Meet the faculty, tour the campus and calculate the tuition of the University of Hard Knocks
by Ruth Harris
Scammers and con artists have been around publishing since writers were using chisels to carve words into stone tablets. They loot, cheat and steal. They’re the faculty of Hard Knocks U. and they are out to get you.
It’s a jungle out there.
- Lions want you for lunch—and not for the pleasure of your delightful company, either.
- Hyenas want to steal from you—even after you’re dead.
- Trickster foxes will sweet talk you—until it’s time for them to deliver on their promises.
- Snakes lurk in the underbrush, coiled and waiting to strike.
- And, if you think that’s bad, don’t forget about surly crocodiles, flesh eating piranhas, sharks and barracudas, growling bears, scorpions with sting and black widow spiders.
They are not stupid and they often come in disguise. They call themselves agents, editors, publishers, review services, book packagers, convention organizers, cover designers, e-book formatters, promo sites.
They will cost you time, money, shred your ego and make you feel like an idiot. They will send you to drugs, drink or therapy. You’d hire a hit man if you dared but you don’t because you don’t feel like spending years in jail.
How do they do it?
Let me count the ways.
- The “agent” who sits on your manuscript for eight months without making a single submission and doesn’t answer your emails or phone calls.
- Or that other agent, the one who sends you money but not all the money you’re owed and uses the rest to sunbathe and skinny dip with his/her latest fling on a remote Polynesian beach.
- The publisher who “forgets” to send you your share of the money for foreign sales. You might have money in Korea, Germany or Russia and never know it because—shhhh—no one’s talking. At least not to you.
- Publishers whose royalty statements are so opaque even Albert Einstein + Bill Gates combined couldn’t figure them out.
- The freelance editor who demands additional payment (ransom?) before s/he deigns to let you have your edited manuscript back.
- Keyword stuffing, category squatters, and page bloat: Scammers gaming the free books lists are stealing money from you. Chapter and verse described in detail by David Gaughran and Phoenix Sullivan and by Ann Christy. (This is a nasty new scam affecting the bottom line of anybody with books in KU, so be aware…Anne.)
- The disappearing cover designer, website guru or ebook formatter who takes your first half payment and fades somewhere into the night, never to be heard from again.
- The movie producer (who’s never produced anything except fairy dust and moon beams) who ties your book up in an option thus forcing you to turn down a legitimate and lucrative film deal.
- The reader with some kind of disability who emails you (and ten thousand other writers) and tells you she “loves” your book and would “love” to read it to her ailing husband but just can’t afford to buy a copy. Heard about this one? You’re tender-hearted, gift her a copy which she then returns and buys string bikinis on Amazon.
Thieves and scoundrels abound and, as a noted and very experienced literary and film lawyer once told a successful writer friend of mine, “They got ways to f*** you you haven’t even thought of yet.”
He wasn’t kidding.
Ever heard of the rolling break even?
Still wanna be a writer?
So now you know. Being a writer is grown-up activity for adults only and, if you decide to indulge, you will need a good lawyer, a good sense of perspective and a good sense of humor because, sometimes, the joke will be on you.
How to protect yourself—from vipers and vermin.
The first question is: does it pass the sniff test? If not, move on.
More caveats and cautions:
- If it sounds too good to be true…you know the rest.
- If a stranger offers to do something wonderful for you but would like some money first, hit the delete button.
- Beware the book fair and new title showcases, “full service” publishers and paid book signings. David Gaughran explains how these scams can cost you thousands.
- Publishers who charge a “submission fee.” Really?
- If an editor/formatter doesn’t post a list of prices on his/her site, flee. Here’s a freelancer’s guide to editorial prices.
- Writer Beware is devoted to alerting people to scams of all kinds.
- Nigeria!
- Author Solutions!
- Janice Hardy lays out a solid guide to the basics of how publishing works, valuable scam-busting info.
- Google the person’s or company’s name followed by the word scam or complaints.
- Turn to your network and your writer buddies to check out anyone new you’re thinking of doing business with.
- Join an author’s loop to ask for, offer and share info.
- Writers’ Cafe will keep you updated on the latest in scams.
- Preditors and Editors is filled with valuable info on what’s trustworthy and what’s not.
How to protect yourself—from yourself.
Take off your rose colored glasses. Replace them with reality lenses aka your bullshit detector. If you’re looking for acceptance, a seal of approval or even just a pat on the head, you’re not going to find it in publishing. Trust me on this. 😉
D is for desperation. Desperation to be published will stand in the way of your brains and common sense. Desperation will cause you to sign lousy contracts, fling yourself into the arms of a high-priced vanity publisher and otherwise prevent you from making wise decisions affecting your writing career.
F is for fantasy. Separate your fantasy—I’m gonna be rich, famous, happy—from reality. Most likely, you will be rejected, ridiculed, ignored. Why do you think horror stories (not the ones written by Stephen King) are Subject #1 whenever writers—especially TradPubbed writers—get together?
P is for passivity. Grow up and suck it up. Conquer your inner child and wish to be taken care of—if you’re enough of an adult to write a book, you’re enough of an adult to take care of yourself and watch out for the predators.
Money 101. Even if you’re not making any (or much) money right now, you may well make money—and possibly lots of it—in the future. Remember the boy/girl Scouts and Be Prepared. Don’t risk turning a windfall into a downfall.
Acquaint yourself with basic finance—budgets, investments, taxes, retirement accounts. Consult an accountant or ask for advice from a friend or family member who handles his/her money intelligently.
To start you off, here’s a list of legal tax deductions available to writers.
Self-rejecting behavior. Don’t reject yourself. There are loads of people out there ready to do the job for you. And lots of gotchas to trip you up.
Anne laid out 10 keys to writing the self-rejecting query. Don’t be Rodney Dangerfield!
Architect turned author Jeanne Kisacky takes the opposite approach and offers a run down of basic tips for writing an email query that actually gets read—all the way to the end.
Welcome to publishing’s Hard Knocks U. Wanna rumble?
by Ruth Harris (@RuthHarrisBooks) April 24, 2016
What about you, Scriveners? Have you ever been the target of a scammer? Pretty much every writer runs into some of these in our early writing days. Did you pay tuition at Hard Knocks University? What did you learn that you can share with your fellow writers? A quick note from Anne:
As you can see, we didn’t move back to Blogger. It turns out that Thomas Wolfe was right: you can’t go home again. We would have lost all our links and comments from the past six months if we had gone back to the old Blogger site.
So we’re still on WordPress, but we’ve moved to a new host.
The wonderful Barb Drozdowich of Bakerview Consulting in British Columbia has moved us to this new, simpler site. We’re still cleaning things up–a move always discombobulates something–but it should be easier and quicker to navigate and explore.
Barb is also a book review blogger and a regular reader of this blog. I can’t recommend her highly enough. Authors need to use a lot of tech these days, and if you’re not a techy person, it’s nice to know there’s somebody reliable you can call on for classes, tutorials, and services. She can build you a fabulous website or blog and teach you how to use it (and babysit you while you’re learning.) Barb is my hero right now.
I learned a lot from the big fancy site, but now I want to get back to writing fiction. The new Camilla book is begging to make it onto the page.
And I’m running a new series on my book blog: “Poisoning People for Fun and Profit“. This week I talk about digitalis, aka the pretty but deadly foxglove plant.
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BOOK OF THE WEEK
Thanks Ruth & Anne – It never ceases to amaze me that people work so hard to scam others. I just don’t get the payoff, but I am a simple dude. And may the new site be simpler, less expensive, & cause fewer headaches.
CS—The payoff is money and I don’t think they work very hard at their scams. They take advantage of naive or inexperienced authors or those who are so desperate they will sign up for almost anything. The KU scam seems to be handled mainly by computers so the amount of human work is minimal. It’s a tough world out there!
Ruth–Unfortunately, we keep having to go back to Hard Knocks U for refresher courses. 🙂 Even seasoned authors can be scammed or led astray again and again. Part of the problem is each time there’s new technology, somebody will figure out how to game it, like the blatant scammers who are playing Kindle Unlimited.
Apparently sometimes the top 20 books in a category will be nothing but a few paragraphs of text, then meaningless letters for 1000 pages, but there’s an incentive (like a chance at a gift card) to get people to click to the end. Then Amazon pays the scammer for 1000 pages read. KU is still a good place for indie authors to be, but with scammers getting a huge part of the pot, it’s looking less and less attractive and more like paying tuition at Hard Knocks U.
Anne—Thanks for chiming in and adding this. I’ve also read that scammers use something called a synonimizer (sp?), a tech program that just substitutes words without bothering to make sense of the text. Ergo, utter gibberish followed by a KU payment.
Love the new look.
Thanks, Anthony. Anne and Barb did all the work on our new look so the credit is theirs.
Sorry you couldn’t make the Blogger move, but simpler, new site sounds good.
Excellent list of sites to check for scams. Yes, if it sounds too good, it usually is.
Thanks, Alex. We’re still moving into our new home and getting comfy. 🙂
I love the new website and thanks for the helpful post Ruth.
Thanks, Eve. Glad you like our new look and happy to hear the post was helpful. 🙂
Curses! I have indeed encountered the ‘reader with a disability’! And I gifted her two books at once…and yes, she never wrote those reviews for the books she loved so much. And what were those returns on my publisher royalty statement?? I couldn’t believe what I was thinking. It was so uncharitable. Could this really have happened or was I just becoming cynical?
Excellent post, Ruth! I’m nodding again. And off to buy your book. I don’t have that one 🙂
Oh jeez, how awful. Sorry you got trapped by this one. Hope that string bikini fell apart on the first wearing.
Thanks for the purchase and hope you enjoy Chanel!
I fell for one of those on a Goodreads giveaway. Lady said her husband was a disabled vet. They’d entered the contest but their names hadn’t been drawn and they couldn’t afford my book. I bit, hook, line and sinker!
Afternoon ladies! I often wonder if scammers put even half as much energy into legitimate pursuits, would they be millionaires….??
Hi Barb! So glad you dropped by. We love our new home…thanks to you!
Scammers will scam. It’s in their DNA. To them, it’s the “easy” way. Probably profitable, too, or they wouldn’t bother.
So happy to hear that Ruth!! And I think you are very right, sadly!
I sort got lightly scammed by a FB friend in regards to a “book giveaway”. I gave her three copies of my first book to give away, more or less paid attention to what she posted throughout the year, then when I gently inquired about book, she threw a hissy fit and said that she did give them away and that I was tagged in the post (note, I’ve been tagged in a pic but once in 7 years on FB) and asked if I wanted to be paid for them. I told her no, that I already wrote them off on my taxes for that year. Stopped following her the day after that exchange.
GB, Sorry that happened to you. Stuff like that leaves an ugly feeling…and consequences…as you’ve pointed out. Thanks, though, for alerting us to yet another kind of predator.
Hi Ruth,
Great list, with some nasties I hadn’t heard of…yet.
As an independent editor (and writer), I have to pipe up and say that my fees aren’t listed on my website—for writing or editing. Not that I wouldn’t do so, but projects are always different for each author or client, and I like being able to fudge my rates downward to fit the budget of a project that intrigues me. Author budgets are often tight, so I like the flexibility of not posting rates. Plus, if they aren’t posted, a new client or author may be more inclined to contact me and begin a conversation. At that point, I have the opportunity of giving them very personalized support, including bundling costs, advising on less costly edit service solutions, etc.
Besides, I don’t know the actual state of a manuscript or the extend of the writing project until I have enough information to give an intelligent and accurate quote.
My ‘look out’ would be more to watch out for an editor that won’t discuss terms, give you a detailed, service-defined quote, or hedges responses to your queries about services.
I love your posts, Ruth — you bring out the rabble-rouser in me! oyes — love that link for critters–just now joined the critter pack!
Maria D’Marco
Maria, thanks! 🙂 Good heads up re negotiations concerning services. You’re right about needing detailed info before being able to give a more accurate quote…would make writers confident about dealing with you.
Hi Anne and Ruth, the new site is looking good! Glad you found your way to something satisfying. This is a very comprehensive list of scams to be aware of. Disturbing, but informative. The best thing a writer can do is keep their desperation in check. I think it’s the one thing that can really get writers into trouble–wanting to move too fast, wanting any deal instead of the best deal for them. Waiting is the hardest part of being a writer, I think. Thanks for the great post. Enjoy the week ahead!
Jan—Glad you like out new site! Couldn’t agree more about desperation. Leads to all kinds of bad decisions…writers need to develop patience and confidence. More easily said than done but nevertheless essential.
That Hardknock University is definitely worth attending. Repeatedly.
Sometimes it seems as though there are nothing but scammers who would love to take writers’ money. My favorites are the ones who say they have a sure fire method to get you ranking at the top of Amazon charts in just 30 days. Followed by the sure fire method to write a best selling book in (again) just 30 days – even if you hate to write, you too can become a best selling author and find your lost self esteem. As well as bagillions of dollars.
Good post, Ruth. You nailed it. If you want to be a writer, you write, take your hard knocks, learn, stay alert and hopefully sell a few books and make a little money along the way.
What a life, eh? 😀
Annie
Annie–I’ve decided that a term or two in hard knocks u is practically a rite of passage. No wonder long time writers tend to be on the cynical side. 😉
Hi Anne & Ruth, another good reminder of what to watch for. Glad you are staying with WordPress.
Thanks, Tracy. Waving from WordPress!
Waving back, Ruth! 🙂
Wow! So many ways to scam a writer, yet only 50 to leave a lover? Thanks for the reminder on the creativity of those who’ll work hard at taking advantage of others.
Thanks, Jennifer. LOL on ways to leave your lover. Love it!
I’ve been targeted many times – mostly through unsolicited emails offering me promotion and publishing services – but fortunately I’ve never been a victim. I know far too many writers who’ve been the victims, however, especially tech-unsavvy new writers who are desperate to get published and don’t know the red flags to look for. I appreciate your advice on how to avoid some of these scammers, especially your recommendation to check with other writers before investing any money into services.
E.D. Congratulations on your escapes! Long may you prevail! 🙂
Very good advice. This is something every writer should know from the get-go. Thanks, Anne.
Patricia, thanks!
Congrats on the new look and finding a new webhost, Anne. Good techies are like rare diamonds.
Appreciated the insights on scamming Ruth. l, too, fell for a wonderful Goodreads grandmother who would love to be a follower and review an arc of my book. But then her poor grandchild got sick, and she never had time. Sigh. At least I was only out the cost of a book and postage, and it wised me up.
Cat–this is one circumstance where once is more than enough! As my Mom used to say “once burned twice shy.” Fortunately the price wasn’t very high!
Glad you’ve sorted out the blog business Anne. And thanks for sharing your reliable opinion about someone (Barb) who can help out with WordPress issues. I’ve bookmarked. 🙂
Debby–I can’t tell you how relieved I am and how fantastic it is to find someone who is a WordPress expert like Barb. She offers courses and classes in WP and I’m about to take one. I’ve figured out a lot by trial and error, but it will be nice to actually be able to see the directions. 🙂
Sounds like you’ve winged a few things as I have. I’ll definitely be contacting Barb. Thanks again Anne for your always informative posts. 🙂
Really great post, Ruth. Wish I’d had this to refer to before I had my anthology tied up with a pseudo-agent who did nada, zip, for me and my writers. Great list of links, too. Here I go-a-bookmarking.( I think there’s a song in there somewhere.) Another priceless post. Thank you both. Paul
Paul, sorry you’ve had to add to the legion of agent horror stories! Writers, listen to Paul and Beware. Know what you’re doing before you get involved or, worse, sign up!
The new site looks great, clean and simple. And thanks for all the great advice, Ruth. Seems the world has gone crazy and there are so many ways for all that crazy to sneak in and spit all over people who just want to tell a story or sing a song or make pretty pictures. Sigh.
Christine, glad you like our new site, too! Lots of scammers and cheats out there for writers to watch out for. Being cheated is such an awful feeling!