Writer Beware

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Cheated, Swindled, or Scammed: What’s a Writer to Do?

Header image: a hand surreptitiously slipping a $100 bill out of someone's back pocket (Credit: Kate Sumbler / Flickr.com)

JUN 28, 2024January 4, 202617 COMMENTS

You’ve chosen a publishing service, engaged a marketing company, entered a writing contest, hired an editor, inked a representation agreement, or contracted with a publisher, hybrid or traditional.

You’re aware that there are no guarantees: your book won’t necessarily become a bestseller. Your story may not win the contest prize. Your agent may not find a home for your manuscript. But your expectation is that the person or company will keep their promises, adhere to timelines, deliver acceptable quality, and generally honor whatever contract or agreement you both have signed.

What if they don’t, though? What if, after paying out a lot of money and/or waiting in vain for a service to be completed and/or receiving a product too shoddy to use, you realize you’ve been conned? What are your options? What can you do?

OVERSEAS SCAMS

The Latest Impersonation Scams

JUN 21, 2024February 18, 202630 COMMENTS

Among the most frequent scam reports I receive are impersonation scams. These are many and various, including agent impersonations, publisher impersonations, bookstore impersonations, production company impersonations, and more. The aim of the scam--as always--is to relieve writers of money.

Herewith, a compendium of the latest impersonation scams that have crossed my desk. Like most of the worst scams these days, all of them start with an out-of-the-blue solicitation.

I've seen several examples of this one, which offers to create "a compelling article about your book" and "an in-depth profile of you as the author", supposedly to be published in the New York Times--all for the low, low price of $499.

BOOK TO FILM

From Motionflick Studios to Snow Day Film: The Evolution of a Book-to-Film Scam

Solicitation from Motionflick Studios for inclusion of the author's book in the September Producers Film Pitch event, claiming interest from Paul Dano in creating a "an impressive pitch deck" for the event and asking the author to submit a screenplay

JUN 7, 2024March 20, 202641 COMMENTS

The Hollywood dream has always burned bright for writers...and scammers and dodgy operators have always been eager to take advantage. The method may change--from the coverage grifts and pay-to-play snail mail catalogs that were a staple of the pre-internet days, to the impersonation and fake film company scams of today--but the aim is the same: to trick writers into spending money for nothing.

Last July, I began getting reports of solicitations from a company called Motionflick Studios.

Everything about this email said "bogus", from the solicitation itself (solicitation, as regular readers of this blog know, is one of the first signs of fraud these days), to the implausibly large option fee, to the absurd notion that an established Hollywood figure like Paul Dano would be personally creating pitch decks.

Guest Post: Disney, Books, and the Copyright Claims Board

MAY 31, 2024May 31, 20245 COMMENTS

Writer Beware has been covering the Copyright Claims Board since it started accepting cases in 2022. A small claims court for copyright matters, the CCB offers an alternative to the expensive court battles that previously were the only path to resolving copyright disputes, providing creators with a streamlined, inexpensive method of adjudicating cases of infringement, misuse, and other alleged malfeasance.

As Michael Capobianco has reported, writing and book-related claims make up a minority of CCB cases (so far, anyway). One of the more interesting ones involves an author's allegation that Disney, which contracted with the author to publish the author's books in North America, violated the author's copyright by continuing to sell ebook editions even after the contract had terminated.

At last checkin, the case appeared to have gone quiet, with no new filings since July 2023. Recently, though, the CCB issued a determination. In today's guest post, Jonathan Bailey of the invaluable Plagiarism Today website takes a look at the outcome.

CONTESTS AND AWARDS

Alert: A Scammer is Impersonating the Alliance of Independent Authors

Invitation to submit your book for the 2024 Best Indie Book Award.

Dear [redacted]

This notice aims to inform you that The Alliance of Independent Authors has partnered with BIBA (Best Indie Book Awards) to give ALLI author members a 95% discount on participating in the 2024 literary contest. Best Indie Book Award® (or BIBA®) is an international literary contest recognizing outstanding achievements by indie authors.

Authors are encouraged to submit their books for the 12th Annual Best Indie Book Award Contest on or before May 30th. Use the referral link below to submit your book, all genre(s) categories have been paid for by being an ALLi author member.

https://allianceindependentauthors.booksaward.org/[redacted]/Official_Entry.html

kind regards
ALLi Support Team

MAY 17, 2024May 17, 202411 COMMENTS

If you've received this email, beware: it's a phishing scam.

The Alliance of Independent Authors has confirmed to Writer Beware that it did not send this email, which I'm told was received by both ALLi members and non-members. The scam solicitations are personalized with writers' email addresses and names, and the "Official Entry" link at the bottom is also personalized (which is why I've redacted part of it).

Note the fake email address (ALLi's real email is @allianceindependentauthors.org). The scam domain is just 8 days old:

CONTRACTS

Contract Critique: Dashtoon

MAY 10, 2024June 3, 20247 COMMENTS

Dashtoon is a startup (founded in late 2022) digital comics creation platform that promises to revolutionize the comics industry by allowing anyone to create their own webcomics using generative AI, and to distribute and monetize their creations via the Dashtoon app. Licensed in Delaware USA and doing business as Dashverse Corp, it's yet another shiny entry into our new AI-crazed reality, and has garnered venture capital investment and positive media coverage.

Via its Authors Program, Dashtoon also licenses books and stories and turns them into comics, covering all production costs and paying authors a royalty. It also appears to be looking to license already-published comics for distribution on its platform. Here's an example of the emails it has been sending out (this is a form email; I've seen several of them):

I've also had the opportunity to see a number of Dashtoon contracts, both exclusive (for book adaptations) and non-exclusive (for distribution of already-published work).