Publishing Scams Prey on Writers and Authors

There are a huge variety of scams and predatory practices that target authors and writers. From fake agents to vanity publishers to social media impersonators, the ploys are endless. If you are a writer or author, whether you’re established in your career or still hoping for your first publication, your best defense is to stay vigilant. Being aware of common publishing scams, learning to spot the red flags, and using resources like Writer Beware can empower you to protect yourself. See Author Scams Exposed with Victoria Strauss for a complete transcript of the Easy Prey podcast episode. Victoria Strauss has published nine novels for young adults and adults, most of which are fantasy. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Association (SFWA). She is also the co-founder of Writer Beware , a Publishing Industry Watchdog group sponsored by SFWA that helps educate writers about scams and fraud in the publishing space. Victoria first became interested in publishing scams in the early 1990s, when she first started becoming active online and heard stories from other writers about being ripped off. A mutual friend connected her with Ann Crispin, a fellow author with a similar interest. Together, they founded Writer Beware. After Ann’s death in 2013, Victoria took over running it. When Victoria first became interested in publishing scams, the most common ones involved literary agents. A literary agent is someone who represents authors to publishers. They accept authors whose work they think is likely to sell and attempt to sell those works to publishers. Genuine literary agents work on a commission basis and only get paid when a publisher buys the book. But some literary agents took advantage of new authors and pretended the author had to pay the agent. They profited from the fees and often didn’t do the work. Another version involved scam editing referrals. An author submitted their work to a literary agent, and the agent would say it needs some work. They referred the author to “editing services” to get it good enough to publish. These services charged hefty fees and either did terrible work or didn’t do any work at all. Similarly, vanity publishers and scam publishers would charge authors huge fees and then either do the work poorly or simply never publish the book in the first place. Desire is high, access is limited, and success is difficult to achieve – scammers always cluster there. These are the publishing scams that were most common in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Victoria was first learning about them. These days, most of the scams are digital, and they’re more focused on self-publishing. In traditional publishing, the publisher pays the author to publish their book. Because of this, traditional publishers are extremely selective. Vanity publishers are the opposite. Most of them accept almost everything submitted to them, and they charge the author money for publication. Often these fees are much, much higher than the actual production costs so the company can make a profit. Vanity publishers often increase their profits by cutting corners on editing, design, and marketing, too. Books published by a vanity publisher have a reputation for being lower quality, often because the publisher cut these corners in production. These days, there aren’t a lot of fee-charging literary agents around. There are a lot of options for self-publishing now. Once writers had ways to get published that didn’t involve an agent, it wasn’t very profitable to get them to pay for an agent. But vanity publishers are still around. And though it can be very appealing to aspiring authors to have the only barrier to publication be a fee, it’s still a trap. Whatever you imagine from being published, you won’t get it from a vanity publisher. Vanity publishers … are still around and very much a trap for aspiring writers. The rise of self-publishing services has changed the landscape of scams. Authors who choose to self-publish have to do everything a writer does, but also everything a publisher does. That includes hiring editors, cover designers, and similar services and paying for them out of pocket, or engaging a self-publishing service that handles all of that for them. A lot of publishing scams now cluster around self-publishing. Self-published writers need services, and that’s an opportunity for scammers to make a quick buck. Many scams look like services that will help you format your book and upload it to Amazon. But their goal is to get you in the doors so they can upsell you into buying actual frauds. These frauds they might try to sell you include things like fake offers from Netflix or interest from a major publisher – all of which require you to pay huge fees. This is the most active area in publishing scams. Publishing is a crowded field. It’s hard for any author to get exposure and stand out. One of the psychological triggers scammers use is the desire for success. They’ll promise they can lift you above the crowd and get your book noticed. They might stroke your ego by saying that your book deserves it, or they might offer to get you on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s all fake promises to appeal to writers’ hopes and desires. One of the psychological levers that scammers use is the promise that they can lift the [author] above the herd and make sure that their book gets noticed. One of the challenging things in the world of publishing scams id figuring out what’s actually an outright scam and what’s just an overpriced, poor-quality service. The line is very blurry sometimes. A lot of these things exist on the gray line between scam and pitfall. With Writer Beware, Victoria tries to identify red flags writers should watch out for. These days, a big one is solicitation. If you get a message out of the blue that says they can help you break into traditional publishing, or this great marketing service can help you get millions of sales, or anything like that, it’s often a scam. Even if it’s legit, you can’t take it at face value. Shoddy services exist that do deliver something, even though it’s practically worthless. As far as Victoria is concerned, you should avoid these predatory business practices just as much as scams – they’ll still screw you over and give you no benefit. On the self-publishing end of the spectrum, lack of experience is a huge pitfall. A lot of people offer services like editing and cover design without a lot of experience or qualification. They may even have good intentions, but they don’t do a good job. Research anyone you’re thinking of hiring. Always ask for references and talk to previous customers. You can also ask other writers for recommendations – in Victoria’s experience, many writing communities are generous with this info. Even if you end up working with a legitimate agent and getting a contract with a major publisher, be careful with your contracts. For instance, you don’t want a clause in your publishing contract that gives the publisher ownership of your book’s copyright. The Writer Beware blog has a whole category on contract issues to watch out for. Social media is the newest development in publishing scams. A common one is getting a friendly message from someone who appears to be a legitimate author. But in reality, they’re being impersonated by a scammer. The ultimate goal is to refer you to a fraudulent service. It sucks that you have to be on guard even in a friendly interaction with a fellow author, but you have to be careful. Impersonation isn’t a huge risk for the average author. Which authors scammers pretend to be seems to be random. Anyone with a substantial online presence could be a target. Scammers also can infiltrate any writer’s community online. Victoria can’t endorse any group 100%. It’s important to be aware. Even outside of publishing scams, online scams are everywhere. If you’re going to be a writer, you have to be active online. General scam awareness is important to protect yourself. It may sound like nothing can be trusted and everything is a scam, but that’s not true. It’s like riding a motorcycle. There’s a non-zero chance you’ll get into an accident. But if you’re aware of this, wear a helmet and appropriate safety gear, obey traffic signals, and pay attention while riding, you’ll be safer. The same is true with being an author online. You need to be aware and understand the risks. Resources like Writer Beware can help. But as long as you know it’s out there, it’s easier to recognize scams. If you’re trying to figure out if an opportunity is genuine or a scam, there are some steps you can take to verify. Look at the company, or whatever company or organization is sponsoring or otherwise behind the thing you’re looking at. Are they established? Do they look legitimate? If there’s claims about the organization sponsoring it or particular people judging a contest, see if you can verify it. If not, it’s probably fishy. Contests spring up all the time that are mostly about getting profits for the sponsor. If they’re touting themselves as a prestigious award but have only been around a few years, be wary. Be cautious of really high entry fees. We all know the old saying about things that are too good to be true. So if someone claims they can get you an interview in a prestigious magazine, get you on a particular reading list, or have your book featured on Oprah’s Book Club, that’s a warning sign. The key is not to take anything at face value. Always double-check. Victoria has heard about a lot of different publishing scams during her time running Writer Beware. But a few have been particularly memorable. One was the story of fee-charging agent Melanie Mill. She didn’t just stick to charging fees. She organized a conference and collected attendance fees, then stole the money and faked her own death. Several months later, a similar scheme popped up in Canada. Melanie wasn’t dead – she had gone to Canada to repeat her scam. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police did an investigation, and it turned out she wasn’t just wanted for fraud, but also for attempting to murder her mother. She was eventually caught, returned to the U.S. for trial, and sentenced to jail. As wild as this story sounds, Melanie isn’t even the only scammer Victoria’s heard of who faked their own death. Another story is that of Page Turner Press Media, a scam publishing and book marketing company based in the Philippines. Individual authors lost as much as $600,000 on schemes including fake movie productions. The losses were so big that the FBI got involved. In December 2024, the CEO and VP of the company decided to take a Christmas trip to the U.S., where they were arrested and are now awaiting trial. The FBI seized the website and got the parent company shut down. It’s the only time a publishing scam has gotten significant attention from American law enforcement. Hundreds of companies like this still exist and continue to rip off authors. If you get caught in a publishing scam and are a member of a professional writer’s group like the Authors Guild, your group may have legal resources that can help you. Otherwise, you’re on your own, just like any other consumer who got scammed. There are places you can report it to law enforcement, like ic3.gov to report to the FBI and reportfraud.ftc.gov to report to the FTC. Hopefully, you used a credit card to pay for these fraudulent services and not something like a wire transfer. You can dispute charges on a credit card. Usually there’s a time limit to dispute it, but disputing even after that is worth doing. Banks and credit card companies often work with victims. One UK publisher charged fees to publish, but never published the hundreds of books they received. Many writers were able to get their money back, even after a couple years, but filing fraud claims. Reporting and disputing is always worth doing. Writer Beware has a post that suggests techniques and resources for reporting. Unfortunately, it’s up to the individual writer to take action. But please report it to Writer Beware, too. If they know about it, they can warn about it. Visit the Writer Beware main blog, writerbeware.blog , for up-to-the-minute reporting. Other resources on the site include information on scams, what to watch for, and general warnings. They also have a Facebook page for news, information, and discussion at facebook.com/writerbeware . Find Victoria Strauss on Bluesky @voctirastrauss.com or email her at [email protected] .