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Aug 27, 2018 · Check Alli’s vetted list for publishers clearly marked in red with a history of problems. These are definitely ones to avoid. You will find alerts for problematic book publishers, such as AuthorHouse, Dog Ear Publishing, Dorrance Publishing, and Page Publishing, just to name a few.
Aug 21, 2019 · To help you protect your work, your bank account, and your dignity, we're going to highlight some of the shady companies you should avoid — and give you tips on how to spot a publishing scam at ten paces.
- By Anne R. Allen
- Phishing Scammers Are Stealing Manuscripts
- How to Stay Safe
- Never Pay An Agent An Upfront fee.
- Real Publishers Don’T Make Offers on Books They Haven’T Read.
- Traditional Publishers Aren’T Paid by Authors; Authors Are Paid by publishers.
- Million-Dollar Advances Mostly Go to A-List Celebrities
- Agents Rarely Solicit Unpublished Authors
- Book Review Scams Are Everywhere
- Beware Junk Marketing Packages
2020 was a terrible year in so many ways. But one group seems to have thrived: the scammer community. Publishing scammers are everywhere now. I hear about new ones every week, each more heartbreaking than the one before. And more outrageous.
Yes. This is happening. It’s a bizarre and complicated scam targeting traditionally published authors, often famous ones. But unknowns have been hit too. Authors will get an email that appears to be from their agent or editor, asking for the latest draft of the WIP. But it’s not from the agent. It’s from a scammer. The unsuspecting author doesn’t k...
Plenty of scammers show up in my own inbox. I usually know enough to send them directly to spam, but I know some writers will be caught by them. And it only takes a few successful hits to keep these crooks going. Here are some basic things you need to know to stay safe. And so does your sweet next door neighbor who’s got a half-finished memoir and ...
I thought fee-charging scam agents disappeared a decade ago, but they’re ba-a-a-ck. The old-school scammers set up “agencies” that either charged reading fees and “copying and postage” fees, or they had cozy relationships with “editing” companies and demanded the author pay a hefty fee for a bad edit. The contemporary scammers are much bolder. They...
If the only reason a company contacts you is that you put the word “writer” in your profile, then be prepared to meet a publishing scammer. I saw a sad little post on Facebook a few months ago from an author who was over the moon because a publisher had approached her saying they were interested in “her book.” She was surprised they didn’t know it ...
Yes. We live in the age of self-publishing and “hybrid publishing.” Unfortunately, a lot of iffy presses pose as “self-publishing assistants” or “hybrid publishers” when they’re just overpriced vanity publishers. There are some very good companies that offer self-publishing services. Companies like BookBaby and Lulu offer excellent formatters and d...
If anybody approaches you with promises of an advance with more than three zeros after it, do some serious investigating. Especially if you don’t have an agent. Memoirs especially don’t tend to sell in large numbers, so unless your book is a high-concept novel or a biography of a major celebrity, be very wary. Some of these scammers are promising u...
Yes, I do know of authors who have been solicited by legit agents, but they were journalists or well-known short story or essay writers who were multi-published in venues other than books. They were not newbies. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware warned us in December about one of the current scams that snags the dewy-eyed newbies. They approach a w...
Authors are obsessed with book reviews, especially on Amazon. That’s probably why solicitations by paid book review services are the most common scams I find in my inbox. Most of the contemporary scammers have the sense not to promise Amazon reviews any more, because Amazon now has fierce penaltiesfor paid reader reviews. (Paid and exchanged review...
These have been around for at least a decade, and they’re still going strong. (Edit 2/5/21: a reader recently reported a nasty junk marketing company called Book Writing Hub. Our reader paid over $5000 for “marketing” that was not only junk, but nearly non-existent.) There was a time when Tweeting your book title might grab the attention of a possi...
Aug 28, 2020 · I have been scammed by a Blake Anderson at Silver Ink Literary Agency/ Editor's Press/ Global Review Press. It started last year when I was contacted by Silver Ink telling me how they were supposedly contacted by HarperCollins to acquire my self-published book and that they'd represent me in negotiations.
Sep 19, 2021 · For more on current publishing scams, like the Goodreads Extortion Racket, the write-with-James-Patterson-maybe thing, the latest Anthology and Hollywood scams, and “The Big-5-wants-your-old-failed-novel” scam, read my last post on the latest diabolical stuff from the publishing scammerss.
May 16, 2021 · Publishing scams are everywhere. What if your writer friend is about to sign with a dodgy publisher, bogus agent, or junk marketing company?
Oct 15, 2024 · Several authors have received fraudulent DMCA notices from fake law firms claiming that the author’s website contains an image that is owned by the firm’s client, that the use of the image is copyright infringement, and that unless the author links to a certain website, the author will be sued.
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