I’m following Mad Scientist Matt in the AW Blog Chain, and he talked about scams regarding fuel savings and cars. Well, I know nothing about scams and cars, but I do know plenty about scams and publishing. Or scams and the Internet. Scams and email. There sure are a lot of different kinds of scams out there – where there are humans, there are scammers.
I’ll concentrate on scammers and the publishing industry for the purposes of this post. Since this is a writing blog, after all. 
There are two rules of thumb to follow. One, money always flows to the writer, which is a publishing rule of thumb. Two, TANSTAAFL, which is much more of an all-purpose useful rule of thumb. Plus I love saying TANSTAAFL! 
Money always flows to the writer.
Broken down, that means that writers should not be paying agents or publishers. Money should not be flowing away from the writer towards agents or publishers. That’s not the way the industry works. Of course, there are some exceptions, and I’ll deal with those in a minute.
When a writer gets a publishing contract, if the writer also has an agent, the publisher will send the money to the agent, the agent will take their fees out of the advance or royalties, and the agent will then send the remainder to the author.
At no time does the author send money to the agent or the publisher.
The exception to this is if an author decides to self-publish a book, and there are legitimate reasons to do this. If the book will have an extremely limited audience, for example, like a family cookbook or a family history, then no traditional publisher will take the book on because it makes no sense for them to – they won’t make any money on it. In that case, self-publishing makes sense.
The scams come from self-professed agents who charge reading fees, registration fees, refer an author to an editorial service that the agent owns, and so on. If at any point, the agent wants you to part with your money, know that it’s a scam. There are a lot of scammy scammer agents & publishers and whatnot out there and your best resources for checking to see if an organization is a scammer is Writer Beware, the Writer Beware blog, Preditors & Editors and the Absolute Write Bewares & Background Check board. There are other such resources, but these are my favourites. You can also check out the Top Twenty Scam Agents list which I like repeatedly linking to just for fun.
But scammers aren’t limited just to agents. You can find them in book doctors, editors, and so on. If an agent refers you to one specific book doctor or editor or such, chances are it’s a scam and the editor or book doctor is another company owned by that agent. If the agent gives you a list of three or five editors or book doctors, it increases the probability of the recommendation being legitimate, but it’s still your responsibility to check the various people/organizations out to verify that they’re legitimate.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Publish America is a scam. A very very big scam. Run as fast as you can away from them – they’re bad news.
TANSTAAFL
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch! If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Paranoia is your friend. It really isn’t paranoia if they’re really out to get you.
These and more cliches available for a small fee.
But seriously, there are a lot of scammers out there. If it’s too easy (like Publish America), then it’s probably a scam. If you’re being promised the sun, moon, and stars, it’s probably a scam. If you’re promised that you’ll definitely be a bestseller or make a lot of money fast, it’s probably a scam. Be at least a little bit paranoid and check out everyone you intend to work with. Do your homework. Make sure that whoever you intend to deal with is legitimate. In the case of agents, book doctors, editors, publishers, find out who they represent or have published.
I know that for writers who’ve done their research already, nothing I’ve said in this post is new. But I also know that there are many writers who would like to be published who haven’t done their research yet and don’t know about scams. It’s for them, the innocents, that I write this post.
And because scammers piss me off.
This post is part of an Absolute Write blog chain. The participants in the chain are as follows:
- Auria Cortes
- Life in Scribbletown
- Polyamory From the Inside Out
- For the First Time
- Family On Bikes
- Writes in the City
- Elf Killing and Other Hobbies
- Rotating Bear
- Fantastical Imagination
- Asian Business
- Spittin’ (Out Words) Like a Llama
- As Yet Untitled
- Mad Scientist Matt’s Lair
- Peregrinas
- Delirious
Read through the other entries – that’s where more than half the fun is anyway – and comment. We love comments!
Similar Posts:
- Time-release GoogleBomb against literary scammers
- The whole kerfuffle started with…
- The Top Twenty Worst Agents
- Preditors & Editors
- Even more sites talking about the AbsoluteWrite Takedown
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Thanks for it. To be honest, I feel that writers are to be blamed more than Preditors. Many people think that they will just write something and become the next millionaire. Some people just like to show off that they are “published”. It is more related to greed and ego than writing itself. I have found a lot of materials about publishing scams in many websites until now. That did not put the bad agents and publishers out of business simply because many people dream to be a millionaire or show off to others that they are published writers- not ordinary people like me. Yes, I feel a lot of sympathy for those writers who are innocent and honest and fall victim to preditors. I do not feel any sympathy for those people who want a short cut.
Amen!
There can NEVER be enough scamming in the publishing industry rants floating around out there. Everytime we write one, we can potentially save newer, inexperienced writers from finding themselves and their work stuck in some kind of writing horror flick. I’ve ranted about this sort of thing several times on my blog, and bully for you doing the same thing!
Great post!
If a writer has conducted research and fails to take heed of the warning signs, I have zero sympathy.
Razib & Auria, I completely agree. It goes back to Hustle, that British show about con men (and women), and the first rule of the con: You can’t cheat an honest man. Which I mostly agree with.
There are all sorts of scams and all sorts of people who end up being scammed, but generally, they try to make a quick buck. The whole get-rich-quick thing, which doesn’t work, and for those people, well, yeah, I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy, either.
But I also know that there are otherwise honest writers who don’t know any better and who aren’t being scammed because they’re being greedy but rather because they don’t know the standard business practices for the industry. Those I have much sympathy for. But at the same time, anyone who’s about to enter into business (and a writer trying to get published is entering into business), is responsible for educating themselves on what standard business practices are. So, this is my contribution to that end.
Great post. It’s always wise to do your research, and posts like this make it so much easier for the novice.
It’s way too easy to get sucked into a scam – even if you think you’ve done your research. But having posts like this will (hopefully) save a couple people from them. I just wish the scammers would go away – wouldn’t the world be a better place if that happened??
Thanks for the reminder and for the links to the Scam Houses!
I’m going to have to echo the sentiments that I don’t have sympathy for the people that brush aside warning and just want to see their name in print. None whatsoever.
I have a little more sympathy for the innocents because even the most diligent people can get taken but the bottom line is, you should know better. You should listen to your gut and be on the offensive. If someone comes to you offering this or that, do the research before jumping on the bandwagon. If all signs point to yes, it’s a good company and it turns out they can just cover their tracks really well, then ok, that’s different but anything else and I’ll have a hard time sympathizing with.
If you want to submit your work, you need to be prepared to do it and that includes having the patience to do the proper research.
Good post with great links! As a relatively new writer, I’m grateful for the information I’ve found that exposes scams. Not only that, but it’s nice to learn lessons on spotting scams so I will know better than to accept that free lunch!
Lots of Publish America hate in that blog!
Seriously, though, good advice for new writers.
Oh, I’m sorry, is my hate for scammers like Publish America a bit over the top? *giggles* No, honestly, I’m an equal-opportunity scam-hater. I hate scammers like Barbara Bauer and the other top twenty worst agents just as much.
Scammers should die. And I should link to that page more often too.
Publish America is a scam?!?! (LOL…okay, I tried to say that without inflecting sarcasm, but it just wasn’t possible. I don’t think your hate is over the top for them; it’s about at my level, too!)