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Aug 28, 2020 · To pass the “1st stage of the acquisition” of their book, and move on to “an exclusive contract,” the author had already been persuaded (by “agent” Arial Brown, who is as fake as this offer) to hand over more than $8,000 for a new website and YouTube video.
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 13, 2020 · Trellis and its agents are being extensively impersonated by a scammer (mostly with phone calls and emails); my guess is that this is coming from the same scam, though I’ve no idea why they seized on Nicole Aragi, who is a well-known agent with her own eponymous agency.
- By Anne R. Allen
- Riding The Coattails of Publishing Influencers
- Vanity Publishers Posing as Big Five publishers.
- Boxed Sets That Promise USA Today Bestseller Status
- Goodreads Print Book Giveaways
- Magazines That Charge For Interviews
- Book Fair Placement and Fair Publicity Packages
- High Priced “Assisted Self-Publishing” Companies That Are Simply Printers.
- Rights Grabs from “Free” Contests
- Screenplay Scams
I read a quote recently from an indie author who said he felt sorry for new writers who fall for scammy vanity publishers — because they obviously have no writer friends to clue them in. It is true that networking with other authors is the best way to stay safe from scammers in this business. You can usually get by with a little help from your frie...
If you Google “Anne R. Allen,” about halfway down the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) — before a link to this blog — is an ad for a notorious vanity publisher. They’ve obviously used my name as a keyword for their ads. Flattering, maybe, but also hella creepy. And recently I saw a link to a “best websites for indie authors” list, and went to chec...
Never underestimate the chutzpa of publishing scammers. One of the Philippines companies that broke off from the Author Solutions scam machinehas been posing as “Hachette US” and may be masquerading as other members of the Big Five. Pretending to be these real major publishing companies, the scammers offer writers freelance jobs that don’t exist. H...
I warned people about boxed set scamslast year, because there were some that devolved into toxic cults, but there are new scammers in town, and charities have been ripped off as well as authors. One particular scammer put together boxed sets that were supposed to benefit a charity rather than pay royalties to the authors. Authors were lured by the ...
I think it’s time to label these a scam. They were once a good way to get reviews, but way too many book re-sellers are gaming Goodreads giveaways to get free inventory. After paying the Goodreads fee, plus postage, authors not only don’t get reviews, but they see their signed books for sale online. One bookseller in the Midwest apparently stocks m...
In 2018 I talked about being solicited for bogus pay-to-play radio interviews. Now you can pay for ridiculously overpriced magazine interviews, too. Any interview that costs the interviewee money isn’t worth the price of the paper it’s printed on. And some of these are printed on pretty cheap paper. You may hear from these publications in an unsoli...
Paying some company big bux to have your book displayed at big book fairs is money down the toilet. Your book will be lost among thousands of others and the company may not even bother to display it.David Gaughran warned about these book fair scams in a blogpost back in September, and Victoria Strauss mentioned themjust this week. Publishing indust...
According to Writer Beware’s Victoria Strauss, teen writers are being lured into one of these companies with “young writer” contests where the prize is a “publishing package.” Unfortunately, there are some “self-publishing assistants” who simply print the books through POD, but don’t publish them. They provide no distribution or marketing. Nobody c...
This isn’t really new, but I’ve heard of several contests recently that, in the fine print, say they have the right to use any piece that’s sent to them. That is, not just the winners, but any story you submit becomes their property. Yeah. You didn’t really enter a contest. You just gave away your work for free to an outfit that will probably publi...
Some dodgy marketing companies are offering the “Hollywood option” — making your book into a screenplay. Paying somebody to write a screenplay based on your book “on spec”— that is, without a contract with an actual filmmaker — is absurd. This service costs around $15,000 and does absolutely nothing to get your book made into a film. Every restaura...
Members are urged not to fall victim to so-called disaster chasers — unscrupulous people who target areas that have just experienced a disaster and offer urgent repairs or inspection services to affected businesses and homeowners.
May 16, 2021 · And there’s a new horrible scam just reported by Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware: criminals are extorting writers by sending obscenity-laced messages threatening to give your book 1000s of one-star bad reviews if you don’t pay them for good reviews. This is apparently happening at Goodreads right now.
Feb 20, 2022 · I know authors like to fantasize that Oprah or Reese Witherspoon will call to say they’ve chosen your memoir for their latest book club read. Or that a film scout will call to say Netflix wants to make a series based on your epic fantasy novel.
