by Anne R. Allen
With the self-publishing revolution, we were warned of a “tsunami of crap,” but the real problem is the tsunami of scammers. They seem to invent a new way to scam writers every day. Not just indies, but the traditionally published as well.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of uninformed wannabe writers who fall for them. And some scammers are so persuasive they even con established authors.
Is there anything we can we do?
Yes! Educate people!
Here are some popular cons that scammers are inflicting on writers right now:
Scammers are Impersonating Well-Known Publishing Professionals
All scammers lie, but these people are especially shameless. They will claim to be a well-known agent, editor, book marketer, publicist, etc. Then they make websites that look legit, and skim photos from the real agent’s website. They even steal testimonials from clients of the real person and paste them into their bogus sites.
Then they start asking for money. They’ll get you a book deal, movie deal, guaranteed bestseller status, etc. Just send big bux.
Once you’ve sent the money, they either ask for more, or disappear.
I personally know a book marketer who was impersonated by these scammers. Trusting authors thought they were signing with her highly rated marketing company, but they were handing money over to thieves.
This hurt her bottom line as well as those of the victims, since the victims thought she was the scammer.
These days, we always have to Google a website instead of trusting a link in an email or social media post. It’s too easy to put up a bogus website.
Offers of a Dream Job Writing for a Streaming Service.
This is a heartbreaking one. Somebody “from Netflix” contacts you with an offer of a dream job writing a new series for them. It’s a work-from-home fantasy with a huge guaranteed salary.
You just need to fill out their forms — which give them all your personal information including bank accounts and social security numbers. Once these identity thieves have your information, they evaporate, never to be seen or heard from again — along with the contents of your bank account.
This is a variation on a very old work-from-home identity theft scam. Do a lot of research before you give that kind of information to anybody. Besides, there’s a writer’s strike on. They may not know it in the Philippines or Bangladesh where these scammers live, but you do.
Bogus Indie Book Contests
A no-name company runs a contest for self-published books, judged by no-name judges. The prize is an underwhelming “medallion” you can put on your book cover. (Maybe you will also win “consideration” for a fantastic grand prize that doesn’t exist.)
The price: $130-$200. Entering also puts you on their “sucker list” of people to solicit for further publishing scams.
Invent your own no-name contest, design your own medallion on Canva and save the $$$. 🙂 And always check out a contest’s history before you send your hard-earned money. Here’s a post by C. Hope Clark on how to tell good writing contests from the scams.
For more on these and other current scammer warnings, check Writer Beware.
10 Facts Every New Writer Needs to Know to Stay Safe from Scammers.
New writers often know very little about the publishing industry and how it works, and they’re usually full of hope and naïve optimism. Which makes them ideal targets for scammers. If you belong to a writer’s group or club where new writers congregate, spread the word. Save your friends from losing thousands of dollars — and getting their hearts broken — by sharing the following facts.
1. If you pay money up front, it’s not traditional publishing.
Not that you have to traditionally publish these days. Alli recently posted an article saying indie authors make more than most trad-pubbed ones. So if you want to self-publish, do it.
If you need help, use BookBaby or some other self-publishing assistant. Or go to Reedsy or Alli and find vetted editors and designers yourself.
But never do business with a vanity publisher who pretends to be a traditional one. They will rip you off and stomp on your dreams.
Yes, there’s such a thing as hybrid publishing, where you shoulder some of the costs of publication. However, many publishers who call themselves “hybrid” are really vanity presses in disguise, and new writers aren’t usually savvy enough to know the difference.
2. Literary agents don’t phone writers who have not queried them.
When most agents have slush piles the size of Everest, why would they? Maybe if you pitched to the agent at a conference and gave them your card you might get a call, but it’s not common. Especially if they’re calling about a self-published book that hasn’t sold.
3. Agents are not marketers or book promoters.
And agents don’t “endorse” or “nominate” a book. They represent it to publishers. There are some ignorant scammers out there who assume you’re even more ignorant than they are.
They will say a publisher / film studio / movie star is interested in your book. But it has to be “re-published” at great expense. You will have to pay major fees for “book insurance” and then they will “endorse” it to this major publisher, or “nominate” it for consideration by a film studio.
What a load of you-know-what.
Before you interact with someone who claims to be a literary agent, visit some agents’ blogs and read about what agents really do.
4. Nobody in the “Big 5” wants a failed, self-published book.
Sorry. I know that’s discouraging. But big publishers only want bestsellers. That means the book that hasn’t had any sales since your mom’s book club bought ten copies two years ago is not going to sell to a major publisher. Throwing money at it is a very bad idea.
Yes, even if somebody swears the Random Penguin hisownself is jonesing for your deathless prose.
I can 100% guarantee no Penguins are involved.
5. You don’t query agents or editors with a published copy of a book.
Even if you’ve previously published a book, if you’re approaching an editor, you send the manuscript, generally attached to an email as a Word document, double spaced, TNR font, standard margins. Never send a published (or re-published) book, no matter what the scammers tell you.
6. Netflix, Acorn, a famous Mexican film director and / or a movie star will not contact an unknown writer.
Bigwigs in the industry will have their people call your people. If you don’t have people — like an agent — they won’t want to do business with you. If anybody cold-calls an unknown indie author and claims to be Reese Witherspoon or Guillermo Del Toro, or their representatives, they are scammers.
7. A website is not proof that a business is legitimate.
And a website full of typos and “Google translate” English is proof that it’s not. Always search for the website independently and don’t click on a link in an email or DM.
8. Marketing packages sold by vanity presses are worthless.
Millions of Tweets, placement at a book fair, spotlights, and interviews on unknown websites or podcasts, etc. will not sell books. Nor will absurd promises to get you interviewed by the NYT or People, or put you on a billboard in Times Square.
But they will empty your bank accounts.
9. If you pay a lot of money for a screenplay of your novel, what you have is an expensive screenplay, not a movie deal.
Scammers love to play on writers’ Hollywood dreams. They approach a writer with wild promises about how your book is perfect for film. Then there’s the little problem of a script. So, for a huge fee, they’ll get somebody to write one for you. They may send you the script, but then they’ll disappear.
Pretty much everybody in the greater LA area has a screenplay. The chances that yours will be picked up by a big studio are about 9.83 million to one.
10. Republishing isn’t a thing: write a new book
A lot of these scams involve “republishing” an old, self-published book that has low sales. This is just plain dumb.
If you want to give a book a second life, give it a new cover and new blurbs, but keep the original retail sales page. Republishing erases all your reviews and links to your page.
Or if there aren’t any reviews, and nobody read it or promoted it, unpublish, get a real editor, give it a new title, and sell it as a new book. An excellent editor will not cost as much as these scammers are trying to squeeze out of you for “republishing.”
But what has the most chance of success is a brand new book. We learn with every book we write, so the next one is going to be that much better.
So ignore the scammers and go write that new book!
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) May 7, 2023
What about you, scriveners? Have you ever been taken in by publishing scammers? Do you wonder how to keep a friend from falling for one of these schemes? Did you ever have to tell a writer friend they’d been scammed?
For another post on protecting yourself from scammers, including links to many more, check out Publishing Scammers Are Everywhere
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Thanks for getting the word out. Who knows how many writers this post saved from an expensive, deflating experience.
CS–I hope this does reach a few potential victims. It’s so tragic to read what victims go through. At first they’re in denial, sure they’ll get their money back as soon as their contact returns their phone calls, because he promised a money-back guarantee. Then they finally realize there is no there there, and their “contact” at the “company” never existed.
Anne—Thanks for an excellent post alerting new writers about the sleazy cockroaches out there waiting to prey on them. Honestly, I’ve gotten to think that writer scams are *the* Oldest Profession. Who knows? Somewhere, someday an archaeologist is going to find cuneiform tablets selling shady deals to ancient poets and philosophers searching for a nod from Cicero, Aristotle or Plato. Don’t bet against it!
Ruth–I think “cockroach” is a great way to describe them. They multiply like vermin. I think you’re right that they’ve always been there, preying on anybody with writing dreams. But today’s tech makes such a comfy environment for them to thrive.
That certainly makes sense no one wants a book that’s already published. And that agents aren’t going to call out of the blue!
There are so many contests out there these days, writers really need to research to make sure they’ve found a legit one.
Alex–You’d think this would be no-brainer stuff. But I think writers are dazzled by the tales of fairly unknown books being picked up by streaming services a few years ago. They figure now everything has changed, so maybe agents’ roles have changed too. They haven’t.
Excellent post, Anne.
JR–Thanks!
Good info. Thanks for posting.
I think an unfortunate side effect of all the scammy book awards is award inflation. Everyone is an award-winning author, it seems.
Liz–“Award inflation” is a great phrase. I hadn’t heard it before, but it sure is a problem. The president of a local writing club contacted me, gobsmacked by all the authors who wanted to announce a recent award in the newsletter. Seems half the club had recently won a book award. She smelled a scam, and she was right.
I’ve written more than a few blog/Facebook posts about dealing with vanity publishers, both on a semi-professional level and a personal annoyance level. I’m currently on the down portion of my vanity publisher harassment cycle right now, so I’m not seeing a lot of sponsored ads on my FB feed nor at my Yahoo e-mail presently. Did get one about at another addy of mine, but got rid of them by pestering the person to let me use her c/c to make a purchase.
Bottom line advice: Do not, under any circumstances with any of the large vanity publishers (like ASI). At the very least, they will sell your contact info to other like minded people and you’ll get bombarded by them.
Note: Anne, you just gave me a great idea for a blog post. Many thanks.
GB–I’ll be interested in reading that blogpost! Yes, Author Solutions is still alive and scamming. Their favorite pigeons are inspirational and religious writers, and they still have “partnerships” with Hay House and Thomas Nelson, both venerable inspirational publishers. But they have a “self-publishing option” which has nothing to do with Hay House or Thomas Nelson, except they’re advertised on those legit websites. But they’re 100% run by Author Solutions–although that name never appears on the site. It’s so sad. They have all the trusting, optimistic marks they want. I warned one author who was taken in to avoid the pricey marketing packages after her book is published and she said they’d started calling her with pitches almost from day one. Just tragic, since the author has a great book.
Another great post, Anne. I get phone calls every couple of months about one of my books that someone wants to talk to me about, etc. I know that reputable people don’t cold-call unknown not-famous authors such as myself, out of the blue, wanting to talk about my fabulous book. Delete, delete, delete the phone number! Just as the Social Security Administration doesn’t call you, neither do any reputable book people!
Patricia–I had those scammers phoning my landline at 6 and 7 in the morning. I didn’t pick up at first, but they left voicemail. Finally I picked up and told them to Google “Publishing Scams.” This blog is the first non-sponsored article that comes up. That seems to have got rid of them.
It’s heart-breaking, how eager new writers are to be published. We’ve all been there, and this blog today is so valuable, Anne. I’ll be sharing it with some of my younger hopefuls. Thank you once again!
Melodie–We have all been there. When I started writing novels, I used to visualize Oprah putting my book in her book club. We all want to believe in miracles. But if this blog can save even one of those dewy-eyed newbies from heartbreak, writing this will be worthwhile.
Thanks for the great refresher on scams, Anne. The link to Writer’s Beware and several links to your blog’s sage advice about scams are always the first things I give my new author clients. Most are first-book-ers and may be well-informed generally, but every one of them remark later that they learned something new.
Being an editor is my dream job (since the forlorn novels ‘in the drawer’ all have abandonment issues) and it’s so gratifying to clue-up these relative newbies with ‘look out!’ alerts.
You and Ruth are fabulous support!
Maria D.
Maria–What a great idea to give links to scam info to first-book-ers. I wish more editors did. Those newbies who think they know the ropes can be the most vulnerable. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. 🙂
Anne, you and Victoria Strauss are the guardian angels of naive, unsuspecting writers!
in 2018 at Book Expo in NYC, I met a lovely family–grandpa, mom, and grandson. They proudly said Grandpa’s book had been published by a giant name publisher. Mom had taken off work, grandson took off from school, and they had traveled at considerable expense from out of state, to celebrate Grandpa’s success.
Only it turned out to be the vanity arm of the giant publisher. They charged thousands of dollars to display the book where hundreds of people passed by but no one stopped at the notorious vanity press booth.
Broke my heart for the family and infuriated me that the giant publisher would lend its once-respectable name to scam unsuspecting authors.
Debbie–I am in awe of Victoria and all the work she does for writers. I’m kind of her fangirl. That whole horrible scam-o-rama a few years ago when Author Solutions “partnered” with Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, etc, was a nightmare for so many writers. The big houses got so many lawsuits because of the deception, they dropped ASI. But ASI still has a “self-publishing” option at Hay House, Thomas Nelson, and other inspirational publishers. They never admit they’re ASI, but have names like “Balboa Press” and “Westbow.” A good friend of mine got taken in by them this month. Optimistic, inspirational authors are the most likely to believe the (often very convincing) lies these people tell.
After dealing with grade inflation for the past 30 years, I thought award inflation fit.
🙂
Thanks for this valuable information, Anne. It seems there’s no end to the clever schemes scammers have to separate us from our money. But the promise of a book contract adds a level of cruelty to it.
I think we should develop a special prison system for scammers who’ve been convicted. Maybe have the cells equipped with the sound of coins dropping onto a metal plate 24 hours every day..
Kay–They’re so creative. Think what they could do if they used that creativity to do good instead of evil. I agree about punishment. Sometimes I think we should bring back public executions, and give scammers the death penalty. The executions could be shown online as pay-per-view. People who had been scammed by them could all watch. (Well, I don’t really, but when they wake me up at 6 AM, sometimes I forget I’m against the death penalty.)
Thanks, Anne, for a great piece. I got caught up with a vanity publisher for my first book and it got published but little else. I’m going to pass this along to all my writing friends.
I have a question: if we were so fortunate to pique a studio’s interest in our book, how would they contact us? Through our agent or by letter (if we don’t have an agent) directly to us? I’ve had numerous texts and emails about a book I published four years ago, many promising the very rewards you wrote about, and I don’t trust any of them. So, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? How would a legitimate studio or agent contact you to convey their interest in your manuscript?
Thanks,
Frank
Frank–This is like worrying what you’re going to wear when you take the little green men whose saucer landed on your roof to the White House. 🙂 Probably not going to happen. As I said, agents don’t contact authors who haven’t queried them.
But if your indie book is making bestseller lists all over the world, you might hear from some agent who wants Brazilian rights or translation rights for a French language version. That would probably be by email. That’s how I heard from a French translator who’s legit. Film studios–who knows? With the writer’s strike, they might reach out to unknowns. But then you’d be crossing picket lines. Not a good career move. And I can guarantee all those texts and emails are bogus. Probably all from the same scam outfit in the Philippines that liked to wake me up at 6 AM, wanting to republish an out of print small press book from 2002.
BUT, what you do is Google the agency and the contact person’s name–don’t use any links in the email. Then you should contact that person at the agency. You will probably find out they’ve never heard of you and it’s all lies. But if they’re real, they’ll be happy to hear from you.
Thank you for this post. I’ve not been taken in by scammers, fortunately. This post may save many more from such people.
The only potential scam I had was one saying my book had won an award (for which I hadn’t entered).
If you haven’t entered, you can’t win!
VM–Don’t you love it when you win a contest you didn’t enter? That’s happened to me a few times. Some writers are amazingly gullible.
Excellent advice, Anne.
Ugh. My inbox gets slammed with alleged contests and book awards that nobody’s ever heard about. Scammers and pirates are the lowest of the low.
Sue–I agree! These people are such slime. And they’re everywhere. No-name contests seem to be a big thing right now. As I say, make your own award sticker. It will mean exactly the same.
Legit publishers allowing their names to be used to scam unsuspecting authors, which has been going on for a while now, is one of the most reprehensible things I have ever seen any publishing house do. It pays to be very, very careful who we do business with.
JR–That scam is so heartbreaking. Most of the big publishers shed ASI after a few lawsuits, but some are still at it–lurking on legit publishing websites. A friend just got scammed by them. It seemed so real to her, she didn’t even think to ask me about it. 🙁
If I can add just a little to Anne’s answer, Writers Beware, that has a link in Anne’s article, is very accessible and has an extensive list of who not to do business with. Victoria Strauss is also great about answering a question if you do not find an answer on their website. If you think one might be legit, that is where I would strongly suggest you look.
In my experience, an unknown author is just not going to be contacted by a studio, although it happens on rare occasion to be contacted by a producer interested in shopping a novel. When that happened to me, a third party company contacted asking permission to pass my contact information to the producer’s agent. Then the agent contacted me and set up a meet with the producer and for about a year, he had an option. That seems to be typical.
Most options come to nothing, which is what happened in my case. But at each step I checked out the bona fides of the people involved. And even that happens only rarely to indie authors. I have been indie publishing for fifteen years with some novels that have sold very well and it happened once. I’m not holding my breath for it to happen again. 😜
JR–Absolutely! Writer Beware is the first place to look. Victoria is like a writer’s patron saint. But I think your experience was typical. Their people will call your people. That’s the Hollywood way. Early in my career I had a producer option my very first book–a serial published in a local entertainment weekly. He was very indie, so he didn’t exactly have “people” but he had a friend introduce us so we could talk about it. As with most options, nothing came of that one either.
Very wise advice, Anne, and I’ve seen many of those in action. Thanks.
Olga–I’m sure there are more people out there scamming writers than there are writers to scam. These parasites are everywhere!