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September 5, 2021 By Anne R. Allen 66 Comments

Publishing Scammers are Proliferating like Tribbles: How to Stay Safe

Publishing Scammers are Proliferating like Tribbles: How to Stay Safe

by Anne R. Allen On Friday morning at 7 AM a couple of weeks ago, the landline phone woke me with a call from a woman who wanted to know if I was the author of Food of Love. I said yes, it’s one of my titles, along with 14 other books. Why did she […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Self-Publishing, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Anne R. Allen, Anthology scams, Goodreads Extortion Racket, Jane Friedman, Let's Get Digital, Publishing scams, screenplay scams, Victoria Strauss, Writing scams

June 2, 2019 By Anne R. Allen 64 Comments

The #1 Mistake New Self-Publishers Make That Leaves Them Vulnerable to Publishing Scams

The #1 Mistake New Self-Publishers Make That Leaves Them Vulnerable to Publishing Scams

Publishing scams target babes in the woods by Anne R. Allen I hear about new publishing scams all the time. Sometimes scammers approach me personally, but more often I hear a sad tale of woe from some newbie who has fallen for the latest con. This week I realized that almost all the victims of […]

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Filed Under: E-Books and Technology for Writers, Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: avoiding scams, Googling Old Boyfriends, Publishing scams, Readers Magnet, Writing scams

May 5, 2019 By Anne R. Allen 40 Comments

Beware Bogus Writing Contests! Look for These 8 Red Flags.

Beware Bogus Writing Contests! Look for These 8 Red Flags.

 by Anne R. Allen. Recently I’ve been seeing a bunch of ads for writing contests in my Facebook feed. Plus I’ve been getting unsolicited mass emails advertising similar competitions. Some of them look pretty legit, but I couldn’t help asking myself why. If it’s such a great contest, why do they need to use spam […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: Alliance of Independent Authors, bogus writing contests, Publishing scams, Victoria Strauss, Writing scams

April 22, 2018 By Anne R. Allen 131 Comments

Authors Beware: Amazon Gets Medieval on Paid and Traded Reviews

Authors Beware: Amazon Gets Medieval on Paid and Traded Reviews

 Amazon’s paid review crackdown may have punished “over a million” innocent customers. by Anne R. Allen My inbox has been bursting with unsolicited emails for the past few weeks. I must be on a new list of “easy prey” circulating in the the author-scamming community. Several sleazy guys with dodgy language skills have hit me […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, Writers Dealing with Reviews and Rejection Tagged With: #AmazonClosed, Amazon crackdown, Amazon reviews, Barb Taub, paid reviews, self publishing, The Gatsby Game, Writing scams

December 13, 2015 By Anne R. Allen 58 Comments

6 More Scams That Target New Writers

6 More Scams That Target New Writers

  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 […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: bogus writing contests, Copyright, David Congalton, Scams and Alerts, The Lady of the Lakewood Diner, Writing scams

December 6, 2015 By Anne R. Allen 92 Comments

5 Scams that Target New Writers and How to Spot Them

5 Scams that Target New Writers and How to Spot Them

by Anne R. Allen Welcome to our new blog!! I hope you’ll find our new WordPress site is easier for comments and searches. Because we have a high-profile blog, a lot of people contact us because they want us to promote their services to our readers, usually through contests or deals. Sometimes these services are […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Self-Publishing, Social Media and Marketing For Writers, The Publishing Business Tagged With: bogus writing contests, Food of Love, Scams and Alerts, Writing scams, Writing tips

October 14, 2012 By Anne R. Allen 27 Comments

Beware the Seven Deadly Writing Scams

We first ran into Lila Moore’s scam-alerts at The Passive Voice. We visited her new watchdog site, PopularSoda.com and were impressed with all her savvy advice. Indie publishing has generated lots of new money-wasters and scams. Popular Soda adds an indie-focused viewpoint to other author-advocate voices like Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. Whether you’re traditionally published or indie, the following tips can […]

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Filed Under: Scams and Alerts for Writers, Social Media and Marketing For Writers Tagged With: Alexa Ratings, Author scams, Duolit, First Rights, Lila Moore, paid reviews, PopularSoda.com, Preditors and Editors, RG2E, Social Media, The Passive Voice, Writer Beware, Writing scams

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writers digest 101 best websites for writers award

Anne R. AllenAnne R. Allen writes funny mysteries and how-to-books for writers. She also writes poetry and short stories on occasion. She’s a contributor to Writer’s Digest and the Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market.

Her bestselling Camilla Randall Mystery Series features perennially down-on-her-luck former socialite Camilla Randall—who is a magnet for murder, mayhem and Mr. Wrong, but always solves the mystery in her quirky, but oh-so-polite way.

Ruth Harris NYT best selling authorRuth is a million-copy New York Times bestselling author, Romantic Times award winner, former Big 5 editor, publisher, and news junkie.

Her emotional, entertaining women’s fiction and critically praised novels have sold millions of copies in hard cover, paperback and ebook editions, been translated into 19 languages, sold in 30 countries, and were prominent selections of leading book clubs including the Literary Guild and the Book Of The Month Club.

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