December 24, 2010

In the eagerness to reach writing goals in the new year, we can naively overlook some danger signs. Yesterday’s Children’s Writer eNews from Jan Fields gave a terrific overview on scams online today. Some will surprise you. (She ends her article with a terrific offer.)

I highly recommend that you sign up for Jan’s free weekly newsletter.

 Here’s Jan Fields’ article on “Scam Proofing.” Read it and be wise! (Thank you, Jan!)

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I know that writers at all levels in this business read the enews – but there is one thing I absolutely know you all have in common. You’re all online. You probably have virus protection, spam filters of some sort, and ad blockes. You can chant, “Don’t open unfamiliar attachments” in your sleep. But there are many worse things online than viruses and spam.

The Internet is like one of those ancient treasure troves you read about in stories. You can find wonderful things there. Or you can hit the booby traps and get squashed flatter than a flitter. Not good. Virtually every day I run across a writer who’s been scammed. Some have been scammed for thousands of dollars. Some have only been embarrassed. Some have been seriously demoralized and made to feel like a fool. Some can’t even face that fact that they were made fools of, and zealously guard the cheats, saying they got exactly what they expected. At whatever level they’ve been cheated, they break my heart. And when it’s a children’s writer – it upsets me even more. So let me share some things you really need to know.

MARKETING IS WORK: If a publisher or agent shows up in your email box saying they saw you on a message board, blog, website, etc – look carefully before leaping into ANYTHING. Sure, real agents and real publishing connections do get made that way. But for every one that is real – thousands are cheats hoping to take advantage of you. Check them out. ALWAYS check them out. And I don’t mean with just your critique group or another writer you happen to know. Before you get involved with any agent or publisher, there are things you should do…

GOOGLE THEM: Plug the name into Google and read the links beyond the first page. A clever and web savvy scammer can keep the warnings off the first page of Google, but they can’t keep them out of the listings. Read them all. Do all of the good things come from the publisher/agent themselves while all the bad things come from writers and watchdog groups? If so – this is not a good deal.

Do you say you can’t find any mention of them anywhere? And when you’ve asked at Children’s Writers boards, no one knows them? First, feel free to send me the name – I’m relentless. I’ll find them if they can be found. If they can’t and if no one in the industry has heard of them – why on earth would you want to trust your work to them?

ASK PROFESSIONALS: Some of the very best of the watchdogs for writers are Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. If you can’t find a mention on the sites or you want more details, use the email on those two sites. They will give you good advice every time. Just asking a smattering of writers on a discussion board is not the best way to ‘check out’ a scammer. The folks may not be any more scam savvy than you are – go to the people who make it point to know who is out their cheating and how the con works.

BEWARE OF GUSHERS: Many of us are so in need of positive feedback that we will blindly follow anyone who seems eager to gush about our work. Sure, you might be a truly brilliant writer – but you still need to pay close attention to gushing. Scammers virtually always gush, but there is an interesting pattern to their gushing. It is non-specific.

One cheating company I know loves to tell writers that their work “resonates” and that they want to “give it the chance it deserves.” But they never say things like, “When Martin swallowed the fish, I laughed for ten minutes” or “The teen voice in Jenna is spot on – I think every reader will see herself in Jenna.”

Why don’t they give specific gushing? Because they don’t actually read your work. I have never had an editor contact me with vague remarks – not when she’s looking to work with me. When my first agent responded to my work – he was full of specifics.

Another cheating company that specializes in swindling poets says things like “your language is so evocative.” Ask yourself – could the remark I’ve just read be sent to everyone? If it could, it’s probably a cheat.

A COUPLE CHILDREN’S WRITING BIG BADS:  Poetry.com – I’m sorry if you’ve ever been taken by these folks. Quite honestly, so was I. My mom sent a poem of mine off to them when I was twelve (they were called “The World of Poetry” back then.) They named me a “finalist” and offered me a chance to buy the book with my poem in it. They offered every single person who entered the exact same chance. Now poetry.com is owned by Lulu so they’re more upfront about what they do — they take your money.

Publish America – This one has cut back on publishing picture books (thank goodness) so the flow of children’s writers in to be scammed has slackened slightly, but it still nets hundreds. Again, this is a publisher who won’t read your book before accepting it. They don’t care. They just want you to sign so you’ll buy a bunch of copies and net them a profit. They’ll smack such a high price tag on your children’s book that even your friends and relatives won’t fork it over. Over 1000 of their books never sold one single copy.

Children’s Literary Agency – This one changes it’s name regularly to snag new writers by putting a new name for an old cheat. This is ST Literary – a company that has never sold a book to a royalty-paying publisher. If an agent doesn’t sell the client’s work – why would you want them? Please, stay away. With any agent, you can learn what books they’ve represented that sold. Agents aren’t coy. If the books they’ve sold were all to companies you never heard of — why would you want them repping you?

LITTLE BADS: In these days of instant access, anyone can have an online publisher. Really – hey, we made a magazine so clearly anyone can do it. With that being the case, there are good online publishers and not so good ones. You only want to go with the good ones. Trust me. There is zero good in being published by an unprofessional operation.

1. GOOGLE THE MAGAZINE. If you punch in the magazine’s name and you find a half dozen message boards where writers are moaning about not getting paid by the magazine – bingo – don’t go there.

2. READ THE MAGAZINE. Why would you want to sell to a magazine before you read it – especially when you can read it for free? Read it. Not only will you find out if you want your work along side the rest of what the magazine runs (Does all the work seem to be done by beginners? Is that how you want to be perceived?) Does the magazine look professional? Flashing lights and weird colors are not a sign that this is going to make a promising clip for your writing career.

Tread carefully and you can find the treasure without the booby traps. And when in doubt, feel free to ask me <jan.fields@forums.institutechildrenslit.com>… if I don’t know, I’ll find someone who does.