by Anne R. Allen
Last week I talked about some of the writing scams that Ruth and I have heard about recently in my post 5 Scams that Target New Writers.
Sometimes we’re contacted by the scammers themselves and sometimes we get questions from readers who aren’t sure if they should accept an offer that might look too good to be true.
As I started to list the scams, I realized that the post was getting wayyyy too long, so I figured I’d divide it. Some of the rip-offs listed in today’s post have been around a little longer than the ones I listed last week, but they’re just as deadly (and heartbreaking) to newbies who haven’t heard of them…Anne
6) Companies that Offer to Turn your Self-Published Book into a Screenplay and open Hollywood Doors for You
This is a new writing scam that preys on naive indie authors with Hollywood dreams. I’ve now heard about it from three people. Some have been approached through LinkedIn, which seems to be the venue of choice for a lot of scammers. These outfits offer to “analyze” your book to see if it can be made into a film and then offer some murky way in which they will get this analysis in front of Hollywood honchos. They charge between $700-$1000 for this service.
All of this is totally bogus. Their “analysis” means nothing and they have no power to get your book to anybody of importance in the film industry. As veteran screenwriter David Congalton says, “People, NEVER GIVE A DIME to anyone in Hollywood unless you’re taking a class. These are all scams, preying on the dreams of the innocents.”
The tip-off:
This is not how Hollywood works. According to the Raindance Festival website, “at least 50,000 scripts are written every year. Yet only a few hundred are bought and made.” These are screenplays that have already been written. The chances of somebody wanting to go to the trouble to turn your book into a screenplay are pretty slim unless the book is already a bestseller.
And any book can be made into a screenplay if there’s enough demand. (After all they made a film of Tristram Shandy!) If Hollywood wants your book, they will approach you. And don’t hold your breath.
7) Rights grabs by Magazines, Contests and Anthologies
Most legit publications and contests only ask for first serial rights. But some contests ask for all rights of the winning pieces. Some even ask for rights of all submissions. This isn’t exactly a scam, but it sure isn’t good for the author.
Unless the prize or payment is really big, you do not ever want to sign away all rights to a story or poem (or book!)
Greeting card companies are an exception. They usually buy all rights, so you should expect that–but they often pay really well for a short poem. I got $400 once for a sentimental greeting card verse. They were welcome to my rights.
Many online publications will ask that you not republish something online for six months to a year—and that’s fine—but after that you can publish again and again. Stories can live forever in anthologies and story collections. Don’t give that away that right without a good reason (like a lotta cash!)
I have let some contests slip through here that ask for all rights to winning entries (many thanks to readers who pointed that out) but I’m careful to check them now.
The tip-off:
Read the fine print! I always include a link to the website of contests and journals I list in the Opportunity Alerts. I vet them, but some weeks I don’t have time to read everything. So always read the details of a contest before submitting.
8) Submission Services
These have been around for ages, but the electronic age has brought some new twists.
Note: there are perfectly legitimate submission services. The service “Submittible” which electronically submits manuscripts to journals is widely used by journals to take their online submissions. The journals, not the authors, pay fees to them.
But what you want to stay away from are the outfits that play on your fantasy of being an author who “just writes” (ain’t no such animal!) and offer to get you published with no effort on your part.
These companies tell you they’ll save you from the hassle of getting your hands dirty with boring stuff like writing query letters. They are there to write them for you! For a huge fee! Here’s a link to one that got written up at Writer Beware.
Like the phony publishers, they may pretend to be very selective and put you through a “vetting” process. If you’re “accepted” they will write a query letter for you, submit it to agents (they may claim to have an “expansive network” of agents on speed dial) and they’ll even copyright your book for you!
Problem is: agents are not morons. They can spot a query service letter at 50 paces. The queries will be auto-rejected, no matter how many agents get the mass-mailing. And agents do not take phoned-in pitches, so anybody who offers to do this is totally bogus.
Anybody can copyright their own book for $35. Don’t pay somebody to do it for you. And you may not even need to. More on this on my post Do You Need to Copyright your Manuscript?
The tip-off:
Anybody who claims to be able to get you an agent is lying. A relationship with an agent is like a marriage. You two have to click personally. No third party can do it for you. It would be like paying somebody to go on dates for you.
9) Predatory Publishing Contracts
Some vanity presses tie up your copyright for seven years. Some even demand ALL rights—including electronic, audio, film, and foreign—even though they have no plans of producing your book in those formats. More on bad vanity press contracts from Joel Friedlander: Is Your Book Held Hostage by a Subsidy Publisher?
And here’s a quote from the State Bar of Wisconsin “A scam contract usually will assign all rights to the publisher, whether specifically granted or not. Absent compelling reasons, such as the publisher’s ability to actually make foreign, book club, or movie sales, there is no reason to give a publisher anything but the right to actually publish the book in book form and perhaps some very limited ancillary rights, such as the granting of permission to quote from the book, to make administering book sales easier.”
BUT: not all bad contracts come from vanity publishers and overt scammers. The Big 5 can offer onerous contracts these days as well.
Now that we have “forever” books and infinite bookshelves, contracts are much more fraught with dangers than they were in the pre-ebook days.
With “in perpetuity” contracts, you may end up signing away the rights to your book and characters for a lifetime—and even your children’s lifetimes. You also don’t want to sign a contract with an agent who asks for “right of first refusal” for ALL the books you will ever write. Yeah, they do that.
The tip-off:
Always run a contract by a legal professional. Contracts are complex and wording can be purposely misleading. Do not give a publisher rights to anything but the book unless they have concrete plans for audiobooks, translation, etc. And make sure there is a mechanism for reversion of rights when the book goes out of print.
10) Bogus Anthologies
This one has been around for nearly a century—but new writers are still falling for it. One of my neighbors got duped just last month.
The scam works like this: There’s a call for submissions to a poetry or inspirational essay anthology often with cash prizes and fancy certificates.
But here’s the problem: every submission is accepted. When the “editors” have enough poems or essays to fill a book, they print it up and offer the unvetted dreck to all the contributors for a steep price. (Sometimes pre-purchase is required or sometimes authors like my neighbor are enticed by a “pre-publication discount” bringing the price down from extortionate to merely outrageous.) But the newbie, proud to be “a published poet” buys many volumes to give to family and friends.
Their “win” of the “contest” may include a certificate declaring you the winner of a bogus prize. You can sometimes buy this nicely framed certificate for an over-inflated fee.
I have to admit I didn’t burst my neighbor’s bubble. She was so elated and had already pre-paid for the phony book. The damage was done. I figured she deserved to ride that high for a bit longer.
Unfortunately, some newbies are so excited by their “publication” or “prize” they send out news releases. This happened to a local poet very early in her career. It took her several decades to live it down.
Real anthologies like the Chicken Soup books pay the authors, not the other way around.
Note: there are great charity anthologies and promotional anthologies that don’t pay, but offer exposure for the writer. But the good ones are not high-priced and they’ll be very open about what they’re about. Often several “name” authors will be attached, which is great for raising the profile of a newbie author. You’ll be paid in prestige and advertising, so you’re not “giving your work away” if you’re included in a good charity anthology.
The tip-off:
Look at the people they’ve published or former “winners” of their big prize. Google them. Have they ever been published elsewhere? Where are the books sold? If it’s only from the anthology’s website, it’s likely a scam. These days they may be on Amazon too, but check the sales rank.
11) Fee-Charging Literary Agents
I thought these guys had disappeared in the age of the ebook, but I’ve seen them resurfacing now that self-publishing has lost its new-car smell.
Any agent who charges clients for services is not part of the legitimate publishing community, which has a strict code of ethics.
This means they do NOT have access to editors at publishing houses, so they can’t sell your book to a legitimate publisher. They may sell your book to a vanity publishing house (one that charges fees to publish your book) or a small press that they themselves own. They may also have kickback deals with freelance editors or offer “editing services” themselves.
These people cannot sell your book to a real publisher. You are wasting time and money dealing with them. Real agents ONLY make money as a commission for selling your book to a publisher. And yes, that means real agents often work months or years with no pay at all when they’re starting out. Most agents start as unpaid interns reading slush for large agencies.
NOTE: Not all “reading fees” are scams. Some literary magazines are now charging a nominal reading fee for submissions (usually only a few dollars) as was reported in The Atlantic in October. You can usually get around the fees by sending hard copy or subscribing to the magazine. This isn’t making authors very happy, but it’s not considered unethical. Because electronic submissions are so easy these days, their submission numbers keep going up while their readership goes down. This is one of the ways they stay afloat.
The tip-off:
Any request for money by a literary agency, whether it’s a reading fee, mailing expenses, editing, inclusion in a book fair or catalogue, website building, etc, is a major red flag. Run very fast in the opposite direction. For more about this venerable scam, see Writer Beware.
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?
posted by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) December 13, 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.
BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Lady of the Lakewood Diner is available at all the Amazons, Kobo, and Nook.
Who shot rock diva Morgan Le Fay? Only her childhood friend Dodie, owner of a seedy small-town diner, can find the culprit before the would-be assassin comes back to finish the job
Boomers, this one’s for you. And for younger people if you want to know what your parents and grandparents were really up to in the days of Woodstock and that old fashioned rock and roll. Plus there’s a little Grail mythology for the literary fiction fans.
“A page turning, easily readable, arrestingly honest novel which will keep you laughing at yourself.”…Kathleen Keena
“I borrowed this book free with my Amazon Prime membership, but I enjoyed it so much that I don’t want to give it up. I’m buying a copy to keep.“…Linda A. Lange
“In The Lady of the Lakewood Diner, nothing is sacred, nothing is profane. And yet, in the end, love does conquer all. If you’re of an age to remember Woodstock and the Moonwalk, don’t miss it. If you’re not, well, you won’t find a better introduction.” …Deborah Eve of the Later Bloomer.
Reading the contract carefully before you sign is very important. You do have some options, like negotiating a term or walking away. If you see anything that raises flags, walk away. Period. A number of years ago, I got accepted to an anthology for a small press publisher. All the writers received a contract with a strange wording for the rights. It looked like the person typing it hadn’t been paying attention. The other thing we all noticed was that the letter came on printed letterhead, and there was an obvious typo in the address. I should have walked away at that point, but I crossed out the sloppy wording on the contract and wrote in what it should be–as we all did–and signed the contract. A few weeks later, the publisher got into a strange fight with the editor over something really trivial and bailed out on the book.
Way too many people “trust” the other party. The other party is in business to money and thinking that way. If you aren’t you’re going to end up getting scammed.
Linda–Great tip! I should have put that in the “tip-off” section on all of them. Typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors are often the first sign that you’re in scammer territory. Very clever of you to spot the contract error and correct it. It sounds as if you dodged a bullet there.
I received an email from Netflix that they will turn my book into a film. I got so excited and just couple of hours I got a phone call from Mr. William Borrough, he claimed that he was from New Reader Media and that he confirms that he worked with my previous marketing agent from the company and talked about netflix here and there. He said that the project was true and that I should just acquire my own license so that I can turn my book into movie with Netflix before the year ends. Mr. William borrough sounds really convincing and did not stop making follow-ups for the past weeks and when i made my payment, he just disappeared and never contacted me again. I called NRM but nobody is returning my calls. William just took my money and went away with it. He’s a total scam and I want everyone to be aware of this person.
Elaine–Netflix did not send you that email, and “William Borrough” doesn’t exist. Do scroll down this thread for my reply to your comment. Here’s a link to my most recent post on this scam. You are one of many 1000s of authors who were fleeced by these scammers. So sorry you had to go through this.
I’ve just deleted a semi-literate reply from NRM. Apparently NRM’s spokesperson, William Borrough, does exist, and he even has a Twitter account. Of course, so does Devin Nunez’s cow. 🙂 This doesn’t mean that’s his real name. It does mean he’s a real scammer who is good at his job–stealing money from hard working authors.
Who says you-know-what is the oldest profession? There were probably scam artists around back when writers were using chisels to carve their books into clay tablets.
Writer, beware! They *are* out to get you (and your money).
Ruth–Ha! You’re so right. I’m sure when Homer was out there on the Ancient Greek storytelling circuit, somebody offered to turn his stories into a spiffy papyrus scroll if he just signed over all the rights to the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Shucks, Anne. And here I was about to pay the famous Memoir Movie Maker, Inc. a few thousand bucks to recreate my posthumous book as a film. I shoulda known somethin’ was fishy when they told me the boys considered my life an epic tragedy. Truth is we’re all a matter of comedic performances. Thanks for the tip.
Anthony–LOL.Yeah, that memoir-movie-maker scam is so sad. As somebody said, comedy is tragedy speeded up. Thanks for subscribing! Great to see you here.
Great post, as always! Particularly the info on rights grabs. I’ll be sending my students to read this post.
Melodie–Thanks. I’m always glad when you send your students to us!
I almost got sucked into a Publish America contract, until a librarian friend of mind did a little research and told me to run far away. BTW, found then through Writer’s Digest. Also got briefly sucked in by the Eaton Literary Agency, which ultimately cost me about $1000 or so.
BTW, the “Read More” jump break that is added to the post seems to be broken. When I click on it, it gives me a “not found” error message. If you hover your mouse over the link, it starts with the “blogspot.com” addy. So I had to click on the “Home” page link in order to read the post all the way through. Thought you might want to now.
G.B. PublishAmerica roped in a lot of authors in their early days. I knew many who got caught up in their game. And you’re right that they advertised in some big-name trusted places like Writer’s Digest. Some vanity publishers have hooked up with big name publishers and scammed a lot of naive new writers. It’s always so sad.
And I apologize for that bad link. My inbox is bursting with complaints. I’ve got Johnny working on it. It has happened twice now. Obviously something is not working in the MailChimp set up we have now. We WILL get it fixed by next week.
I much appreciate that you jumped through the hoops to get to the right page. Thanks!
Same here — “Read more” didn’t work, had to go “Home.” I’m sure you’ll get it fixed, Anne; in the meantime we’ll find a way to get to your posts, no worries 🙂
Great stuff as always. Had a bit of trouble getting here, as I did last time. I receive my email from you and click on the link to the site, which brings me to another page that has me click again to read more, which send me to a search page where I can at least hit the home page for the most current article, which I have to click on the article to read. It’s roundabout, but I got here 🙂
Susan–I apologize for the bad link in the email. Johnny thought he’d fixed the problem but obviously not. We WILL get it fixed by next week or go back to the old system.
Thanks for being persistent and getting here anyway!
It amazes me that anyone uses a vanity press anymore, with so many options for indie publishing available!
On another note, I hope you all get the bugs squashed soon. Welcome to the world of WordPress!
SB–Thanks for the good wishes in the bug-squashing department! WordPress has a lot more options, but that means it has a lot more things that can go wrong. Ack!
I don’t want to put down the people who use a vanity or “subsidized” press. Sometimes it’s a good choice. Some of them do produce nicely bound keepsake books. For people who are not publishing professionally and don’t need to make money on the book, it can be much easier to have everything taken care of. (I used to be very happy to pay extra to have somebody pump my gas. I hate pumping my own gas. I wasn’t getting scammed. I was paying for a premium service.)
But that kind of writer needs to choose publishers carefully. Only use a subsidy press that is upfront about it. If a vanity press pretends to be a path to a professional writing career, it’s a scam.
Great pointers, Anne
I’ve seen many of these issues over the years but you fill in many gaps. Several friends used a Charity anthology a few years ago. But it was on the edge – a few well known people in there but it was paid. Part of that was for editing help, classes, and some group promotion. But the books profile was low and the organizers inexperienced. It was also long delayed, partly because some of the “authors” couldn’t even write enough for the editors to work with. I bought a copy to support my friends but much of it was dreadful.
The Mailchimp signup checkbox below this comment form is pre-selected and can’t be unchecked. Not a biggy as I’m already subscribed but somethings a little off there.
And yes – the Read More link isn’t working. It may be something in Mailchimp or the site setup. Occasionally with a migration, you import settings unintentionally.
David–Oh, no! I had no idea the MailChimp sign-up is pre-checked. How annoying! I’ll get JB on that one too. Poor guy. He’s getting a barrage of emails from me. (Our power went out here for a little while, so I didn’t get the complaints about the bad links right away. Sigh)
That’s a new wrinkle in problem anthologies! Paying up front to be in an anthology is iffy. Not a scam, but I’d think twice. The organizers should put up the money and pay themselves back with money from sales, IMO. Then further profits go to the charity. But if the authors have to pay up front, it should be an anthology of equals who all have followings already–and they should work equally hard on sales.
HI, Anne, want to second what you said about publishers taking ALL RIGHTS. This is not good for any writer. There will always be chances to reprint short stories, poems, etc. So never do this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reprinted my work after either one time or first rights were taken. Leaves you free to give your work, perhaps after a bit of revision since you know so much more now than you did then 🙂 a new life in another journal and magazine. As for checking out contracts. ABSOLUTELY. My publisher, JMS Books, only takes e book and print rights but for a short period of time. This is great because I knew I wanted to do an audio book of The Other Man –in progress–and have the work adapted for the stage. Done and we’re now looking for appropriate venues. So again, this is all good stuff and very valuable to any writer at any stage in his/her writing career. BRAVA! Hugs, Paul
Paul–I’m so glad you can comment now! We have to walk a fine line to keep out the spammers who have us under attack 24/7 and making the commenting process open and friendly.
You’re so right about how important it is to hang on the right to republish your work. Most of my short stories have been published many times. JMS Books sounds like the ideal small publisher. They “get” that an audiobook (or a play) will only increase the sales of the print or ebook, so everybody wins when they don’t get greedy.
So sad. It’s a good time to bring it up though, because though the holidays may bring out the best, it also brings out the worst.
Southpaw–You’re right about the holidays. It does bring out the nastiness as well as the kindness in people. When everybody is distracted is a good time to take advantage, if you’re the kind of person who does that.
Anne, the site looks great! You have worked so hard and it is paying off.
I had an agent for about a year who wanted me to pay him to write a screenplay treatment for the book that he was supposed to be presenting to publishers. He told me he could really see it as a made for TV movie and that was where the money was. He even called me a couple of times to try to convince me. I told him I was not interested in that service and even though we had a contract I never heard from him again. Which was exactly what I thought would happen. So many scammers out there. So sad.
Christine–Thanks! Unfortunately we seem to be under attack and every link on the blog is going dead. it’s a nightmare.
Oh, it sounds like you met the screenplay scam early on! Anytime people call you personally and pressure you into something, you can be pretty sure it’s not legit. There are a lot of scammers who pose as “agents” since there’s no certification required.
Anne, it’s like a free online horror short story to read this. Thanks, but you know, bbrrrr…
I’ve been fortunate to have a screenwriter as a best friend, an invaluable source of good advice for my own writing efforts and a man who can tell you every awful thing about writing for film. I think everything he’s done is incredible, and it’s been pretty heavy sledding for him. Someone promising to smooth that road, hah, sure.
Will–“Online horror story” is right! Every one of these scams is a tragedy for many hopeful new writers.
David Congalton has the same horror stories as your friend. He’s had a successful studio film and has others in the works. But I think his advice is the best: don’t give money to anybody in Hollywood unless it’s for a class that might teach you something valuable.
And the scam continues: Now after your entry into the “I’m a published poet” world is the “opportunity” for a 3 day convention package including air fare, hotel reservations and meals (seems the book publisher is also a tourist agency and seminar booker). Trophies and certificates are presented to the “top tier” winners and there are reading sessions where you can share poems and mix with your fellow poets. Famous successful poets (?)will speak, there will be writing workshops and the collegiality is so friendly and rewarding. You can also order a silver plated “memory plate” denoting your accomplishment for your living room or den and they make cherished heirlooms as well. Shucks folks, you are better off just buying my cartoon book from amazon or createspace for merely $15.00 (I get 87 cents royalty on each sale. I’ve sold two dozen books. Good thing I have social security and Florida pension) . Now for next month’s contest…
Actually I am now embarrassed to have been published in these anthologies and associated with all the “God is my copilot” and “you are my sweetheart” and “rainbow/sunrise elation” nauseating drivel.
The next scam are those new wave poet geniuses that have formed their own publishing firm and poets association and they promote their egos by publishing their own collections of verse and hold mini conventions to grant each other literary awards (also creations of the group). Perhaps this is not a scam but it is certainly a comical self aggrandizing and self deluding enterprise of manufactured greatness.
I am going to try to contact Mark Twain in Writers Heaven to do a satiric essay on the whole hullabaloo. In the meantime perhaps we can interest Dave Barry or Garrison Keillor to do the jog.
Carl–Wow. I sounds as if you’ve been through the anthology wars and lived to tell the tale. I had no idea that the scam poetry anthologies had branched into the phony conference scam market. What a racket! If you have any website urls for these people, could you send them along to me? I want to help keep other writers out of their clutches.
And better than getting Dave or Garrison to write the story, I think you should work at channeling Mark Twain yourself. This is a story that needs to be told and only you can tell it. You’ve been there, done that and got the “memory plated” t-shirt!
Thanks for sharing this new horror tale! Writer Beware!!!
ANNE: To be included in a sentence with Mark Twain is quite an honor. I used to go fishing on the Missippa with Mr. Clemens and Tom and Huck many years ago. Shared a snort of whiskey with him as well a time or two. I will try to remember to send you contest notifications the next time I get a “hey you haven’t sent us a poem in a while ” email. I did post a poem that got published (Just One Wish) on my blog – see Feb 3, 2012 I think it was including publisher info. I still remember how thrilled I was. So perhaps in a sense they are not scams because beside selling books they are making dreams come true for Aunt Louise or Grandma to have their poem actually “published”. I did buy into the idea that my copies would be treasured heirlooms for my children and grandchildren but then I woke up realizing the pages will probably be used to start the charcoal fire for a Bar-B-Q some weekend.
Carl–Alas, most of the other poems in the book will be utter dreck, so “children and grandchildren” will probably not cherish it. Getting a poem into a church newsletter or local contest would actually hold more prestige. I guess you’re right that Aunt Susie may be willing to pay that $60 for the “heirloom volume” but at some point somebody will pop her bubble (like the grandchildren who get that book as a “gift” instead of an actual present they could use). So it can lead to heartbreak.
Thanks for doing this! I’ll retweet your post so others can be on the lookout. Would you mind telling me which greeting card company you sold a poem to? I’ve been interested in getting into that. Thanks again!
Dale–Thanks much for the RTs! I can’t remember the name of the company. It was many years ago and I think they’re out of business now. But I think Blue Mountain Arts is one of the best for being open to freelancers and paying well They’re looking for more original verses than Hallmark and the other standard ones. http://www.sps.com/help/writers_guidelines.html Good luck!
I knew someone in High School who fell for the pay anthology scam. She was pissed at the teacher when he told her she had been scammed. Some people really want to believe the lie. Sometimes we really want to believe the lie.
Jesse–I hear you about people wanting to believe the lie. That’s why I didn’t tell my neighbor she’d been scammed. I figured the damage had been done, and mostly she didn’t know any published poets, so in her circle the lie might make her happy a little longer.
Ann, thank you so much. This post is priceless and so comprehensive.
Thanks for stopping by, Henya!
Anyone familiar with NEW READER MAGAZINE? My books are published. They want $5,000… promise 3 book stores minimum… marketing… cover of mag… attempts to sell in Scholastic Books… others, etc… basically acting as my agent… say they specialize in children’s books, etc. No rights given up… 70% author commission… they pay shipping, etc.
Matt–New Reader Magazine is a scam. Here’s what Writer Beware says. “it is ridiculously overpriced ($5,500 for an array of junk marketing services, such as an email marketing campaign), and provides none of the information you’d expect from a reputable PR service–such as staff biographies or examples of successful promotional campaigns–to enable you to judge its competence and success. My advice is to steer clear.”
How interesting,I was just contacted by “New Reader Magazine” for my book “38 Years.” Thanks Anne for the info,great blog.
Bob–Aren’t you glad you checked around before you took the bait? These scammers are everywhere and they seem to be proliferating. Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware is a writer’s best friend. She always has the latest news on scammers. Good luck with your book!
Do you have any information about contracts offered by New Readers Magazine?
Al–Danger, Will Robinson! New Reader Media approaches self-published authors and offers a publicity campaign for thousands of dollars up front. There is no evidence their campaigns are successful. Anybody who approaches writers asking for big bux is iffy. These guys look scary indeed. Stay away.
ATTENTION: if New Reader Magazine, New Reader Media, or New Reader International Consultancy, contacts anyone immediately call your regional FBI office and report them. Let’s all together stop these companies from taking advantage of writers.
I cannot thank you enough for this article and all the insightful comments from others. It just saved me having to deal with at least one scammer – New Reader magazine
Brian–New Reader magazine seems to be the most aggressive scammer these days. I hear about them all the time. Glad I saved you from them. 🙂
WRITERS BEWARE of BEYOND PUBLISHING in Dallas, TX. I almost took the bait because they introduced me to a bestselling childrens book who was sure he could sell a million copies..for a pricetag of only $17,000 your dream could be realized..omg..scammers..and frosting on the cake, he wanted 50% of all sales to boot! As soon as I called him on his scam, he got so nasty with me demanding the book be removed from his desk. Run,run, save yourself from these jerks.
Well this is an embarrassing thing to find in a self-google.
I have no idea who New Reader Magazine is and have never used their services.
DEFINITELY a sock puppet…
Glynn–I’m sorry to hear they used a real person’s name. I’ll delete it! These scammers are shameless!!
I received an email from Netflix that they will turn my book into a film. I got so excited and just couple of hours I got a phone call from Mr. William Borrough, he claimed that he was from New Reader Media and that he confirms that he worked with my previous marketing agent from the company and talked about netflix here and there. He said that the project was true and that I should just acquire my own license so that I can turn my book into movie with Netflix before the year ends. Mr. William borrough sounds really convincing and did not stop making follow-ups for the past weeks and when i made my payment, he just disappeared and never contacted me again. I called NRM but nobody is returning my calls. William just took my money and went away with it. He’s a total scam and I want everyone to be aware of this person.
Elaine–My heart goes out to you. You are not alone. New Reader Media has scammed 1000s of unsuspecting authors. This post is from 7 years ago. But your comment should go on the post I wrote last week on this scam: They’re (NOT) Gonna Put you in the Movies. I’m sure the guy who called himself William Borrough doesn’t exist. They use aliases and as soon as they have your money, they disappear. Do read my June 19, 2022 post. Click on the red link.
NRM is alive and kicking! I was just approached my some lady named Elaine Ross. Oh they promised me the works: a website, ad campaigns and movie trailer of my book they will present to movie studios. They will also adapt my book to a screenplay, and I could make $100,000 – $250,000 and earn 85% profit on movie sales! All I need to do is give them $13,500!!!!! LOL Sorry, Elaine, but this boy wasn’t born yesterday!
Daniel–$13,500! They’re upping the ante here. Wow. This seems to be the most active publishing scam out there right now. They are relentless. They’re trying to post a few comments here praising the outfit, but I know a sock puppet when I see one.