Writer Beware

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Vanity Radio and TV: Think Twice Before Paying for Interviews

Header image: a microphone resting on a carpet of $100 bills (credit: ZhdanHenn / Shutterstock.com)

OCT 13, 2023December 14, 202424 COMMENTS

In a super-crowded, hyper-competitive marketplace, one of the main challenges for book authors is to stand out. And where there's a need, there are always unscrupulous operators waiting to take advantage. The internet is awash in worthless schemes and outright scams designed to profit from authors' hunger for publicity and exposure.

I've written about a number of these junk marketing products: Hollywood book-to-screen packages, the hugely marked-up PR options offered by assisted self-publishing conglomerate Author Solutions, high entry fee awards programs, offers for book fair "representation", advertising in pay-to-play magazines, faux news segments, expensive paid shelf space schemes.

Today, I'm going to talk about vanity radio and TV interviews.

BOOKSELLING

Cautions: Babelcube, Barnes & Noble Book Order Scams, Audiobook Order Scam (Featuring a Fake Non-Profit)

Header image: Zigzags of yellow Caution tape on a white background (credit: heromen30 / Shutterstock.com)

SEP 22, 2023April 25, 202524 COMMENTS

Babelcube is a platform that matches publishers and self-publishing authors with freelance translators to produce foreign-language versions of their books. Authors and publishers can post descriptions of their books for translators to bid on; the author can then select the offer they prefer. Translators can peruse book descriptions and bid on books they're interested in. Payment for both author and translator is a revenue share of sales income, with Babelcube taking an administrative fee of 20%.

I've long been a bit skeptical of Babelcube. Book translation is much more than simply rendering words in a different language; both skill and artistry are needed to capture the author's voice and style. Running the text through Google Translate or another translation program won't do that, even with some by-hand tweaking. Also, authors are able to cancel projects if they don't like the quality of the translation--but how do you vet quality in a language you don't speak?

I don't doubt there are honest translators at Babelcube, and satisfied authors too. But the potentially very low pay (revenue-share arrangements are always highly speculative) would seem to attract a lot of non-professionals, with all the quality issues that implies--not to mention the potential for scammers looking to make money with a large volume of quick, shoddy translations. (One example, shared with me by a translator: an English-language book whose title included the word "rake"--as in philanderer--and was translated into Italian using the word for the garden tool.)

OVERSEAS SCAMS

Anatomy of a Fake Film Company Scam: The Greendot Films / Better Bound House

SEP 15, 2023January 21, 202570 COMMENTS

A little while ago, I wrote a post on the anatomy of fake literary agency scams. This post focuses on their somewhat less common, but equally pernicious, sibling: fake film company scams.

Here's how it works. A film company--with a website and everything--calls or emails out of the blue with a tempting offer: your book has the potential to be made into a movie/TV series! And they want to represent you to studios/pitch you to producers/take you to a major conference where scores of film people will be present! Just one requirement: you need a screenplay/a pitch deck/a storyboard/some other product. Don't have those things? No problem--they know a reputable and expert company that can create them for you...for a fee.

It's a classic bait-and-switch setup. The "film company" is a front for the service provider, which in turn is owned by a parent company overseas. And that initial service that was pitched to you as absolutely essential? It's just the start. By paying, you've marked yourself as fair game for escalating sales pressure and fraudulent offers involving large upfront payments. And the sales reps who staff the scams--who earn a commission on every dollar you spend--will take every opening you give them, and won't stop unless you stop them.

BUSINESS OF WRITING

Dear Author, Are You Human? Certifying Authenticity In the AI Age

Header image: The letters "AI" struck through with a red line on a red background (credit: sofirinaja / Shutterstock.com)

AUG 11, 2023January 14, 202635 COMMENTS

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that where there is an issue of concern for writers, someone will find a way to monetize it.

And with AI suddenly omnipresent in our lives (or at least in the media), creators are confronted with a bewildering multiplicity of issues of concern, from unauthorized use of creative works for machine learning, to whether AI-created work is covered by copyright, to crappy AI-created books inundating Amazon and in some cases impersonating real writers, to the replacement of (expensive) creators with (cheap) generative AI tools like ChatGPT and MidJourney, to the looming prospect of machine-created art or novels or journalism becoming indistinguishable from the work of humans.

In this fraught environment, it was probably inevitable that enterprising people would come up with the idea of a service to certify or authenticate human authorship, and invite creators to buy into it. This post takes a look at two such services.

OVERSEAS SCAMS

Dogging the Watchdog: In Which a Scammer Tries to Troll Me

Header image: WOOF in cartoon lettering on a cartoon explosion background (credit: Kapitosh/Shutterstock.com)

AUG 4, 2023August 4, 202322 COMMENTS

As you might imagine, given Writer Beware's mission, I get a certain amount of hate from the people and companies I warn about here and on social media.

Sometimes they email me. Sometimes they harass and/or dox me on social media (one guy repeatedly tweeted my home address and urged people to come kick my door in). Sometimes they attack my books with one-star reviews and ratings. Sometimes they decorate my blog posts with meanie comments making various false claims about me and Writer Beware. Sometimes they accuse me of malfeasance on sites like Ripoff Report and PissedConsumer.com. On occasion they've contacted my publisher or SFWA to "report" me. There's even been the odd death threat (warning: sensitive content). Although sometimes it's just a wish.

Then there was The Write Agenda, which devoted several years and an entire website to attempting to discredit me, the late Ann Crispin, and other anti-scam activists--including, just to name a few, trying to get me booted from SFWA, trying to get me disqualified for an award, and packaging a legal complaint into a series of "books" with scurrilous versions of my own titles (there's considerable evidence to indicate that this hate site was a project of a prolific agency/publishing scam that Writer Beware spent a lot of time warning about in the early aughts). And speaking of legal complaints, I, SFWA, and Writer Beware staff have been sued three times by individuals or companies we outed (respectively won, dismissed due to the plaintiff's lack of cooperation, and settled at the plaintiff's request).

PUBLISHER COMPLAINTS

Contract, Payment Delays at the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

JUL 25, 2023February 27, 202519 COMMENTS

With its first issue published in 1949, and publishing continuously since then, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF for short) is one of the oldest and most prestigious short fiction markets in the field of speculative fiction. For authors at every stage of their careers, a story, poem, or novella in F&SF is an important writing credit.

F&SF takes First North American Serial Rights and pays on acceptance (which in practice means on receipt of a contract). Acceptance emails indicate that writers will receive a contract and a check within two to four weeks. However, Writer Beware has recently received multiple reports from writers whose work has been officially accepted but, months later, are still waiting for contracts and checks. Reported delays range from six months to over a year, considerably extending an (already unduly lengthy) three-year publication window. (Spilogale, Inc. is the publisher of F&SF, owned by Gordon Van Gelder).

Writers also report a variety of other delays: waiting for notification of official acceptance well beyond the stated acquisition timeline of 6 weeks to 6 months; receiving copy edits and proofs for accepted stories without having received a contract or payment; receiving contract and payment only weeks before the publication date, after months of waiting; completing requested revisions and then hearing nothing more. Many of the writers who contacted me say that they've sent repeated emails asking about the delays, and haven't received a response.