should be more than a few books.
There was a writer who got a lot of publicity because he wrote a book that had branded his type of outlining method with fancy business terms. He was also a developmental editor. He came onto Absolute Writer and declared that everyone needed to outline. AW was more mannerly in those days and told him that everyone wrote differently. He got very offended, claiming he was only trying to help (no, he was selling his book and his editing service). I looked him up to see what books he had written, since I’d never heard of him. Two novels published 8 years before.
The above writer has done more fiction now, and he’s had to backpedal on some of the stuff he put out in that craft book.
Great information and tips here, Anne. Makes me think of a historical thing called “mining the miners” where swindlers and hucksters made more money selling stuff during gold rushes than the miners made digging. It’s much the same thing with this “self-publish gold rush”. As always, buyer beware and if it sounds too good, it likely isn’t. Thankfully there are honest people like you who call out the scammers. Thanks for posting this!
Garry–This is exactly like the real gold rush. They called it the Kindle Gold Rush when the indie movement started in 2009. But people who were in it for the greed found out that writing books is very hard work, so they started scamming the writers. And they keep coming up with new schemes, unfortunately.
Hi Anne — It’s a crazy digital world out there, isn’t it? Maybe we’d all sell more books if we wrote about spammy sock puppets, or the travails of a hard-working robocaller, or even baby goats in pajamas.Thanks for another fine post.
CS–I actually tried to write a story about a phone solicitor once, mostly to diffuse my anger at these creeps who interrupt my writing a dozen times a day. But it was too depressing. They must have such awful lives if they have to take jobs like that.
And as far as strange jobs go…making pajamas for goats would fall into that category. Maybe I need to write a story about a goat-pajama-maker!
A goat-pajama designer for an Italian haute couture house, Anne. It’s got to be a designer.
Tricia–Goat fashionistas! It could be a whole new genre!
It never ends. As soon as scams are exposed, a new kind crops up. I know writers fall for them all the time as if there aren’t enough ways to not make money writing.
Susan–There is a kind of Wack-a-Mole syndrome going on isn’t there? Yeah. I hear you about “ways of not making money writing.” 😉
Very good point on paying for editing, Anne. I have come across many new writers who feel that I should be happy to read their fledgling manuscript for free, because – for goodness sake – they are giving it to me for FREE to read! I don’t even have to buy it! Sigh…and when I tell them that in 1995 I charged $35 an hour…well. A very good post, my friend.
Melodie–I have to admit I’m awfully fed up with people who think editing is easy. Good editing is worth every penny. And the poor starry-eyed newbies who think their unedited manuscripts are precious babies everybody wants (and wants to steal) are in for an unpleasant surprise.
Anne, I’m so glad you posted this! I have suddenly had a huge bump in spam, get-rich-writing scam emails — plus have been having my author clients querying me about things they’re being offered. And just yesterday, some robo-caller left me a spam voicemail after calling, with the robo-recording starting with…”and your local police will be calling on you to arrest you for these ignored charges, which is the least of your problems…[click]”
I’m so happy too that you’ve brought up the wonderful resources writers can use or check with to ensure they don’t get scammed.
As I’ve always been told by others, and as I tell others: common sense and suspicion should be your starting point when considering any unsolicited offer.
Again – thanks so much…isn’t it just disgusting that writers are considered ‘fair game’ by those can’t do, or teach? grrrrrrrrrr
Maria D’Marco
Maria–So you’re getting them too? They are so annoying. (I get those horrible phone messages too. These people really hate Americans, and they think terrorizing old people is fun.)
I think all creatives are considered fair game by scammers. They’ve killed their own creative selves and want to kill yours. 🙁
writer scammers—redefining “the world’s oldest profession.” Caveat authors! Anne is offering useful, money-saving info.
Ruth–You’re right. Scamming may be the world’s oldest profession. And the fact these scams are so prevalent shows a lot of writers must be falling for them, or they wouldn’t pay off.
(Late checking in, birthday party to emcee yesterday)
So hold the phone here. I know perfectly well what the world’s oldest profession is. Are you telling me THAT’s a scam too? Because that is really going to crush my dreams…
Thanks as always Anne. I got an Author House phone call late last month- I had tickled them in my weakness back when I was just starting out, via the web and they send emails once in a while. But this was a phone call, and even as I told the real-live person I wasn’t interested I felt such a chill. It was close for me, back then…
Will–Author House must be really desperate! You’ll see that GB Miller also got a call from them…at work! That’s scary. These people are dangerous. They’re ruined a lot of new writers’ lives and stopped potential careers. That chill was justified. The whizz of a bullet zooming by way too close.
I’ve discovered a new semi-scam going on, and this occurs if you were “smart” enough to publish through ASI (aka Author House) (yes I was unfortunately one of those smart ones. live and learn). Apparently they sold my phone number (work number) to other vanity presses, who will call you and try to separate you from your dollars.
I was able to get rid of them by asking a key question: how did you get my work number?
Their answer usually involves something that I’ve never done (i.e. a book fair), so I politely tell them it’s not so, that someone sold you my personal work number and please put me on your “do not call” list.
G.B. Oh, my! So Author House sold your info to other scammers? Why am I not surprised? They even have your work number? Everybody talks about Facebook, but they’re not mentioning how many shady companies do much worse. Thank goodness you recognized them for what they are.
Great warnings here Anne. I know you and I have discussed these snakes and scammers before, but I’ll mention something else wonky. We all have our favorite blogs to follow, and sometimes we choose to unfollow those we don’t follow anymore, except WordPress doesn’t offer that option. I’m still getting email notifications from blogs I haven’t visited in years. Religiously I try to unsubscribe from them each week when they land in my inbox. There is an ‘unsubscribe’ button under each emailed blogpost, the only problem, when I click it, it takes me to ‘manage reader’, where the blog isn’t even listed in my almost 200 blogs I follow, yet those notifications keep coming and clogging up my box. Ever had this problem? 🙂
Debby–That sounds like a WordPress glitch. That’s a major no-no. And WordPress is definitely glitchy right now. The only way I can respond to comments is on the “inside” of the blog. It keeps blocking me from leaving comments and won’t accept my password. Something very weird going on. Not a scam, but it is definitely something that needs attention!
Yes, I agree, especially now with GDPR rules enforced, we are entitled to the right to unsubscribe. 🙁
I’ve been contacted by one of those paid reviewers for Amazon who presents as a blogger. Yeah right. I deleted the email – and even wondered if she was actually a man. But here’s the thing. I held that note and keep reading it because she was so inviting. Someone wants to read and review my book! And then my good sense took hold. But I did pause. Silly me.
Brad–I got that one too. “I really want to review your book. I know I’m going to love it.” Something like that. But we know real book bloggers are overwhelmed with queries, so that can’t be real. But it sure was inviting. I fear a lot of authors may have fallen for that one.
Scammers are always trying to come up with new ways to scam people and there are always some who fall prey to them
Joanne–Unfortunately starry-eyed new writers are very easy prey. And the digital revolution allows them access to so many more potential victims.
Good points as always, Anne. And of course I had to check out the baby goats!
Jennifer–Aren’t those goats adorable? I might by a book based on a trailer with baby goats, but mostly book trailers leave me cold.
Ah ha! Privacy Badger broke the site. Once I turned it off, everything worked again.
There are two more scam areas:
1. Writing classes.
2. Craft books.
You have to be really discerning when paying for either one. There are a lot of fake experts out there, and unfortunately, a person with one or two published books looks like an expert when they’re only a beginner who is published.
When I was on Absolute Write, this writer blasted in on the site. He declared that everyone needed to outline. People were rather mannerly (yes, at the time!) and told him everyone was different. No, he insisted, all writers need to outline. I looked him up. He had a new book coming out that was selling his outline format. Basically, he’d taken the 7 Step Outline from Scott Mededith and dressed it up with fancy buzzwords. Nothing all that new. Had he written fiction? Yes. But only two, written EIGHT years before.
And classes…there’s a writer teaching all these classes on how to write novels. Exactly how many novels does she have up? None! Just books on how to write fiction!
Linda–I’m so glad you got in! It may have been Privacy Badger, but the blog wouldn’t let me comment yesterday either. It was under attack from some bot.
Great points! These aren’t new, but they’re all over the place. It’s the old “those who can’t do, teach” syndrome. People who don’t do creative work love to think of ways to formulize creativity and give creatives a million lines to color inside. But the books that make it to the top are the ones that color OUTSIDE the lines.
And I agree that an awful lot of online courses are pretty scammy. Recently I saw a course on the author blog that didn’t teach half of what I do in my author blog book. The course cost $200. My book costs $2.99. And I actually have a successful blog. The person teaching the course had an Alexa rating in the millions.
Courses on marketing. They get you to sign up for a “free webinar” which is nothing more than an hour-long pitch for a $1200 book marketing course. I won’t name names, but I’m sure many people will know who I mean.
D, D,–Those “free” courses are almost always infomercials for something really expensive like that. Don’t they make you furious? And yes, some very big names pull this kind of stunt.
It really is sad. 🙁 So many scammers.
Book trailers have never made me want to read a book but they sure are popular.
Southpaw–It is sad. People who would rather steal from creatives than be creative are kind of tragic. I’m glad to hear you feel the same way I do about book trailers. They’re fine, and sometimes they’re clever and fun, but I don’t think they sell books.
Hello Annie! Very good article. Have not run into any of these folks. But always good to be reminded to be alert. Hope you are well
Quine–You may not be on the list of “easy marks” but you never know when they’ll get your address and start spamming you.
Thank you for this post, Anne!!! I was just at Book Expo last week in NYC. Among the booths were some of these sleazy scammy outfits, displaying books they’d published for exorbitant prices. But…they didn’t have any way to sell the books on display. Obviously, they’d sold their unsuspecting authors an expensive promotional package promising exposure at the biggest book publishing event in the US. The booth probably cost them $5000 (I talked with the venue rental folks to get an idea of those costs). Two or three indifferent, inattentive employees sat in the booth. When I picked up a display book and asked about it, they wouldn’t talk to me. I don’t even want to guess how much each author of the 50 or so featured authors had to pay for this “exposure.” Made me sick.
Debbie–Thanks for this first-hand report! Wow. I knew those things were a rip-off, but I didn’t know how much. They don’t even have a way to sell the books?! Places like Author Solutions take slime to a whole new level. I say NEVER pay for a booth in one of those places. Even if you’re manning the booth yourself and snagging people with great swag and talking up a storm you’re not going to make back your $5000. And this is stuff is just flushing money down the toilet. Thanks for the warning.
They’re an inventive lot, aren’t they? I couldn’t write them as characters. Oh, wait, maybe I can 🙂 (evil grin)
Jemima–That could make a great thriller. Authors wreak revenge on serial scammers. Hmmm. 🙂
These scammers are really hitting the bottom of the barrel now, aren’t they? I’ve never seen any of these things, aside from the fact that I am still hearing about writers thinking they have a publishing deal because they’ve signed with a ‘hybrid’ press….. one woman who corresponded with me for quite a while (she really thought there was a warehouse somewhere with hundreds of copies of her books waiting to be despatched to bookshops) told me that Mr ** (writer of single crime memoir that has been relentlessly plugged on social media for years) who now publishes with them has just been offered a ‘film deal’. I said yes, but who is making the film? A major Hollywood studio? Don’t think so…. people hear these words and all sense goes out of the window, it seems. There’s a reason why they’re called vanityj publishers….
btw, you know you can get both your email and your landline filtered so you don’t receive all this junK?????
Terry–I see those all the time too. FB groups are full of happy announcements by authors who have just “signed with a publisher” who’s a notorious vanity press. I don’t say anything. They’ve already signed and there’s nothing to be done by for them to learn a sad lesson.
Regular spam filters do not catch these guys. They’re clever enough to make these emails look like legit emails. And as for the Do Not Call List–that only works in the US. All these robots and scammers are from the 3rd world. They don’t have any rules, and there’s no way to catch them. I don’t pick up the phone, but that doesn’t stop them from leaving messages in my voicemail.
Thanks for keeping us up to date. i subscribe to Victoria Strauss’s newsletter and am often amazed at what she uncovers. I recently saw a prime-time TV ad promising to publish and market books; I wanted to shout at the writing world in general: You don’t have to pay these people! You can learn to do the work yourself! Even $1000 to a legitimate book publisher (can they really do it for that?) presumes a lot of book sales. I solve the landline problem by screening my calls. No message from someone I recognize, no answer. And the contact form on my blogs has been really valuable. Thanks again!
Vanderoso–Victoria Strauss is THE person to check for publishing industry scams. I’m always amazed at what she uncovers. She’s amazing.
You should never pay a publisher, IMO. Pay for publishing services, but not simply for the privilege of being published. With a good hybrid publisher each service should be broken down, so you know exactly what you’re paying for..
I screen all my calls too. But that doesn’t stop them leaving those threatening or obnoxious messages and ringing the phone off the hook all day long. Right now it’s election season. When I went to the market yesterday, I came home to 5 long messages from political robots. In less than 2 hours.
Thanks so much for this information. Writers can be very gullible!
Noelle–It’s partly the fault of the media. We get such a bogus idea of the publishing industry from TV and movies. Somebody sits down and writes a novel in a couple of months, sends it off to a publisher and they’re immediately buying cars and mansions and flying to Paris. Not exactly reality. But of course, reality is boring. 🙁
Thanks, Anne. Hadn’t seen some of these. Only use a Contact form for my business email – learned that one a long time ago. Have a separate one for personal and one for online use like subscriptions, comments, etc. The later is a gmail account as they have good spam filters.
I’ve taken a few publishing workshops which were generally worth my while. Some are used as marketing fronts for vanity presses or companies who support you through the process. So you have to screen them and filter out the bumf. The legit ones are still happy to offer the overview. One of the better ones I took now offers the workshop in as an expensive holiday getaway format. (rolls eyes)
But I do continue to be surprised. At a recent writers conference I spoke at, the speaker on “self-publishing” was a printing house only and gave some poor advice. A panel on getting published had 2 people who simply said “I found a publisher” so they didn’t go through the process. Really not helpful. I’ve written on the topic myself, reviewing each stage with links to various services you can use, including a few articles on this site – like this one. 🙂
David B–Thanks for the reminder of how many courses and writer’s conferences are scammy. I’ve talked about them before, but these things are proliferating.
The conference circuit is full of scams. Some people make a full time career of teaching classes about stuff they know very little about. And some conferences, as you say, are nothing but traps to hook newbies into scammy publishing contracts.
I personally have dealt with one “agent” who speaks at many prestigious conferences but has not sold a book or even represented a client for at least a decade. She charges big bux for skimpy “critiques” that are incoherent nonsense.
I guess shady agents are a whole ‘nother kettle of worms. Chuck Palahniuk’s horror story brought our attention to it, but I also personally know two authors whose agents have pocketed large portions of their royalties and lied about it. I shouldn’t go there in a comment, but now you’ve got me going…
Thanks for reminding us that writers need to be careful when choosing conferences and courses.
Great article, I’ve heard of some of these but not all. It is sad that there is always someone willing to scam people by using their dream as a way to go. I’ve heard a few people mention “cheap” editing options around the £100 mark and I just shiver.
When I get an editor, I want a professional, one that knows their worth and understands the work needed. Someone recommended and researched. Not just cheap and certainly not that cheap.
Sadly, with so many people rushing to be writers, they are jumping on any sniff of a deal without thought.
I did get an ARC copy of a book that had been through an Independent Publishing house… that had no website, just a Facebook page with numerous spelling mistakes. The book had barely been edited. So heaven knows what the “fees” were meant to cover.
Ari–You make some good points. Bad editing can be worse than no editing at all. Look at how many times spelling and grammar checks get things hilariously wrong. (Facebook’s spell check now “corrects” all right as “alright” Grrrr. )
A real independent press does not charge fees. If they do, they’re a “hybrid” press at best. And the author is a customer, so they have to be very careful in vetting the people they’re paying.
I rely on my yearly purchase of Writer’s Market for leads. And I love my Author Publish emails.
Willow–Since I have written for Writer’s Market and Novel Writer’s Market, that makes me happy to hear. 🙂 The folks at Authors Publish are AWESOME . What a fantastic publication. They are one of the best resources for writers out there. Thanks for giving them a shout-out!!
Writers as Victims? Hmm.
Is writing really that different than other fields of endeavor or is this just an opportunity for a number of people to rant, vent and whine, redirecting pent up frustration for their lack of success?
And what’s this about writing workshops and books on writing being scams? Most of what I’ve learned about writing has come from books written by published authors or academics and they’ve been invaluable and free, since I take them out of the library.
As a facilitator of creative writing workshops, believe me there is no better way to learn the craft than to get constructive criticism from other writers. And again, this can be free, and as easy as putting a notice on your local library’s bulletin board.
Where else did you all learn to write if not from books and teachers? Or were you all “gifted”.
Yes, there are those who will try to take advantage of you, but there are far more who are empathetic and magnanimous and willing to take this journey with you.
Did you read a word of this post? Are you a purveyor of pricey book trailers or fake “break into Hollywood” scams? Do you run a scammy content mill or a vanity press pretending to be a real publisher?
Do you see anything in this post against taking classes or reading books?
I wish trolls like you could learn to read a blogpost. You have to learn to read before you can learn to write. Please take a remedial reading course. You’d be amazed what you can learn!!
I know this is an old blog post, but as a new author I have a question. When you at the bottom of your post, posted the “OPPORTUNITY ALERTS” are they to be taken as someone to watch out for, or are you offering them up as someone to trust? I wasn’t sure, hence why I’m asking.
Thanks
Kelly
Kelly–Oh, my! It never occurred to me that people would misunderstand the phrase. It means I’m alerting people to great opportunities to enter vetted contests and submit to good journals and anthologies. I try to make sure everything listed is honest and not too expensive. But of course the ones on old posts are over, so you have to look for the new ones on the new posts.
Thanks, Anne for getting back to me 🙂 I feel better knowing that it means that they are good, vetted contests to enter. That’s a real relief. Thanks 🙂