Don't Be Gullible and Fall for a Scam

I receive emails every day from people I do not know. Usually they want me to make public their website, their services, their pitch to you, writers, who might fall for their scams.

Writer Beware is a site we should all have bookmarked and check it often, especially if we are approached by anyone who wants us to pay them for publishing our book.

I am not speaking of a company that offers their service to help you self-publish your book. I am talking about a company that offers to publish your book for thousands of dollars. Some are even part of a well-known traditional publisher.

Often they will make an offer and ask for a small amount. But as you begin to work with them, they will offer more help, marketing packages, etc., and want more and more money. Before long you have spent far more money than you can ever replace with sales of your book. And you won't get all that is promised.

You can always go to Writer Beware and learn if they have any information about a publisher.

I learned recently that most self-published books sell no more than 150 copies. I am afraid that most of us feel that once our book is out there, on the market, it will sell with little effort on our part. That is not true. We hate the marketing part, so if an unscrupulous company promises to sell our book and earn us thousands of dollars, we often fall for that promise, even without investigating the folks making the offer.

One of the reasons to belong to an organization like NCWN is having people to turn to when we have questions. With so many members who have been in the business for many years, you can often find free and good advice. Attending a conference like NCWN Fall Writing Conference in Asheville is helpful. You can meet editors, publishers, agents, and other writers who are often very generous with their advice and their knowledge.

"I'm guessing that at least a few of my readers will be thinking "Well, if someone is that naive/ignorant/unwary, they deserve what they get." Believe me, I get frustrated too with writers' gullibility, and in particular with how many writers fail to educate themselves about publishing and self-publishing before trying to publish. But no one, no matter what, deserves to be deceived and ripped off by a pack of con artists."  from article on Writer Beware.

I do my best to check out anyone or any company before I post it or send out emails to our NCWN-West members. But you should also check them out. It is all up to the writer to be sure, to be educated about who he is dealing with in order to self-publish his book.