Best of Writer Beware: 2024 in Review

Hard to believe another year has rolled around–it seems like five minutes ago I was preparing this annual overview for 2023. As always, it’s been a busy year of writing scams, publisher implosions, exploitative contract terms, and more.

A UNIVERSE OF WRITING SCAMS

An Influx of Impersonators

As in the past few years, impersonation scams were among the most frequent types of fraud reported to Writer Beware. And as always, their primary targets are self-published and small press authors. If you self-publish your book, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll encounter some or all of these.

The Impersonation List. Impersonation scams, where scammers impersonate literary agencies, publishers, movie studios, organizations, and others with fake representation offers, publishing contracts, movie offers, and more–all, of course, involving large upfront fees–are among the most common of the many scams arriving from overseas. Constantly updated, this list includes all of the impersonations that have been reported to me (and there are a LOT of them), along with with tips on how to unmask imposters.

Peak Fake: A Scam Website Impersonating Macmillan Publishers. Speaking of impersonation scams, this fake Macmillan website, with content copied from the real one, is among the more brazen imposters I encountered last year. Its creator, fraudster Stellar Literary Press and Media, used it to shill fake publishing contracts requiring large fees. Hilariously, Stellar even reproduced Macmillan’s Fraud Alert page–removing their own name, of course.

The Latest Impersonation Scams. As of June 2024, at any rate: a New York Times ad scam, a Barnes & Noble shelf space scam, two scams impersonating large publishers with fake pay-to-play contracts, and some weird phone calls by what appears to be a fictional bookstore.

A Bounty of Bogosity

Closely related to the impersonators, but not identical, are the fakers: they’re pretending to be something they’re not, but the something is imaginary.

The Latest Fake Literary Agencies. Fraudsters often front as literary agencies, calling or emailing writers to offer representation–no fees! Commission only!–but only so that they can refer them back to themselves for “services” costing lots of money. This post umasks seven fake agencies, employing techniques you can use yourself. (For more tips, see my post from last year: How to Spot a Fake Literary Agency.)

From Motionflick Studios to Snow Day Films: The Evolution of a Book-to-Film Scam. How a scammer that began with one name ended up with another, while employing all of the same deceptive techniques to trick writers into buying screenplays.

Wolves in Authors; Clothing: Beware Social Media Marketing Scams. 2024 saw a big increase in reports of this scheme. Scammers impersonating real authors message other writers to initiate what seem like friendly conversations, but the real intent is to make a referral to a marketing scam. You may encounter this scheme on any and all social media platforms, including the newly-popular Bluesky.

Failing the Reality Check: Independent Literary Recognition Guild and Acquisitions Database. From time to time, scammers create fake organizations to add verisimilitude to their ripoff schemes, or to defraud authors directly. The latest to come across my desk: a supposed publishing industry oversight organization, and a purported database to help writers be “discovered”. Their elaborate presentation is convincing at a glance, but can’t withstand a close look. As always, the techniques I use to pick scams apart can help you do your own sleuthing.

Some Rare Accountability for a Fake Literary Agency Operation. Busted in Cebu by Philippine authorities: a Business Process Outsourcing company (BPOs are a common “beard” for publishing scams in the Philippines) that ran a fake literary agency to prey on aspiring writers. It’s the first time I’ve heard of consequences for any scam of this type (but not the last).

Building Out Your Scam Avoidance Toolkit

The most prevalent scams these days–the publishing/marketing/fake agency scams from the Philippines and the ghostwriting scams from Pakistan and India–vary in how they present themselves, but they all pull from the same playbook, which means that the range of techniques they employ is actually relatively small. Herewith, a few to watch out for, plus some advice on defensive tactics.

The Scam of Book Returns Insurance. In this case, scammers have taken something real–that print books can be returned by booksellers for credit–and spun it into something fake they can monetize: book returns insurance. How that happened and what to watch for, with numerous real-life examples.

The Scam of Book Licensing. Thanks to your ownership of copyright, you have the power to license your publishing rights to others (and get paid for it). Again, though, scammers have taken this real thing–licensing as something writers grant–and twisted it into a fraud: a “license”, like a driver’s license, that authors supposedly have to get in order for their books to be re-published. All for lots of money. Again, plenty of real-life examples–including a look at the totally fictional “book seals” some scammers sell.

How a Book Really Becomes a Movie. Book-to-film scams promise pie-in-the-sky movie deals for buckets of money–authors just have to buy something first, such as a screenplay or a “cinematic trailer.” This guest blog post from editor and expert Jeanne Veillette Bowerman sheds light on the real process by which a book reaches the screen–including why you don’t need any of the things scammers want to sell you.

Cheated, Swindled, or Scammed: What’s a Writer to Do? Three times a year I blog at Writer Unboxed (an excellent writers’ resource), which is why the link to this post goes there rather than here. If you’ve been scammed, it’s important to a) try and get your money back, and b) report your experience to local and national authorities. This post offers suggestions, resources, and links for doing both of those things, as well as advice on seeking legal recourse.

A Quick Pre-Holiday Warning for Authors: Guard Your Credit. Credit card fraud has never been a major component of the writing scams reported to Writer Beware, but as of the past year or so, it does seem to be increasing. This post offers advice on steps authors can take, post-scam, to block nefarious activity.

Coping With Scams: Suggestions for Changing Your Mindset. Another Writer Unboxed post. To cope with the prevalence of writing scams, it’s important to be prepared with knowledge–but mindset is important too: your default assumptions about, and responses to, the people and situations you encounter along way. Such expectations can help you, or they can hinder you–if, for example, you’ve been targeted by so many scams that you’ve become convinced that no one out there is reputable (really not true). This post discusses some of the common damaging mindsets I see in my work with Writer Beware, along with suggestions for, hopefully, shifting them.

BEYOND SCAMS: OTHER “BEWARES”

If you’re new to Writer Beware and think that all we do is report on scams, what follows should make it clear that we do much more. Tracking and reporting on scams is indeed a primary part of our mission, but we also cover a wide range of other areas and issues that affect writers or have the potential to get them into trouble.

Don’t Skip the Fine Print

Contest Caution: Scriptwriting Audition from Silent Manga Audition. Contest guidelines can be traps for writers, with rights grabs and other unfair terms. The guidelines for this contest for manga writers demonstrate yet again why it’s important always to carefully read–and be sure you understand–the fine print.

Outrage Over New Terms of Use at Findaway Voices Forces Change. When popular audiobook creation service Findaway Voices changed its distribution agreement to include significant and sweeping new license language that went far beyond the license terms in the old agreement, a storm of criticism ensued. Findaway took notice.

Contracts and Copyright

Bad Contract Alert: Novelsnack, Anystories, ReadInk. Another in my series of posts on the terrible contracts of serialized fiction apps. In this case, “bewares” include poor remuneration, ambiguity about payment for subsidiary rights, punishing production requirements, and stiff financial penalties for breach.

Contract Critique: Dashtoon. A comics creation platform startup, Dashtoon was energetically recruiting writers last year, promising to turn their stories into comics. One catch: the contract, which included an overly lengthy grant term, a sweeping grant of rights, and an ungenerous royalty. Unusually, Dashtoon responded to my critique by making some positive changes.

When Royalty Language in Publishing Contracts Isn’t What it Seems. Royalty language in publishing contracts varies (a lot), but it should at least be clear. But what if the publisher interprets clear royalty language in non-obvious ways, or has extra-contractual royalty practices? A couple of real-life examples, plus a look at what royalty language should include.

To CCB or Not to CCB: The Verdict is Still Out. Another in Michael Capobianco’s series of posts on the Copyright Claims Board. Michael reports that literary claims are still very much in the minority; there have been some interesting cases, but overall it’s still too soon to know how effective the CCB will be in helping writers deal with infringement of their work.

Publishers Behaving Badly

Author Complaints at City Owl Press. Authors cited a wide range of issues, including poor copy editing, inconsistent marketing, production delays, payment irregularities, and multiple contract cancellations/rights reversions apparently in response to authors who raised concerns but didn’t ask to be released. Typically, writers are reluctant to speak out about publisher problems, but City Owl authors went unusually public with their concerns.

Facing Author Lawsuits, Shawline Publishing Re-Brands as New Found Books. Responding to author complaints and a negative article in a national newspaper, Australian pay-to-play publisher Shawline Books attempted to “move on” by changing its name. Only a few days later, it turned out that the entire company was in liquidation, with massive liabilities and hundreds of authors and books left in the lurch.

Offers You Can Refuse

The Literary Reporter: A New Book Promo Site That’s Rather Less Than It Appears. Apparently shiny-new, The Literary Reporter burst on the scene with an attractive website, claims of a substantial audience, and promises of “unmatched exposure” for writers, all for a fee of just $75. The website doesn’t quite stand up to scrutiny, though, and TLR’s bizarrely chatty, weirdly paragraphed, and extremely lengthy emails had an eerily familiar feel. Turns out TLR isn’t so new after all.

Edioak and House of Pages: Lots of Questions, Questionable Answers. Editing service Edioak has been emailing writers with invitations to join its House of Pages cross-promotion network. But there are enough questions about Edioak itself (including the horrible English on the website and multiple apparently false claims) to prompt considerable caution.

Book Guard: “Anti-Scam Protection” That’s Anything But. I suppose it was inevitable that the prevalence of writing scams would give someone the idea of monetizing “scam protection”. This oddly clumsy venture may not be a scam itself, but it certainly won’t protect you. Come for the AI-created staff images, stay for Book Guard’s very grown-up response to this post.

Oddities and Extras

Just for Authors: Writer Beware’s Go-To Online Resources. Another Writer Unboxed post. Writer Beware doesn’t provide recommendations or referrals for publishers or literary agents (or others), but we can and do recommend helpful online resources writer can trust (important, given the mountains of slop that increasingly dominate the internet). This post gathers together some of my favorites. (The header image I chose is my favorite of the year.)

Dogging the Watchdog Redux: Someone Else is Impersonating Writer Beware. Yes, again. Last time was just to troll me. This time, they’re using my name and Writer Beware’s name to demand money.

The Curious Case of Fullers Library and its Deceptive Link Requests. I love weird rabbit holes, and this provided me with one: an apparent link-building scam using innocuous emails from a fictitious library with “suggestions” from enthusiastic young students to seed links on unsuspecting recipients’ websites.