The Journal: Beware of Scammers

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Topic: Beware of Scammers
* Dave Farland’s APEX writers group
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“The best research is often passive. Never be afraid to learn more about people and what they do–who they are.” John Gilstrap

“Like GPS navigation, which started as just a tool but has reduced our engagement with the act of navigating, AI language generators may start by sparing us labor but soon spare us thought.” David A. Price in The Wall Street Journal, courtesy The Passive Guy

Topic: Beware of Scammers

I understand there probably is not a real need for this topic on this site. But too much caution is a great deal better than not enough. I’ve talked about avoiding scammers a lot before, both here and over on HarveyStanbrough.com, but new factors have come to light. (See “Scammers Impersonating Major Publishing Houses” in “Of Interest” below. When you read the sample email Writers Beware includes, I hope you’ll wonder how in the hell any writer ever fell for it.)

Some scammers now are posing as literary agents. Others are posing as representatives of major publishing houses. Still others are posing as agents working for or in concert with major publishing houses.

1. NEVER pay money up front to have your work published. Period.

2. It’s perfectly all right to pay a fee for a specific service (copyediting, for example, or cover design, etc.) but not if the offer includes a promise to publish after you’ve paid for certain services or even a carrot-on-a-stick possibility (or probability) of publication.

3. Never give ANY percentage of the copyright to your book to a person or entity providing service. Legitimate service providers require a fee, not a percentage of your copyright.

4. As you’ll see in the article in “Of Interest,” it’s a really great idea to actually read the email address of the person or entity who contacts you. The scammer in the example uses a gmail address, not an actual publisher email address, though the publisher name might be part of the address.

5. A little unrelated, but always ALWAYS ALWAYS read Terms of Service. If you don’t want to slog through all the legalese BS, at least do a search (in your browser menu, click Edit > Find On This Page) for “license” and “all rights” and “copyright” and read those sections.

Be careful out there.

In other news, it’s no secret that my writing career is in need of a jump start. I’m thinking about signing up for Dave Farland’s APEX writers group (again, see “Of Interest”. It’s $209 for a full year. I’m far from wealthy, but a little over two bills seems a small price to pay to see whether it’s right for me, and a year seems a good test.

Now, I’m not urging you to do the same, but I’d be remiss in my responsibilities as your mentor/instructor/friend if I failed to at least mention it. Whether you decide to join depends on what you’ve already learned and where you are in your development as a writer. But from what I’ve read, APEX accepts writers at all levels.

Currently though, the link to the Terms of Service in Dave’s thecompleatwriter.com redirects to a website called Contently.com, where the Terms state that the author gives up “all rights” to his work to the publisher upon receipt of payment for a given work. For me that’s a huge red flag.

I have an email out to Dave about that. I’m hoping the redirection is an error. I can’t imagine a student of Algis Budrys would endorse such a practice.

Anyway, I hope your writing’s going well. I’m visiting with a son and his girlfriend this weekend. Afterward, I might set aside the Blackwell Ops novel I started last week and start something else that interests me more.

Talk with you again when I can.

Of Interest

See “Bad Practices, Good Practices, Best Practices” at https://mystorydoctor.com/bad-practices-good-practices-best-practices/. Dave Farland’s APEX writing group is looking better and better to me as a professional writer wanting to take the next step. Just something to consider.

See “Lake Pontchartrain Causeway” at https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-pontchartrain-causeway.

See “Blast From The Early Days” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/blast-from-the-early-days/.

See “An AI Breaks the Writing Barrier” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/an-ai-breaks-the-writing-barrier/.

See “Scammers Impersonating Major Publishing Houses” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/scammers-impersonating-major-publishing-houses/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 720 words

Writing of Blackwell Ops 8 (novel)

Day 1…… 1653 words. Total words to date…… 1653
Day 2…… 1043 words. Total words to date…… 2696
Day 3…… 1711 words. Total words to date…… 4407

Total fiction words for the month……… 4407
Total fiction words for the year………… 314062
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6220
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 137380
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 451442

Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 12
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 50
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 208
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31