by Anne R. Allen
Welcome to our new blog!! I hope you’ll find our new WordPress site is easier for comments and searches.
Because we have a high-profile blog, a lot of people contact us because they want us to promote their services to our readers, usually through contests or deals.
Sometimes these services are great, so I always try to make time to check them out. But often they aren’t. We have some pretty strict guidelines, but even so, I’m afraid I’ve let some things get through that shouldn’t have, like contests that ask for all rights instead of first serial rights. (Always read that fine print before submitting.)
But some offers are recognizable as scams right away. Here are a few general tips for vetting author services:
- Any website that’s full of testimonials from writers who have not successfully published anything is likely a scam.
- Agents who tout their services. Real agents are inundated with queries. They don’t need to advertise.
- Ditto real publishers.
- Google is your friend. If anything sounds too good to be true, Google the website name with the words “scam” and “complaints”, “rip-off” and/or “lawsuit”.
- Do a search of the company at Writer Beware .
Here are some of the scams I’m seeing lately that target new writers, with notes on the red-flags that can tip you off to the scam.
1) Editorial Services that Promise Bestsellers or Agent Representation
These people sometimes contact writing clubs and organizations as well as writing bloggers, and they may even troll the US Copyright Office records looking for prey.
If they manage to get your email address, they’ll write saying stuff like, “I’ve got an agent who is looking for a (whatever-you-write) book. Contact me right away.”
Or, “I have connections with agents and traditional publishers. If you have a manuscript to sell in any of these categories, please contact me immediately!”
Or “We are going to be at the Frankfurt/London/whatever book fair. We can pitch your book to agents and editors.”
Thing is: agents don’t take submissions or pitches from editing services. They only take queries from authors. Any third party query gets deleted.
All these services can give you is a high-priced edit or help in writing a book proposal.
If you need an editor, by all means hire one (and if you self-publish, you absolutely DO need one.) You can find professional editors through the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) or a vetted listing service like Reedsy, or ask a successful indie author who they use for editing.
If you write nonfiction, yes, you need to submit a book proposal, but you don’t need an expensive service to write it for you. Buy a book on the subject, or Google “how to write a book proposal” and read advice from reputable agents. Here’s a great post on book proposals from former Writer’s Digest editor Jane Friedman. The bible for nonfiction book proposals is agent Michael Larson’s How to Write a Book Proposal now in its fourth edition.
Agent Jeff Herman’s Write the Perfect Book Proposal is another old favorite, too. You can buy used paperbacks of either of them for under $12.
If you can write a book, you can write your own book proposal. Remember you’re going to have to know what’s in it when that agent contacts you!
And if you’re looking for an agent or publisher, use AgentQuery , QueryTracker (both free) or subscribe to The Writer’s Market for $5.99 a month. Don’t ever pay anybody to submit your query for you.
The tip-off:
Their websites will be full of hard-sell tactics and wild promises. They’ll hype their services as if they were something more than editors and ghostwriters.
Good editors show off their editing skills by showcasing successful clients. Editor Jodie Renner has an excellent website if you want to see what a professional editor’s website looks like.
I’m not going to link to any scammy ones, but they will be loud and flashy and full of hype. These outfits are all (very expensive) sizzle and no steak.
2) Vanity Publishers Masquerading as Traditional Publishing Houses
“Vanity” or subsidized publishing is not always a scam, so I’m not going to say nobody should ever use a subsidized press. Those can be fine for memoirs, poetry collections, or books by authors with only one book and no plans to write another. (Although you should never pay for the overpriced and mostly worthless publicity packages vanity presses try to push on clients. See #5 below.)
Vanity presses charge high prices for their services and the books themselves are expensive, so you don’t want to use them if you hope to turn a profit or you’re aiming for a career as a professional author. Generally bookstores won’t carry vanity press books and people in the industry look down on them. (These are not to be confused with self-publishing services like CreateSpace or LightningSource, Bookbaby or Lulu.)
For one-book hobbyist writers without tech skills (and believe me, I know how challenging tech can be!), a full-service self-publishing company can be a viable way to publish. (Although I’d recommend using the competitively-priced full-service packages at BookBaby or Lulu over the higher-priced vanity presses.)
But the vanity publishers you NEVER want to get near are the ones that pretend to be traditional publisher and don’t tell you until after your book is “accepted” that you’ll be expected to “contribute” to your publishing fees (generally much higher than what a legit self-publishing company will charge.)
These people play on a newbie’s dreams of being traditionally published. By pretending to be selective, they con an author into thinking they have passed a gatekeeper test and they’ve been validated as “real authors.” But the books are not really published; they are simply being printed by an expensive vanity press. These people often provide no distribution at all, while places like BookBaby are also distributors. You’ll end up with a carton of expensive books to sell out of the trunk of your car.
Some of these outfits are very slick and have even bamboozled real agents into submitting to them–as recently as last month–so be very, very careful.
The tip-off
These “publishers'” websites will not mention anything about charging writers to publish their work, but they have lots of testimonials from “satisfied customers” about the quality of the paper or the “niceness” of the office staff through the process of publication.
Real publishing houses do not need testimonials from authors. Their customers are readers, not authors.
3) Phony Contests
There are a lot of iffy contests out there, especially for self-published books. You want to look further into any contest that charges a hefty fee. The outfit may simply be a moneymaking proposition for the organizers and the prize may be small and/or not carry much prestige. I draw the line at $25 for an entry fee. Anything over that is worthwhile only if there’s a critique or subscription included or it’s got a major name.
There are also contests that are simply trolling for free content. This is especially true for essay or other non-fiction contests.
Selling college papers to students who would rather cheat than learn is big business these days. As The Atlantic reports, “These days, students can hire online companies to do all their coursework, from papers to final exams.”
According The Atlantic, some of the people who write these papers are underpaid adjunct professors or graduate students with big student debt. At $30 a page, it can be an appealing sideline for academics having trouble making ends meet.
Except for the little ethical problem, of course.
But recently cheaper competitors have sprung up in Central Europe and Asia, charging as little as $3-$5 a page.
Most universities consider passing somebody else’s work off as your own to be plagiarism, pure and simple. Getting caught buying these things can get the student an “F” and even expulsion. College professors can usually spot phony papers because the work is wildly different from what the student usually hands in.
But this doesn’t stop students from buying these things. What they don’t realize is the authors of the papers may not be the ones getting paid. The papers may be lifted off the Internet or they may be submissions to a contest.
I’d heard rumors about this kind of contest scam a few years ago, but I only recently saw one up close and personal. I got an emailed notice of an essay contest the sender wanted me to post on a specific blogpost from three years ago.
(That’s always a red flag: if somebody asks me to include a contest in the Opportunity Alerts, that lets me know they’ve at least looked at the blog. But people who ask us to rewrite old blogposts to tout their products show very little knowledge of how blogging works.)
I don’t know for sure that this particular outfit planned to sell contest entries, but I’ve heard of ones that do. And the person who contacted me had a very poor command of English, so writing essays would have been tough for him. I’d be willing to bet this was one of those scams.
If you enter their “contest,” your essay may be sold over and over to some party-hearty frat boys who think paying somebody else to do their homework is a good way to prepare for a career.
The tip-off:
These guys wave a lot of red flags. Poor English skills are a biggie. One email said, “We hardly appreciate your help in sharing the info about the contest on the Internet!”
Yeah, well I hardly fell for their scam. They said their goal was “to make life easier for students”.
By selling them stolen essays to pass off as their own.
Selling college papers under any circumstances is unethical. But giving the scammers your work for free is just dumb. Always vet contests and make sure the people who are running them aren’t going to steal your work.
4) For-Sale Fake Reviews
Anybody who tells you that you need to pay for “professional” Amazon reviews is scamming you. There are a lot of outfits out there who do. Some even use the Amazon logo (illegally).
Amazon does not allow paid reviews, as wrote last month. Amazon defines “payment” as anything besides a copy of the actual book (and even that must be disclosed in your review). This means a gift card, payment for a blog tour, or even a review exchange.
Any of these can get your review removed and may get you banned from selling on Amazon.
The paid review problem has been all over the headlines recently. In October, Amazon sued a thousand people who were selling fake reviews on Fivrr.
Last spring, they sued several US companies that were selling reviews. I wrote about it in my post on Why You Should Never Pay for Amazon Reader Reviews. Even if the company claims the review is “fair” if you pay for it, it’s not eligible to be posted on Amazon. Do not fall for these people. Many are still in operation. Some even use the Amazon logo so they look legit.
But if you get caught using them, your reviews will be removed, and often legit reviews will disappear with them. It’s been happening to many, many writers recently. For more on this, see my post Disappearing Amazon Reviews.
The tip-off:
Paid reviews are strictly forbidden on Amazon, even an “honest review.” Amazon’s Terms of Service state clearly that they will not accept any paid reviews. Anybody who tells you this isn’t true or you won’t get caught because “everybody does it” is lying.
The only reviews you can pay for are editorial reviews on blogs or magazines like Kirkus. But you’re not allowed to post those reviews in full on Amazon or other retail sites. You can only quote one or two sentences in the “editorial review” section.
5) Overpriced Marketing Plans for Self-Publishers
Some vanity publishers have discovered there’s much more money to be made selling fake Twitter followers and useless booths at book fairs than in selling publishing services to self-publishers.
Their salespeople can be pushy and shameless. The publicity campaigns, which mostly consist of sending robo-tweets to fake Twitter followers and “buy my book” ads to bogus Facebook friends, pretty useless in generating sales.
Even more insidious are the booths at book fairs which can cost thousands of dollars (not to mention your travel and hotel expenses.) Nobody’s going to buy your book from a vanity press booth at a book fair where traditional publishers are giving away great swag for free.
Whenever you’re contemplating attending a book fair or author festival, look at your bottom line. If it costs $500 for the booth, and you sell 10 books (pretty high for a book festival), is the prestige of the fair worth the $450 or so you’re paying to be standing in that booth for a few hours? If you’re in there with a bunch of other self-published authors with the same vanity press, you could be stuck in a ghetto for suckers that everybody will avoid. If you put the same amount into an ad in a top bargain book newsletter like BookBub or Ereader News Today, you’d sell thousands.
If you’re going to the book fair to network and meet people, you might find you get more done if you’re not standing in a booth anyway.
The tip-off:
Hard sell tactics give them away. These companies have teams of salespeople whose one job is to pressure authors into paying for useless marketing campaigns. I know one author who published a memoir with a vanity press and salesmen started phoning her at all hours of the day and night trying to pressure her—first telling her the obviously niche book would become a bestseller with their promotional schemes, then with insults and harassment. She said it became a nightmare.
For information on book marketing that actually works, follow book marketing experts like Penny Sansevieri, Chris Syme and Frances Caballo for practical advice.
posted by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) December 6, 2015
Anne R. Allen is the author of ten books, including the bestselling CAMILLA RANDALL MYSTERIES and HOW TO BE A WRITER IN THE E-AGE, co-written with NYT bestseller Catherine Ryan Hyde.
You can read more about writing scams at “6 More Scams That Target New Writers”
What about you, scriveners? Have you ever fallen for any of these scams? Have you seen other writers getting scammed? Any other scams to add to the list? (I’ll be listing more next week.) And feel free to comment on the new blog as well. As I said, it’s a work in progress. Moving a blog is like moving to a new house. If anything can go wrong, it will. 
NEWS: You can read my piece “Why I Write” at Warren Adler’s Writers of the World this week.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
Food of Love: a Comedy about Friendship, Chocolate, and a Small Nuclear Bomb.
Food of Love is available in ebook on all the Amazons, Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Scribd and Page Foundry (Inktera).
Also available in audiobook, narrated by C. S. Perryess.
“I loved everything about this novel, the quirky humor and larger than life characters above all. The plot took me in unexpected directions and I could not guess what would happen next. This is a delightful surprise package skillfully bound by the author’s immaculate writing. And like all stories involving a princess, it has a happy ending. HIGHLY recommended”…The Bookkeeper
There’s one more–it’s not really a scam itself, but you can get taken: Writing courses.
There’s a lot of writing courses out there. At least three organizations have multiple courses. Most are for beginners, and most are done by writers without a lot of experience (1-2 books is not much experience). I made the rounds in a lot of courses, and the lack of instructor experience started to show when I asked questions. I’m pantser, so I always tried to screen the classes. I was assured it was for pantsers and outliners, but when I got to the class, the instructors didn’t know how to deal with me. I kind of think they thought I would just convert over to their way. An experienced instructor can work with both (I’ve had some of those, so they do exist).
So things to watch for:
1. Are they teaching process or craft? There is a difference. Process is outlining. Craft is pacing, characterization, etc.
2. How big is the class? If you go over 12 people, you’re not going to get a lot of attention. There was a class on querying taught by an agent that had over 100 people in it. Participants were supposed to get a critique. One participant was infuriated to have wasted $75 for “you use too many commas” as a critique from the agent.
3. Check writer background. They really should have more than a book or two out, and recently. You might even get one of the books to see if that’s a person you want to learn from.
4. Is the instructor participating in the workshop? I’ve seen two where the instructor either does a video or mails out the lesson in print form, but all you interact with are the writer’s minions, who are usually beginners. So if you have a question about the material, you’re getting their interpretation, not the instructor’s knowledge.
5. Look at the price. If you’re paying $20 for four weeks (which I’ve done), you’re better off writing. A $20 class is not going to be worth very much. Those are the worst, too, because you think you’re getting a good deal, but if the instructor is charging that little, they don’t have the experience you need.
Hey, Linda, I just figured out how to reply to each comment. Yay me! I really appreciate your comment. Very helpful stuff to keep in mind.
Linda,
I agree with all of what you say. Good tips. However, under #5, there is an amazingly priced good Scrivener class offered by Gwen Henandez that I’ve taken and it’s packed with content and Gwen is very present during the class, and for follow-up, too. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn Scrivener.
Nancy
Nancy–Thanks much for the recommendation for Gwen Hernandez’ Scrivener class! I don’t think Linda was talking about a tech class like that where the amount of info is finite.
Linda is talking about those creative writing courses that can be pricey and worthless–and often run by bullies without much practical knowledge. I’ve run into those myself. It’s an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the most ignorant are the most dogmatic.
Thanks Linda! This is my first comment on the blog, so this one is a test.
I just learned of a new scam the other day, someone who hit a friend of mine. She writes to big-named blogs with large followings and asks if she can guest post. Then she lists several topics of interest. But, and this is a huge but, if you check her out, she’s with “Assignment Masters” in the UK, which is in the business of writing academic papers for students, ghosted by freelance professionals. That’s her only credit. No blog of her own, no books, nothing. She “uses” blogs to get her name out there and adds absolutely no value to your readers. She won’t even respond to comments. I can give you her name, if you’d like. DM me on FB if you do. I don’t want to give her anymore publicity. Your blog looks fantastic!
Sue–Do email me her name! I never take guest posts from those people, because this is not an entry-level blog and contributors need to be authorities in their fields but mostly they’re just newbies trying to get on the radar. I didn’t realize some were outright scammers. Thanks!
New site is coming together! Transferring all of the posts does not sound like fun though.
Kids have been buying forged papers forever, but that’s a new twist on where they acquire them and the original source.
Alex–Now I’ve figured out how to do the “reply” I’ll cut and paste my replies a little nearer your actual comment. 🙂 It’s been a real ordeal for JB and me to get this thing moved. Mostly for him. I just put my energy into freaking out. 🙂 Yeah–fake college papers have been around for centuries, but getting people to write them for free is a new wrinkle.
I am just blown away by the essay contest entries being sold to college kids. Thought I knew all the scams out there, but this one shocked. Also agree completely with Linda`s comments above, re writing courses. I can`t tell you the number of students who come to my college novel writing course after having taken some workshop on writing from someone who has never been a published author.
This blog post rocks, Anne!
Melodie–That scam threw me too. I’d heard rumors about it, but I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes before. And yes, taking a course on how to write fiction from somebody who’s never published any is generally pretty worthless.
Congrats on the move!
Love that you’re keeping the same color scheme, similar fonts, etc. I’m still learning to navigate your new site, but I’ll get there.
Best of luck with moving the rest of your content and settling in.
Sasha–I’m still learning to navigate it myself. We have all the content here, but a lot of it needs to be cleaned up. It got jumbled in the move, like a badly-packed carton. 🙂
Brava! The new site looks fabu, & thanks – once more – for all the always-salient information.
CS–Thanks! I sure hope the little glitches will be easy to fix and we’ll be rolling smoothly in a few weeks.
Hi Everybody! We’re still working on the “Reply” function for the comments, so I’ll have to do bulk responses here.
Linda–Thanks for the valuable insight. Writing courses do need to be carefully evaluated. Some people teach hard and fast “rules” that can absolutely ruin your prose. I recently heard about a guy who teaches writers to do the “elegant variation” that has been considered bad writing for nearly a century. A recipe for rejection!
Sue–Do email me her name! I never take guest posts from those people, because this is not an entry-level blog and contributors need to be authorities in their fields but mostly they’re just newbies trying to get on the radar. I didn’t realize some were outright scammers. Thanks!
Alex–It’s been a real ordeal for JB and me to get this thing moved. Mostly for him. I just put my energy into freaking out. 🙂 Yeah–fake college papers have been around for centuries, but getting people to write them for free is a new wrinkle.
Melodie–That scam threw me too. I’d heard rumors about it, but I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes before. And yes, taking a course on how to write fiction from somebody who’s never published any is generally pretty worthless.
Sasha–I’m still learning to navigate it myself. We have all the content here, but a lot of it needs to be cleaned up. It got jumbled in the move, like a badly-packed carton. 🙂
CS–Thanks! I sure hope the little glitches will be easy to fix and we’ll be rolling smoothly in a few weeks.
Congratulations on the move! I hope this is all you hoped it would be…or will be eventually when all the kinks are worked out. This is great advice. As brilliant and valuable as always. .
Christine–Johnny is working like mad on those kinks!
Well, one major glitch is that Ruth Harris can’t comment! And our security system is so good it won’t allow me to copy and paste. But she says I should be an 8th Santini Sister. Now I have to look up the Santini Sisters. 🙂
“So many scams! Writer Beware!”–Ruth Harris
I de-activated the no copy plugin so now you can copy the copy will try and find a better solution
Thanks, JB!
Another valuable post. Thanks.
Yes: check Predators and Editors and Writer Beware and of course Google your suspiciously enthusiastic publisher. Twice I was almost lured into thinking I’d got there at last!
And yes: read about your instructor before you enoll on an expensive course. I did one on marketing and found the leader, who writes best sellers, does not write the sort of thing I can or want to write and her marketing methods just would not work for me. I did one on the novel that was led by a writer I already hugely admired and learned loads and that was worth every penny.
Barbara–It’s great to see some new names here. It’s so heartbreaking when you realize your enthusiastic publisher is just a scam artist. You make a great point about choosing a course by somebody who can relate to your genre. Marketing romance is going to be very, very different from marketing literary fiction or SciFi.
I like this new website. Very nice. Congratulations!
I have a blog tour going that includes reviews from those who ask for a copy of my book which I buy and send to them.
I’m guessing this is Amazon illegal?
Oh my….
Patricia–Thanks! I’m glad it’s working for people. It’s been a Herculean effort for JB, and I kept asking for things that were next to impossible.
I see we still need a button to sign up for comments on this post. Sigh.
Yes, according to the emails I’ve read from Amazon, if you pay for a blog tour, the reviews are only supposed to be excerpted in the “editorial reviews” section, but not put in their entirety on the page as a “customer review.” But some people tell me that may only be the interpretation of SOME customer reps, so you might want to go ahead and ask to have them posted, but be prepared for removal at some point.
Excellent information, thank you. Doing your homework is the best revenge.
Laura–Indeed. I’ve always said that writing well is the best revenge, too.:-)
Hi Anne— Super valuable info as always, and the site looks lovely so far! While you’re doing tech upgrades, I wanted to ask whether the “preview and clicking Read More” email format is what you are going to be using as you move forward. I generally read your posts in my email, so the teaser posts add a step that I’ve appreciated not having to take with your blog :). But I’m super impressed that the email list carried over without a break in service despite the move!
Sierra–We’re trying the new format because we need to up the number of people who actually read the blog. When it’s read in email that doesn’t count as traffic. Because we’re hoping for some more sponsors to pay the expenses of the new site, we need to be able to prove we have a lot of readers. I know it’s an extra step and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but look! you left a comment. That means your name is getting onto Google’s radar for today and it will increase your own SEO, which is a pretty good perk for just one click.
Our click through rate has tripled and our bounce rate is wayyyy down, according to our stats today (Monday) so it is benefitting the blog in a big way. I hope you’ll get used to the extra click and it won’t be too much of an inconvenience.
Christine–Johnny is working like mad on those kinks!
Johnny–Thanks! We do need the security, as I learned the hard way, but it’s also nice to be able to paste into a comment.
Barbara–It’s great to see some new names here. It’s so heartbreaking when you realize your enthusiastic publisher is just a scam artist. You make a great point about choosing a course by somebody who can relate to your genre. Marketing romance is going to be very, very different from marketing literary fiction or SciFi.
Laura–Indeed. I’ve always said that writing well is the best revenge, too.
Sierra–We’re trying the new format because we need to up the number of people who actually read the blog. When it’s read in email that doesn’t count as traffic. Because we’re hoping for some more sponsors to pay the expenses of the new site, we need to be able to prove we have a lot of readers. I know it’s an extra step and I wish we didn’t have to do it, but look! you left a comment. That means your name is getting onto Google’s radar for today and it will increase your own SEO, which is a pretty good perk for just one click.
Invaluable info as always, Anne. I almost got scammed by an outfit that promised exposure. They used the right words to lure me in in the email. I used Paypal to sign up. Then (which should have been before I signed up) I went to their “Readers site” and the header even had poor English and misspelled words. That sent me straight into asking for a refund. Ultimately, I received a refund from Paypal, but it was a whole lot of hassle.
Buyer beware.
Susan–Thanks so much for sharing your experience. They’re so good at saying what you want to hear, aren’t they? I’m glad you finally got your money back. But it’s true that bad grammar and a lot of misspelled words are a BIG tip off. Perfectionism runs high in the publishing business. If people don’t proofread or have a good command of language, they can’t help you much, even if they are sincere. (And yes, I know we’ve got a typo in the footer. I’m trying to figure out how to fix that. 🙂
I was hoping you’d get the banner fixed because it did take up 3/4 of the page for me. I was like “AHHHH! How do I read the posts when I can’t see them????” It looks nice though. =)
I’ve been lucky that at times when I’ve seen something that later I found out was a scam I was too poor to shell out money and passed the scam over. Sometimes it pays to be poor!
Patricia–That banner looked fine in some browsers but not others, so we didn’t know how huge it would look to some people. I woke up to about 50 emails and tweets about it yesterday. That was my bad. I kept telling JB to make it bigger and he kept telling me it would be a problem, but I wasn’t seeing it.
I agree that it pays to be poor (or stingy like me) when scammers come around. They can’t scam me because I’m pinching every penny till it screams.
Hey Anne, just a quick jot to let you know I was able to follow! My relief, not yours. And this post is as cool as the usual fare (praise God it hasn’t been relevant for me yet). I think of other folks who are in crafts or go into business for themselves and I must say I don’t think it’s as bad anywhere else as in self-publishing. It’s the digital product that really hurts- we’re drawn by the prospect of cheap millions and so are the dopes. Best of luck to everyone, stay safe out there!
Will–I’m so relieved to see you here! I was afraid we might have lost some of our most loyal followers. The “Kindle Millionaire” story has sucked in millions, and unfortunately nothing that was true for self-publishers in 2009 is true now. It’s like the Gold Rush ten years after. The only people who made money were the people providing services to the miners. “Cheap millions” never are! Thanks for following us here!
Delightful and helpful article. I self-published my first novel, but don’t want to go that route for the next one. I’m keeping this on file so I can refer to it when I start looking for a publisher.
Connie–I think that’s true for a lot of authors who self-published after the initial “bubble” burst. You may want to unpublish the indie book when you start querying, unless it’s making steady sales. Nothing wrong with going through the process. I’m sure you learned a lot!
I haven’t even read your post yet but am excited you got a shiny, new WP blog! Congrats! Looks fantastic. It’ll get easier. 😀 Off to read the post.
Sarah–Thanks. It hasn’t been easy, especially for an old Boomer like me. For a while, the comments were in chronological order, but it seems to have changed back for no reason. That’s why tech is so tough for us old people. We expect logic. There is no logic in tech. Sigh.
I happen to agree. Where is the logic?! Technology can be stressful. (I didn’t grow up with it…)
I cannot believe you’re bringing all the content over! That will be an undertaking! It’s looking gorgeous. Also, thanks for this great post and links. (Am I missing the share buttons? It’s very possible…) Thanks!
Sarah–Oh, no! The share buttons have disappeared! I hope JB is just working on them. We NEED share buttons! Thanks for letting me know.
😀 No worries. Your lovely readers will share. I’ll cut and paste for now. (The share buttons should be a quick fix in “widgets” in your dashboard under “appearance”.) This will all come together and you’ll laugh about it. Probably planning your first post about it if I know you at all…
. Sarah–If only this were like Blogger with simple things like “widgets”! This is a high tech site where nothing is obvious and everything has to be done by a professional tech person. Very scary. They won’t put anything in order for the replies so this will appear above the comment I’m replying too. It’s soooo annoying. Some tech guy in Silicon Valley has ordained that everything must be upside down and backwards and impossible, and no lowly user can get things to work by her own sad self. Sigh
Oh! I thought this was a wordpress site (which has widgets and so forth). Yeah, I don’t do “high tech”, either. I’m sorry you’re reliant on someone else for this. I agree — that is a bit scary. Well, it looks lovely. And you and Ruth will continue to provide fabulous content so all is well. Hope things get a bit smoother for you soon.
I’m discovering that the WordPress.org sites are way more complicated than WordPress.com freebie ones. I’ve got the businessy .org kind. Way over my non-techy head. Thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks for the timely advice. Just received my nonfiction manuscript back from my editor, so this is the next step. Have you covered ISBN sources (good and bad) also should I be concerned about Library of Congress Control Number if I want to be in libraries?.
David–I left a message for you last night, but it seems to have evaporated. We’ve covered these topics in earlier posts this summer. One is Porter Anderson’s piece on how indies can get visible in libraries and one is mine on ‘Do You Need To Copyright Your Manuscript”. Try putting those in the search window (click the little magnifying glass icon.) Congrats on finishing the edits for your book! You’re almost there. As far as ISBN sources, most printers provide them as part of the service. I know BookBaby and CreateSpace do. They’re not really necessary for ebooks, and you’ll be making most of your sales in ebooks if you’re like most indies.
This looks great, Anne. I was going to email you about the header when I tried to read a post a couple of days ago, but I see you already knew about it.
I think if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Scams are the worst part about this business and everyday there’s a new one. It’s a shame.
Anne–Great to see you made it over here! I’ve been worried our most loyal peeps might not find us. Yes–that header problem was my bad. I wanted it bigger because it didn’t show in my browser, but in others it ate up the whole page!
You’re right that there seems to be a new, nasty way to scam writers every day. They feed on our dreams. That’s why reading blogs and keeping up with the latest publishing news is so important.
I’m so glad to have followed you here because I find your advice and experience enormously helpful. I’m generally a stalker because I’m a newbie and an oldie, so it seems wise to keep my mouth shut and listen to you and everyone else.
I hope you settle in to this new site soon, it must be very disruptive.
Sheila–We love our lurkers! Most of our readers are. And we do especially want to reach the “oldie but newbie” –so many of our fellow Boomers now finally have time to write that book they’ve got in them, but the publishing world is changing so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Thanks so much for speaking up!
“Disruptive” is a good word. Moving a blog is a huge undertaking. I had no idea how tough and time consuming it would be. It really is like moving to a new house. In the old house you knew the contents of every drawer and where to find everything. In the new one, you can’t find the toilet paper or a pair of clean socks. 🙂
Love your new site, Anne. And thanks much for the shout out as someone who gives good marketing advice. I am concerned, as everyone is, with the mounting number of poor tools and scams that are aimed at indie authors. My goal is always to give people good information that can help them make better decisions. I thank you that you’ve given me a forum to be able to do that.
Chris–Thanks for stopping by. There are so many scams out there, and you’re one of the watchdogs looking out for indie authors. Thanks for all you do!
I’m getting email notifications of lots of comments that don’t appear on the blog. I have no idea why it’s happening of course. Evil WordPress elves seem to be randomly deleting posts. Here are two from Kassandra Lamb
“Wow, Anne! Great timing. I’m currently writing a book aimed at newbie authors to help them avoid the pitfalls one can so easily stumble into in the early stages of a writing career. I have now added this blog post to the resources I mention in the book. Thank You!!”
and
“Oh, forgot to mention that the Read More link in my email notification sent me to a Page Not Found page. I had to click on the title of the blog post to get to your site, then click on the post title again on your home page to truly “read more.” Good luck with getting the new site sorted out. It really is like moving house!”
Kassandra Lamb
Kassandra–Thanks for taking the time to leave two comments! I only wish the WordPress elves hadn’t eaten them. They must have them in some secret folder they won’t let me know about.
I’m so honored you’ll include this post in your resources page for your book. Newbie authors are so vulnerable to these scams!
And yes, we’re aware that the first email notice went out with a bad link. We immediately sent a follow-up with the right link, but that one went into a lot of spam folders, including mine. If you check your spam, you’ll probably find it. Sorry for the inconvenience. JB did so much to make the new mailing spiffy, but at the last minute the link broke.
And here’s one from Ricardo Fayet of Reedsy:
“Hi Anne, just wanted to drop by to congratulate you on the new site. It already looks more spiffy 🙂 We had to move everything from a Tumblr blog to WordPress a few months ago and I know how painful that can be (especially since you have 5 times more posts to move over than we had)…
Regarding the scams, I think that the most dangerous ones are the last ones you mention (the marketing/publicity). I remember reading a great/scary post on David Gaughran’s blog about Author Solutions, and selling scam marketing services is how they make most of their shameful revenue… As you say, these companies are characterized by the fact they have more employees working in sales than in actually providing services to authors.
Ah, and thanks for mentioning Reedsy :)”
Ricardo Fayet
Ricardo–I have no idea why your post got hidden, but luckily I’m getting email notifications of new comments, so I could cut and paste. So many things can go wrong with a new blog! 🙁
I really appreciate you support. I’m happy to recommend Reedsy. Your vetting process helps authors avoid this kind of scam.
And you’re right about the marketing schemes from the vanity presses. I read David G’s reports with interest, but it wasn’t until I heard from an actual victim that I realized how dangerous these people are. They phone at all hours of the day and night trying to bully new authors into hugely expensive marketing schemes that do not generate sales.
And here’s a comment from one of our most loyal regulars, Paul Alan Fahey
“Hi, Anne, lots of great advice here. One of the things you mentioned really hit home. As you know, I’m working on editing a nonfiction anthology that’s currently in the proposal stage. Also working thru an agent. One publisher was interested but wanted to take all rights. Nope. Deal breaker. Not in the best interest of the contributors. One time rights or first time rights is fine, but not all rights. Many writers like to reprint their work and this was a nonstarter. Really important to read the fine print. Don’t think I’ve ever given up all rights to any of my work. Good thing, too, as I’ve reprinted a ton of stories over the years. Like the new blog.”
Paul Alan Fahey
Paul–I have no idea why somebody like you who has commented ever Sunday for years should get your comment put into WP Elf jail. I hope we can sort this out. Thanks for jumping through all these hoops.
Publishers who ask for all rights are so sneaky. They tell you it’s a “standard” contract, so newbies may not know how badly they’re being ripped off. This especially dangerous for an anthology, since short pieces can usually be reprinted again and again.
Great post as always Anne. It’s a must bookmark! I’ll add that those predators are also on LinkedIn. I’ve been messaged a few times, and one by someone offering to turn one of my books into a screenplay for$700. What a deal, lol. I should think if someone wanted to make a movie from my book they’d have a screenwriter ready to assist. 🙂 Nice new site here.
D. G.–Great to see you here! Thanks for the reminder about LinkedIN!! I stay away from LinkedIn for exactly that reason–so many scammers.
And that’s a new one! I’ll have to look into that. Such a deal! I’m sure they just plug it into some screenwriting software. And of course it’s soooo easy for an unknown writer to market a screenplay these days….ha! Thanks for the tip!
Anne, Another fascinating and informative blog post, thank you. The contest entries being sold to college kids is downright awful. I was really horrified when I read that. Just when you think you’ve heard the worst… Congratulations on the new blog. It’s coming along beautifully, and I like the way it’s set up. Very logical, and easy to navigate. Best of luck!
Jan–Hi there! Glad you found us! Yes, that contest thing is pretty vile.
I’m so glad you like the look of the new blog and you find it easy to navigate.. JB has worked so hard on it. I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear that!
I just have to figure out how to make my photo appear. I must have missed something when I posted… 🙂
Jan–It may have to do with what ID you used to log in and whether there’s a photo attached to that ID. I don’t think there’s a way to manually control the photo from the comment window.
Thanks, Anne. I wonder if I can change my settings. I’ll have to investigate.
First, congrats on your move. I just imported a huge batch from blogger to WP and I’m still alive 🙂 Life should be much easier for you now.
Love this post. I see at least three or four scams on Twitter almost daily and I often wonder how much money they are making on unsuspecting authors. This is why we…my husband and I…started our own small indie publishing service to a very small, select group of authors. We’re keeping it very small and boutique and I don’t advertise it, but I wanted to do this for authors I know who were prone to getting scammed.
Ryan–Thanks for following us here! I’m glad to hear you survived a similar move. If we ever get to the point when life is easier, I will be relieved. Right now I’m seeing 18-hr days for the next six months. The weirdest formatting glitches developed in transit. Missing italics, random strike-outs, bizarre breaks in text, random font changes. Reformatting every one by hand in 350 posts is not going to be fun for me. But maybe in a year or so I can look back on this time and laugh.
I didn’t know that you two formed a small press of your own. I understand you wanting to keep it under your hat. Everybody’s looking for an ethical (and solvent) small publisher. It’s one of the best places to be in publishing right now. Some people are rugged frontiersman types who like to do it all on their own, but most of us would rather work with a team. But finding a team you can trust is not easy. It sounds as if you’re doing a great thing.
Thank you Anne for such an informative article. After getting sooo close, multiple times, on being published traditionally, I’m now considering other alternatives. I’m concerned about all publishing companies touting themselves as hybrid publishers, but on a closer look they appear like vanity presses to me. Still doing research, and this helps immensely. You Rock!
Indy–Hi! Great to see you here. It’s true that often “e-book first” publishers don’t end up being good for their authors. Some are legit and can be a good choice (Carina Press has launched many Harlequin authors) It depends so much on their reputation, sales record and royalty payments.
It’s essential to do a thorough Google search, using words like “problems”, “payment issues” and the biggies like “rip-off” and “scam.” Some companies mean well, but now the ebook movement “gold-rush” is over, they can’t make the projected profits. Best of luck. Keep trying both paths. You never know how close you may be to finding that agent or publisher. I’d advise against self-publishing the first book in a series if you still hope for a trad-pub career. You might try a stand-alone and see how it works for you.
You don’t have a WordPress share or reblog button that I could find Anne – so I’ve made a linking post to this article – it will go live at 12:00 Noon, London, UK time today 😀
Chris–I’m honored to be included at the Story Reading Ape! JB is still working on the share features. We finally seem to have all the comments coming through, which is a big triumph. All the share and comment stuff came with Blogger automatically, but here they have to be installed separately and often don’t work.
More on scams in today’s post, which goes up in an hour. Thanks!
Hi. This is my first post to your blog–hope it goes through.
This information is incredibly useful. I’ve republished previously published novels as e-books with Smashwords and Amazon and am slowly trying to learn how to make good marketing decisions. Info like this helps a lot. Thanks for the warning about book fairs. I was starting to feel I ought to be digging into that option. Maybe later. My literary suspense novel is working its way through agent rejections and will probably end up in the small-press environment, so your advice will be useful there.
I have three WP.com blogs, using their basic technology. Obviously the dot-com option would not work for you, but I have been very satisfied. I do pay for “premium” status on two of the three. The staff have always been prompt and helpful, though I did run into confusion the other day trying to insert anchors and links into a page (I will have to go back to my HTML manual, I fear, but this snafu is an exception).
Like Chris Graham above, I’d really love a reblog button. Without one, I can only share on my blogs by posting a link. You may prefer that we use that option. I’m not sure of the pros and cons to having a reblog button. Some bloggers do seem to avoid including one, but I don’t know why.
Best of luck at WP!
Virginia–Welcome! I’m so glad the comments are finally working right. Moving a huge blog from one host to another is a major undertaking and we’re still getting the bugs out. JB is still working on the share functions. I’m a cybermoron, so he has to take care of all that stuff for me. I’m a Boomer, so nothing in tech comes naturally to me.
I think small presses are the best option for literary novels. They tend to get lost at big houses, and indie publishing works much better for genre fiction. Best of luck with the agent hunt. A good agent may be able to get you a deal at a prestigious small press.
Some poetry contests are a scam in the sense they are in book selling business. You may be a winner but 400 people also “win” and naturally you pay $60 for a copy to see your poem in print. Then you buy extras to send to friends. Well you are indeed published but they gotta be making $50 a book. Other packages are also offered.
Carl–I’m blogging about “6 More Scams That Target New Writers” today (It will go live in less than an hour) The venerable poetry anthology scam is one of them. It’s been around for nearly a century, but newbies are still falling for it.
About the new blog site. The reply section has a background that makes it hard for not-quite-right eyes and reading skills to decipher. But it does provide a lot of versatility for color contrast on the posts. I’m able to get around it by using a text reader.
About students who cheat: It’s chilling to think that students can have essays and course work completed for them for a fee. Isn’t it bad enough that some on-line college graduates still write like this without paying for someone to complete the courses for them? “He work at the dinar for too dollar.” I see it all the time during my work day.
About scams: I’ve been blessed with good people surrounding me as I make my way into the worlds of self-publishing. Were it not for a blog whiz, a kind ad man, a friend with the software to upload the interior of my first book, & a patient editor, you might find me at one of those $500 booths crammed next to 10 other writers.
Thanks to blogs like this one, the new writer has an advocate against the predators. Thanks. 🙂
Virginia–I wonder if it’s possible to make this text a little darker in the compose window. I’ll ask JB. It may come with the color scheme. I do agree it’s light. I sort of hate gray text anywhere online. It can seem pretty passive-aggressive. (NOT my intention, obviously.)
The articles on cheating college students say a lot of the problem is people whose native language is not English trying to get science and engineering degrees. They know the material but write English the way you’ve quoted here. I have to admit it’s a pretty confusing language. But they sure aren’t going to learn it having other people write their papers. Sigh.
The best way to stay safe is to make friends with other authors and read a lot of blogs, just the way you’re doing.
Joelle–I have no idea why I called you “Virginia”. My apologies. I’m going to blame it on my cold and the cold meds I’m taking. I mean, the names are not alike in any way. So sorry!
I’ve faced a con man, before, at a small, local writers’ conference! I don’t think they knew he was a bad guy; an original editor had suffered an untimely broken leg and they scraped the bad guy up from somewhere local, in a hurry…
Since I’d won a copy of his only book, I perused it before I took him seriously, and found that is rude nature was also communicated in his newest edition of the book: absolutely full of typos and editing mistakes, like six or more per page. I threw it away, since the content was worthless, too. So glad I got that inside view before he took me under his wing.
Wish I remembered his name, as he is probably still practicing, but I forgot it asap!
Katharine–Unfortunately, small writers conferences are often the targets of scammers. They will often offer to teach for a very low fee if they get to sell their books. But what they’re really doing is roping in new victims for their various scams. Sometimes iffy publishing companies or worthless online courses. I’m glad to hear you sussed him out before he got his claws into you.
I think writers conference directors need to be more wary of these guys. Often they don’t know the industry well enough to tell a scammer from the real deal.
Ay, Anne, the scammers are everywhere – and evil. I’d read about them, of course, and laughed. In the days when I naively posted stuff at Hubpages, and ran a post on writing scams, I was amused to see that Hubpages – an arguable site in itself – ran an ad alongside my post from a notorious vanity press ie. a scam.
And I’d laughed.
But the horror of scam outfits came home to me just yesterday when one of my writing students – a lady of 83 with little money – asked me if she should invest in a turnkey book promotion package from SBPRA. Its email to her contained the inviting words: ‘Congratulations! We have approved your book for our guaranteed publishing and marketing support offer.’ That jangled my scam radar. Of course, SBPRA doesn’t quote a fee upfront. It entices authors in, with successive sweet-talking emails. My student was finally offered a fee in four figures, to ‘publish’ her book.
Its services provided nothing that she couldn’t have done herself, for little more than $100. And it wouldn’t have worked anyway.
I advised her to do a Google search: ‘SBPRA scam’ and draw her own conclusions from the reports she found.
BTW: I’m not saying that SBPRA is a scam. How do I know? (So back off you lawyers!) But I am saying: carry out ‘due diligence’ whenever a publishing offer seems too good to be true. The Google search terms ‘[xxx] scam’ will guide you well.
John–Your octogenarian friend is exactly the prey these villains are hunting. Writer Beware certainly thinks SBPRA is a scam. It makes their Hall of Shame list of the worst scams ever. I remember when they were operating the notorious fee-charging New York Literary agency. They are very active now under their new name. Here’s the link to Writer Beware’s post http://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/alerts/ Do pass that on to your friend.
I find it so sad that Blogs like this are still needed. I’ve been an Indie writer for over ten years and in that time have probably fallen for every trick to separate the ‘Wannabe’ author from their money going. For years I have been trying to warn the new kids to the scams and pitfalls but it seems in their rush to get onto the yellow brick road they allow their desire for fame and fortune to overrule natural caution.
I think I can sum up all the messages of caution thus;
“Anyone who offers to Publish/Market or Promote you book for money is NOT your friend”.
Merlin–Unfortunately everybody is a newbie to begin with, and until they start to network with other writers, they are open to this kind of skullduggery. And new scams come along all the time.
I don’t agree that paying people to promote your book is always a bad thing. after all the bargain book newsletters like BookBub are proved to be profitable for most authors. And hiring a publicist can be a good thing, especially for nonfiction. But if you pay upfront for services other than simple printing, formatting and design, you’re likely to be ripped off.
Well, @#%! there seems to be a CAPTCHA on the comments now. I hate CAPTCHAS!!
Great post as always Anne. Having worked with a self publisher 5 years ago, when scam awareness was almost nill, I can say I have seen all these tactics being used all the time.
Very latest trick is “we”ll submit your book to various awards”.
Hersh
Hersh–Great to see you here! I didn’t know about the “pay to submit to contests” scam, so thanks for the heads-up. Sounds as if they’re combining #2 and #3. Very creative, these scammers! Thanks.