Why Today’s Authors Are Being Scammed More Than Ever Before—and How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

Please welcome Michael Castleman to Writer Unboxed today! Michael is the author of 19 books, both fiction and nonfiction, the latest of which releases TODAY. The Untold Story of Books: A Writer’s History of Book Publishing is the first book to trace the 600-year saga of publishing from an author’s point of view, with emphasis on the possible joys and many perils of the 21^st-century book business.

“Entertaining, fascinating, deeply researched, and crisply written, The Untold Story of Books is full of surprises. I worked in publishing for thirty years and was amazed how much I learned about the industry. No other book provides such a comprehensive and witty overview. The Untold Story of Books is a must-read for authors, aspiring authors, and anyone who loves books. The publishing industry is often shrouded in mystery. This book lifts the veil and provides a fresh, new, compelling perspective.”
—Mark Chimsky, former editorial director of Harper San Francisco, former director of trade paperbacks at Little Brown, and former editor-in-chief of the trade paperback division at Macmillan

We’re thrilled Michael is here to shine a light on a topic he knows well–the dark side of the business, and how we might avoid it.

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Over the past decade, author scams have multiplied like the brooms in the Fantasia scene of Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” WU has done an admirable job helping authors detect scams—and avoid them. But few authors appreciate why scams have recently become so prevalent. The reason is the advent of digital publishing, and its result, an unprecedented avalanche of books.

1980 Vs. Today: What a Difference!

To understand why scams have proliferated so insidiously, consider these numbers.

• In 1980, U.S. publishers released 45,000 new books.

• Since 2010, annual new releases have averaged 44 times that number, around 2 million a year.

• Since 1980, the U.S. population has increased 48 percent, but book releases have soared 4400 percent.

• During the entire 20^th century, American publishers released some 2.5 million titles. Today that many new books appear every year or two. Consequently, every new book has become a grain of sand on a huge beach.

• With releases vastly outstripping population growth, sales per new title have been sliced thinner than a dust jacket. In 2023, total U.S. sales of new releases came to around 575 million copies. Divided by 2 million new titles, average sales came to fewer than 300 copies per book. Of course, some of those books became bestsellers—around one in 15,000—selling zillions. Which means that many other books published last year have sold much fewer than 300.

• Put another way, in 1980, the typical book published by a New York major, the houses with familiar names, sold at least 1,000 copies. Today, books have many more paths to publication: the majors, independent publishers, pay-to-publish companies, and self-publishers. And today, 80 percent of total new releases sell fewer than 100 copies. This is particularly true for self-published work, but plenty of titles released by the majors sell only a few hundred copies.

• Today, just 6 percent of new releases sell 1,000, and only 2 percent sell 5,000.

No wonder so many authors feel so frustrated about marketing their work.

No Single Path

Back in 1980, book publishing involved a single path from idea, to proposal, to agent, offer, contract, editing, acceptance, and release—with champagne. Book promotion depended on print reviews, radio and TV interviews, and bookstore events. There weren’t many authors to scam, and there wasn’t much room for bad actors to insinuate themselves into the process. Today, there are many more paths to publication and promotion, so many more choices. Selecting among them leaves many authors confused and frustrated—and ripe for abuse.

Unfortunately, many of today’s authors don’t know much about publishing or promotion. They’re raring to sell their ideas to publishers, and their books to the public. And many of today’s millions of authors feel desperate to discover the magic bullet that will catapult them to fame and fortune. This combination of naivety, anguish, and impatience makes them juicy targets for con artists.

Author, Beware!

Author scams typically come in five varieties. Space considerations forbid going into detail here, but briefly:

• Agent fraud. Authors receive solicitations from people who claim to be literary agents. These “agents” have legit-looking web sites with fake testimonials from purportedly published authors. The scammers express great eagerness to read authors’ work—for a considerable fee. A few weeks after authors pay, the fraudsters hail their marks as geniuses, and claim to be able to negotiate big advances from major publishers—for another hefty fee. Soon after you pay, they disappear. Note: Legitimate agents are usually overwhelmed with queries from authors seeking representation. They don’t solicit, and rarely charge fees to read authors’ work or represent them to publishers.

• Publisher fraud. A slight variation on the above. Scammers often impersonate real publishers, and claim to have special spots on their next list for a select few authors willing to write big checks.

• Promotion fraud. Fraudsters offer to get you hundreds of reviews, or list your book on websites with zillions of readers, or represent your book at book festivals, or book you on podcasts—if you pay up.

• Award fraud. You get solicited to pay hefty fees to enter competitions you’ve never heard of to be judged by judges you’ve never heard of. Note: With the exception of National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and a few others, most awards don’t garner much attention or sell many books.

• TV/film fraud. You get solicited by “producers” who loved your book! They’re eager to turn it into a movie or TV series. All you have to do is … guess what?

Complicating matters, today many authors pay to publish through publishing services companies (PSCs, aka hybrid publishers). PSCs are publishers for hire. Many are legit and honorable. But others are not.

When in doubt about any publishing or promotion opportunity:

• Search the Internet to see if anyone has identified your would-be benefactors as scammers.
• Check the websites of the person who contacted you for signs of legitimacy. Legitimate literary agencies and publishers often list their personnel as well as authors they’ve represented or published. Check for those authors and their books on Amazon and through their websites. But understand that those authors and book listings might also be fake. How can you tell? One red flag is anything that appears amiss. Misspellings, poor grammar, puerile vocabulary, and other weirdness suggests a scam.
• Show any offers you receive to published authors you know. See what they think.
• Keep reading WU.
• Read Jane Friedman (janefriedman.com), former publisher of Writer’s Digest, whose website and blog offer sound advice and warn against fraudsters.
• Read Writer Beware (writerbeware.blog), a project of author (and WU contributor) Victoria Strauss and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association; it’s a great source of information on author scams.
• Join the Authors Guild, and participate in the Guild’s online Community Forum. Its participants collectively know a great deal about scams. Guild members may also ask the organization’s staff if offers look legit.
• And always remember, if any opportunity sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Not a Sprint, a Marathon

Back in 1980, books had six months to a year to, in publisher parlance, “find an audience.” If they did, they went into second printings. If not, they went out of print and disappeared. Consequently, authors were under considerable pressure to augment publishers’ in-house promotion efforts with their own. On pub day, the clock started ticking. Authors scrambled for publicists, media, and bookstore appearances—anything to help keep their titles in print.

Today, books rarely go out of print. Technology has transformed books into digital files that require no warehousing and can be maintained forever at very low cost, then printed on demand.

Consequently, authors are under much less pressure to rocket out of the gate. They have much longer runways to promote their work. Authors can take their time investigating publishers and promotion possibilities.

Scammers are always in a rush. They insist: Act now! You don’t have to. Take all the time you need to decide how you’re going to publish and promote your work. The process is no longer a sprint. It’s a marathon.

Slow down. Breathe. Use the resources just mentioned. Keep your expectations low. Decide how much time and money you’re willing to invest in finding a publisher or promoting your work, and do a little something every day—for months or years.

If you sell 100 copies, you’re in the top 20 percent of sales. If you sell 1,000, you’re in the top 6 percent. You’re highly unlikely to hit the bestseller list. But if you’re judicious, you can publish your work and promote it without being scammed.

Have you seen publishing scams in action? What tipped you off that you were witnessing a scam? How did you respond? Let’s share our experiences in comments.