by Anne R. Allen
Writing scams aren’t just for newbies anymore. A few weeks ago, publishing guru Jane Friedman discovered unfamiliar books on her Goodreads author page. She also found them on Amazon — published in her name. She realized they were probably AI written and very low quality.
At first Amazon refused to remove them because Jane hasn’t trademarked her name. (Few authors trademark their names.) Finally, after some nudging from the Author’s Guild, plus the negative reaction in the mainstream press, Amazon complied and took them down. Goodreads also finally removed the books from her profile.
But her experience turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.
As soon as she posted about the scam on social media, she heard from a lot of authors who had experienced the same thing. One author discovered nearly 30 fake books with her name on them. Authors have had complaints from readers disappointed in the quality of their latest books. But the authors didn’t have any new releases and didn’t recognize the titles.
Some authors were able to get the books taken down. John Doppler of Alli advises them to use the words “misleading customer experience” when dealing with Amazon. If you’re trad-pubbed, your publisher should be able to deal with the scammers. If you’re indie, do contact Alli — The Alliance for Independent Authors — for further help.
As Jane said, “What’s frightening is that this can happen to anyone with a name that has reputation, status, demand that someone sees a way to profit off of.”
Jane has more warnings on her blog today about how AI generated books can hurt indie authors.
But any writer who has established a brand — trad-pubbed or indie — can have this happen to them. So keep your eyes peeled. These people can destroy a thriving career.
The “Logan Crawford” Interviews—Writing Scams or Overpriced Marketing?
Authors are getting phone calls from charming people with Filipino accents who tell them Emmy-award winning actor Logan Crawford loves their book and wants to interview them — for the small fee of $1000+.
Logan Crawford is a real actor. But even when on strike, I doubt anybody could read as many books as this man has supposedly read.
He apparently does interview authors, and his interviews appear on some free streaming services like Roku TV. But this is not like being on NPR, network TV or the big streamers. The interview isn’t likely to be seen by 1000 people who read books, much less generate the money to cover the cost of the interview.
Actors are on strike because they are so wretchedly underpaid in the days of streaming. So I don’t blame Mr. Crawford for accepting a job to pay a few bills. But I’ll bet he doesn’t get much of the money generated by this outfit.
The Hollywood oligarchs need to get their heads screwed on straight and start paying content creators, but authors don’t need to contribute to the cause this way.
Don’t pay to be interviewed. Network with your local TV, radio station or newspapers and you’re much more likely to reach interested readers, and it will be free.
You can read all the details from people who have been approached by the interview sellers on author Deborah Jay’s blog and in the comment thread. It makes fascinating reading.
Scammers Impersonating Well-Known Publishing Professionals
Jane Friedman isn’t the only well-known publishing professional being targeted by writing scams.
Another gang are impersonating high-profile agents and editors in order to hook victims into another “republishing” scam. They have even impersonated author and industry watchdog Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, portraying her as a literary agent and publisher (which she’s not) who’s dying to republish your failed self-published book. And please send lots of cash.
These scammers use a real agent’s name and a photo or logo stolen from the real agency’s website. Then they contact indie authors of moribund books in order to con them out of 1000s of dollars.
This is a version of a writing scam that’s been around for a few years. They con writers with the myth that republishing a failed title will magically get it into the Big 5 publishing companies. But now they’re stealing the names of well-known editors and agents to do it.
And, as I have said before, “republishing” isn’t a thing. That’s not how the publishing industry works. Nobody in the Big 5 is interested in a book that has failed to sell. If a book never sold and never got good reviews, write another book. That one’s dead. You can unpublish it and give it a new title and an extensive rewrite, or you can let it rest in peace.
Fake Literary Agency Writing Scams—They’re Ba-a-ack
Back in the early 2000s, there were a lot of fake literary agencies who made their money by charging writers fees for “reading” and “copying and mailing.” They also got kickbacks from substandard editing services where they referred their “clients.”
These faded in the digital age, when copying and mailing went the way of the Blockbuster store.
But there’s a new kind of fake literary agency afoot, jumping on the republishing train. Like the agent-impersonators, they don’t wait for a slush pile to come to them. Instead, they troll Amazon for low-selling indie books.
They contact the authors, saying they have an editor or Hollywood producer champing at the bit to acquire their deathless prose.
Once authors are hooked, they’re asked to jump through one hoop after another. Each one requires a payment of several thousand dollars. First, there’s editing, which will be provided by their own scammy partner — just like the old days.
But then you’ll need “book insurance,” a “foreign market license,” “advertising fees” and as many other bogus fees as their rich imaginations can come up with.
If they’re dangling the Hollywood carrot, you’ll also need to pay to have a screenplay written. (They might promise to let you have a hand in the writing!)
The pressure doesn’t stop. They’ll keep demanding more money: for book fair placement, New York Times ads, radio interviews, etc. Who knows — they may even offer a TV interview with Logan Crawford. 😊
If you stop paying, they ghost you, and whatever you’ve paid is gone. They pretend to be in the US, but they’re overseas, so US or UK law enforcement can’t reach them. Victoria Strauss reports authors have lost up to $300,000 to these crooks.
Scam Vanity Publishers Are Still Attached to Some Traditional Publishing Houses
Author Solutions isn’t dead, in spite of all the lawsuits. The notorious vanity press no longer has ties to the big 5 publishing houses the way it did several years ago. But it still poses as the “self-publishing wing” of several well-known Christian and Inspirational publishing houses.
The latest ruse is “free workshops” advertised on Facebook and elsewhere. They actually give real feedback on your work. But anybody signed up for a workshop gets pressured to pay for vanity publication. More on this at Authors Publish.
“Vanity” or subsidized publishing is not always a scam. But it’s expensive and can be disruptive when they push worthless marketing packages. Their hard-sell phone solicitors can keep harassing victims for years.
Vanity presses charge high prices for their services so the books themselves are expensive. Don’t use them if you hope to turn a profit. Generally bookstores won’t carry vanity press books and people in the industry look down on them.
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. But I’d recommend competitively-priced packages at BookBaby or Lulu, not higher-priced vanity presses.
Run away from vanity publishers that pretend to be traditional publishers. They don’t tell you until your book is “accepted” that you need to “contribute” to your publishing fees (much higher than what a legit self-publishing company will charge.)
They play on newbies’ dreams of being traditionally published. By pretending to be selective, they con authors into thinking they’ve passed a gatekeeper test and they’re validated as “real authors.” But the books often have no distribution. You can end up with a carton of expensive books to sell out of the trunk of your car.
***
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) August 20, 2023
What about you, scriveners? Have you been contacted by any of these writing scams? Have you checked your Goodreads profile to make sure nobody’s writing books in your name? What about Logan Crawford? Have his people contacted your people?
For more on writing scams, check out my post on publishing scammers, which has links to another 10 posts on stuff to watch out for.
Remember we don’t monetize this blog, so you’ve got no annoying ads or popups. Ruth and I write these posts every week to give back, and help new writers, but we’d love it if you’d return the love by picking up our books once in a while. And today, there’s a SALE on my newest mystery!
BOOK OF THE WEEK
99c Countdown!! Only 99c for 5 days in the US and 99P in the UK on Amazon.
(Sorry I can’t include Canada or Oz. Amazon’s silly rules.)
99c SALE August 19-August 25
Romance scams are even more plentiful than writing scams. In this new Camilla Randall mystery, a romance scam leads to murder, and it’s up to Camilla, her cat Buckingham, and two ‘tween Nancy Drew wannabes to find the killer.
Book available in ebook and paperback at Amazon and paperback at Barnes and Noble
and your local bookstore can order it through Ingram
Thanks for the warnings and explanations. Much appreciated.
I guess if no AI is scamming fake books in my name, I’m not important (read: PROFITABLE) enough. No news, there.
Meanwhile, anyone here heard of, had dealings with or a member of the IAPWE (International Assoc. of Professional Writers & Editors)?
They are currently advertising WIDELY (on Craig’s List…!?!) for:
1) “freelance writers,” promising $100/article, or $20/100 words, and requiring very little in the way of documentation or skills-assessment to apply;
and, on their own website, 2) staff to fill “administrative roles to help us identify and verify additional writing and editing job opportunities for our members.” No other details provided; have to email them to find out more. I have.
Their website seems legit, but so do so many these days.
All experiences with this organization welcomed. http://iapwe.org gets you there.
Thanks!
Sally–Thanks for bringing up this outfit! It looks as if they may not be exactly a scam, but they are definitely not worth your money. They want a monthly fee to give you access to job listings, which are available elsewhere for free. Here’s what Reedsy says: “IAPWE’s selection and vetting process, lack of transparency, and overall bang-for-your-undetermined-buck does little for their credibility and — scam or not — professional writers and editors might be better served spending their time and money elsewhere.”
“Writing scams,” aka the world’s second oldest profession. Thanks Anne for the warning!
An old friend & well known editor started his career working for a scammy agent who offered “fee reading.” The “readers,” young and inexperienced, were underpaid and over-exploited, and assigned over-the-transom submissions. The faster they could “read” and write the required one-page report, the more they got paid. So you can imagine the quality of the “editorial service” on offer.
To protect yourself, just abide by a basic rule: the author gets paid. The author does *not* do the paying. Period.
Ruth–That’s the most important rule in the publishing business: the author gets paid! So many scammers are out there these days, that I often run into newbies who say they “can’t afford” to be traditionally published. So sad!
Hey fans of Anne’s blog —
If all this scam stuff has put your panties in a wad, & you haven’t already done so, try out Anne’s fiction. Her new book, *Catfishing in America* is a compelling read. Fascinating, edge-of-the-bell-curve characters, rollicking fun, an unlikely murder, fingernail clues + catfishing all add up to a hysterically fun read — the perfect panacea for scam-induced depression!
CS–You’re a sweetie! Thanks for recommending the book. It is a great escape read. And such a deal!
I’ve been getting tons of junk calls from people who supposedly do marketing and publicity. They know my name, and the name of one of my books, but it’s almost always one that’s a few years old. At first I thought they were real firms and I could get them to stop calling me by asking. But these days they use a different number every time they call so their calls can’t be blocked, and that tells you everything you need to know.
Catherine– OMG!! That shows nobody’s immune. You’d think they’d notice you’re a NYT bestselling author with a high profile movie and over 3 million books sold. But they’re in the Philippines, so I guess they have no idea. I got harassed by a similar outfit a while ago. They wanted to market my 20 year old out of print book Food of Love and had no idea I’ve written 14 books since. I have no idea where they’re finding us, since Amazon lists all our current books. I finally got them to stop by the old-fashioned technique of screaming obscenities. They always phoned me between 6 and 7 AM, waking me up. So I told them if they ever called my %&*! number again, I’d !&*%ing report them to the FBI. Not a peep out of them since.
Well, noticing all that would require some time and attention. Cold call scamming seems to rely on big numbers, a wide net. Yesterday I got two emails from someone from another country who wanted to tell me he could navigate the complex world of Amazon promotion for me. Dude, my publisher *is* Amazon. I think they can navigate it pretty well, too.
Catherine–Their assumption seems to be that all authors are self-published. I guess there must be so many more self-publishers than trad-pubbers that they can ignore traditional publishing altogether. That’s kind of scary.
Thanks as always Anne. To me, it’s the republishing scam that hurts the worst. Most authors genuinely feel that their first books SHOULD have sold well. They fall to the reasoning that it just needs a boost… almost like they’re apologizing to the book for doing a lousy marketing job.
Particularly something like epic fantasy, which I write, there’s an enormous arc of related storytelling and you figure that early one would be more relevant if only… and it can be of course, that’s what the back shelf is all about. But scammers, like shingles, don’t care.
Will–Scammers are like shingles! 🙂 Thanks for the insight here. Yes, first novels generally don’t sell well, so it makes perfect sense that authors might feel they’d “failed” that debut book somehow. So the offer of a do-over appeals to that “author guilt”. These people may not know anything about the publishing industry, but they do know about how to appeal to peoples’ vulnerabilities.
Between the scammers and the book pirating sites, it seems the publishing industry is well on its way to becoming untenable.
Liz–I fear the publishing industry is in decline. Not so much because of pirates–I don’t worry about them. It’s giving away free books, but we do that for publicity anyway. And often the pirates are in areas that have no access to Amazon. I’m more frightened of AI. I think the market is about to be saturated with junk books like the ones Jane found with her name on them.
Anne, thank you for reporting on these scams. I‘m still a long way from publishing anything, but it‘s good to be prepared, regardless.
I‘ve also read Jane Friedman‘s account and it‘s appalling! I just don‘t get why big players like Amazon can be so great with buyers yet so horrible with sellers. One would think that they lose money themselves this way…
Since I‘m still „only“ a reader out there, my mind immediately jumped to ways I can varify an author when in doubt. I‘m taking the liberty to remind authors that though these scams are horrible, there are places they CAN control: Their own websites! I have come across quite a few author websites that had outdated and/or confusing book pages. I once saw a „legitimate“ author-confusion on Amazon because of name similarity, that could‘ve been diminished by listing these books on the author‘s own website.
Also, „claim“ that Amazon author page and tell me where to find you if the ‘Zon gets confused again. I AM willing to put in some work as a reader if necessary – make it easy for me 🙂
Tina–Thanks for the important reminder! The safest place for a writer is their own website. And we need to keep them updated. (Reminder to self: I know my bio page needs a refresh) And we MUST claim and monitor our Amazon author page. It’s good to do that in as many countries as you can. A confused reader is not going to buy your book.
I’d heard what happened to Jane and will do better at checking Amazon and Goodreads.
And I know writers have crazy big dreams, but paying all that money? Surly alarm bells don’t start going off when the scammers start asking for four figures to start covering all of that stuff.
Alex–You’re so right. These victims must not know any real working writers, or they’d know we don’t make that kind of money. I think the scammers are banking on people knowing nothing about publishing except “Pop Princess gets 2 million for her children’s book.” These are the people who think everybody gets a 2 million advance for a debut book.
Alongside the danger of getting caught out, scams are such timewasters! Much like getting your accounts hacked or even cloned – as if we don’t already have tons of demands on our precious time 🙁
Re the Logan Crawford interviews, I had a sudden deluge of dubiously written comments telling me how wonderful he was, and what a fantastic service Prime Seven Media offers and how successful it can be. Seven such comments all on the same day.
Thankfully they were all held for approval which, needless to say, I did not give them.
Of course I could be wrong, they might be genuine…
Deborah–I’m so glad you stopped by. Reading your blogpost about these interviews is fascinating. There’s no better sign that the whole thing is a scam than a barrage of fake positive comments. But yes, they might be genuine…and the tooth fairy might be real 🙂
What a coincidence Anne. I came across Jane’s article last week, mentioned in the Kindlepreneur’s newsletter, and wrote a post going out next week about the A.I. scammers. Thanks for sharing all the new scams to look out for, as though there aren’t enough, lol. 🙂
Debby–Yeah, as if there aren’t enough! I’ll look forward to your post on AI scammers. I fear we’ll have lots more.
Anne, thanks for another eye-opening post. I just returned home from the Killer Nashville conference where there were many new/pre-published authors eager for information. While scams weren’t a major topic of conversation, their questions were a reminder that there are always newcomers to the publishing industry who benefit from hearing home truths from those of us who have been in the trenches for awhile. I always refer them to this blog and to Jane Friedman, too. Keep up the good work!!
Carmen–Congratulations on your Best Historical Thriller prize in Nashville! You’re so right that newbie’s questions show us how vulnerable they are to scammers. The ones who say “I can’t afford to be traditionally published” practically make me cry. Thanks much for referring them here!
I get a lot of scammy e-mails at my old, albeit still functioning, Yahoo addys. About once a month I log in, find up to a half dozen dubious e-mails, then I go to town insulting everything about them and their company. Sometimes they actually respond with more dubious claims (mostly about Writer’s Beware), but usually they don’t.
I only get these at my Yahoo, simply because I had the unfortunate experience of personally dealing with ASI a decade and a half ago, and that was the only email addy of mine they could sell.
GB–Yes, on top of everything, they sell your email address to other scammers. They are such slime. The scam companies that are the spawn of Author Solutions are the most relentless. And they’ve declared war on Victoria Strauss. They can’t believe she’s not doing this for money. They keep trying to pin nefarious schemes on her, but she’s not a “rival”. She’s an author like us who cares about helping newbies. Scammers would never understand people who do good.
Thanks Anne. No doubts I fear. 🙂
A couple months ago, I received an email from one of these firms, telling me I had to send them the screenplay I’ve written based on my novel, so they can turn it into a blockbuster film, then proceeded to tell me they’d get in touch with the author for permission. (Some such nonsense.) I haven’t written a screenplay, for my novel or for anything else. I suppose they hoped I wouldn’t make the connection (“duh!”) that I was both the author and (supposedly) the screenplay writer of my own book.
I save a few of these in a special folder called “They Wanna Make Me Famous!” It’s good for a moment’s amusement now and then.
Sally–That’s a new one for me!! Wow. I guess so many writers must have unsold screenplays that they figure any random author they email will probably have one. Too funny that they planned to “get in touch with the author.” I have a folder for outrageous spam called “This is not Spam”. 🙂 But I should probably keep one like yours. It could make hilarious reading. Thanks for giving me a heads-up about this one.
Dear Anne and Ruth:
A few weeks ago you ran a post featuring, Eight Ways Not to Start a Novel. One of the points was not to begin a piece with a dream. I can’t tell you how right you were.
Indeed I did do just that with a novel I am working on. But after reading your blog, I decided to take another look at what I had going. Not because I thought it was bad, honestly I still think it is pretty good. Not only well written and interesting, and I think I know a thing or two about writing, but using a dream sequence opening fit so well with the genre’ (realistic horror) that I was rather (I think justifiably) proud of the result.
Many years ago, I remember the Peanuts comic strip featured Snoopy’s adventures as an author. At one point he reads back a sentence he had written, smiles, and hugs himself, and said, “MMMM! It’s exciting when you just know what you’ve written is good!”
Which is what I was feeling. Seriously. And I didn’t want to lose that.
Only because I respect the hell out of you did I take one more read. Well, several more reads. Maybe three. No, it was four.
Or so.
And I cussed you out each time.
Damn, I really liked it!
But you were right. Dreams cause a reader to invest in characters and situations only to have the vision evaporate leaving an audience with a fat lot of nothing.
Damn.
BUT WAIT! THERE IS MORE WORSER TO COME!!
Because when I rewrote the opening, the result was so strong my Beta person said, “MMMM! It’s exciting when you write something good.”
I used the dream in the second chapter and it worked much better there as the reader knew it was part of the plot, and could enjoy it.
Thank you, and please keep writing.
So, there.
Mark–I’m so glad our lesson finally made sense to you. And I’m glad you saved that dream to use in a better place. I have written some good dream sequences I had to delete. Made me sad. Dreams can be so problematic. This morning I was musing about the dream ballet in Oklahoma, which a lot of directors will simply cut from the production because it requires the cast to be ballet dancers. It does enrich the play, but it works fine without it.
The Tooth Fairy must be real: I got paid when I lost a tooth, but I had to pay to get a new one in its place.
Sally–Tell me about it! I’m about to go broke paying for a dental implant. Over $10,000! Grrrr.
Mark—Anne and I love to hear that our advice really helps! Between us we’ve spent years (decades) as editors and writers. Sharing what we’ve learned — so often the hard way —is our reward. Thank you for taking the time to comment. It means a lot!
I have a popular podcast where I interview guests. I get pitches to be on the podcast every day. It would be nice to charge to be interviewed. Podcasting takes a lot of time and effort (editing alone). But it’s so taboo to be paid to appear. I don’t charge, but everyone wants to be on the podcast because they want to sell their books and get the word out on the audience I built. Sponsorships are difficult if you’re not in top echelon of downloads. Affiliate earning from promos pay little. I don’t know who Logan Crawford is, but it sure would be nice to be paid by those I interview (being transparent about it). But that’s a viewed as a negative, so I get it. Just wanted to vent. 🙂
Alan–First, thanks on behalf of all authors for what you do! And I agree 100%. Charging for an interview is like charging for a review. It seems amazingly sleazy. Apparently the targets here are shamed for not knowing who Logan Crawford is, but even Google doesn’t know much about him. He was a one-time news anchor who has done some bit parts in film–usually playing a news anchor. And I guess he got an Emmy for one of those parts. But it didn’t exactly get him on the cover of Variety.
Wow Anne, this is scary stuff.. Thanks for sharing this with us. I am having a heck of a time just getting my good reads up and running as I made 2 profiles and can’t seem to delete one. I know this is off topic but I’m so busy I can’t take time to check which means I’d probably miss something like this which is important. Yikes
Cindy–Goodreads is notoriously reader-unfriendly. They combined the books of a woman with a similar name with my mother’s cozies. This other woman was a notorious anti-government nutjob. I couldn’t get them untangled until my mom died and I could send them her death certificate. I’m sure you won’t have to go to those extremes, but you will need some good luck. I hope it works out for you.
I had an interesting telephone conversation today with a gentleman in L.A. I live in the south east of England so getting this call from so far away was somewhat exciting. I may be over exaggerating somewhat. I think it was L.A. that’s what the phone number told me but you can’t tell nowadays. It was the ‘Logan Crawford’ spiel and matched, almost word for word, a similar conversation I had two weeks ago with a lovely lady, also in the States. I asked one of my ‘local’ writer’s groups, on Facebook if anyone thought it was a good idea, and someone pointed my at your blog. I’m not an experienced author, I have one book to my name. I’m proud of it, my kids are proud of it and my mum’s proud of it. That’s good enough for me. The guy on the phone told me everything I wanted to hear about my book, excellent reviews, (Logan had read it), possible screenplay involvement and promotions. YouTube and press releases. What’s not to like? Of course, I’d need to pay, up front, the production costs of $899.00 which could be paid in two instalments. We’d no sooner talked money, when he transferred me to the finance department which came through, on my iPhone, as being from Milwaukee, which seemed strange. I didn’t take the call, did some research, found your blog and told them I’d pass. Thank you for the information. Steve
Steve–The Logan Crawford Brigade has been working hard these days. Just today there were two more comments on Deborah Jay’s blog from people who had been contacted. Boy, if Mr. Crawford had read half those books, he’d be an Olympian speed reader who never sleeps! I’m so glad your friends stopped you from falling into their clutches. And the chances are very good the calls all come from the Philippines. It’s publishing scam central. They can spoof numbers pretending to be from the US.
On a slightly different note, not long after I published my book on Amazon at £12.00, a friend told me that he’d found it for sale on eBay for £17.49. Apparently the ‘seller’ had three copies to sell at that price. I thought about it for a while and figured that they must have to get them from Amazon so I’m still getting the royalties that I was expecting. Can you see a downside in this?
Steve–If you’ve never given away free books, no problem. You’re still getting paid. People probably buy books to read, then sell them at a profit. But people who give away books on Goodreads often see their books on ebay a week later. One of the many scary aspects of Goodreads.
Yes, I got an email yesterday from someone supposedly representing Logan Crawford for the German Film Festival in February 2024. A complete submission package that includes “a meticulously crafted screenplay” and “a meticulously designed storyboard structure” must be submitted by January 31, 2024. A lavish two whole months!
I was so impressed that I immediately filed the email in my “They wanna make me famous” folder.
Meticulous, my foot.
Sally–Oh, my! The Logan Crawford Brigade seems to be everywhere. The German Film Festival? This scam must be making them lots of money. Yup. Cue the Beatles…”They’re gonna put me in the movies…”