Are Writers Uniquely Vulnerable to Scams?
By Victoria Strauss | February 28, 2025 |
This is a question that sometimes comes up when I do interviews. Writer Beware has been in operation for more than 25 years, yet it’s still so busy. There seem to be so many scams that target authors. Are writers somehow more vulnerable to fraud than other creatives?
In my opinion, no.
Writing scams aren’t unique. There are similar frauds in every creative industry. Headshot scams for models. Talent agency scams for actors. Representation scams for illustrators. Pay-to-play venues for musicians and artists. They may not be as numerous as writing scams, but they are widespread, and they use the same tricks and techniques to lure and ensnare victims.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY WRITING SCAMS, THEN?
Because (again in my opinion) there are so many writers.
Other creative pursuits have boundaries and requirements that create bars to entry. Musicians need training, not to mention instruments. Actors and singers may have limited venues in which to practice their craft: there isn’t a casting call around every corner. Painters and sculptors need often-costly materials. Models must conform to various standards of physical appearance–much broader these days than in the past, but still restrictive.
But writing: writing is just words. Everyone has those. If you can speak, you can write, and all you need to follow your impulse is an idea and a computer, or pen and paper if you prefer.
Whether you should or not is a different question. But the accessibility of writing, along with the universal human desire for self-expression, inspires vast numbers of people to create a story or a poem or a book. And what good is a story or a poem or a book without readers?
As recently as two decades ago, the difficulty of getting published presented the kind of limiting factor that exists in other creative pursuits. But while there are still considerable barriers for traditional publishing, the digital revolution has created multiple publishing options that bypass the gatekeepers and make it possible for pretty much anyone to get their work out into the world.
The readers, though. That’s the challenge. In an ocean of other authors, a sea of books and stories, how does your reader find you? With so many writers asking that same question, it’s a ripe opportunity for scammers.
ALL CREATIVES ARE VULNERABLE TO SCAMS
If the bar to the practice of writing is lower than for many other creative pursuits, the barriers to success and recognition are just as high. Anyone can write and publish a book, but far, far fewer manage to make a career of it. Where desire is strong and success is an outlier, scammers cluster at the gates–and that’s true of all creative industries, not just writing.
Creatives’ vulnerabilities aren’t unique, but they are acute. Scammers set traps accordingly.
The lure of the shortcut.
Climbing the ladder of success is hard work. Scammers and opportunists purport to offer a way to succeed without putting in the labor, claiming they can cut through red tape, skip the middlemen, get you and your work directly to decisionmakers without the necessity of all the tedious steps and tasks you’d have to undertake on your own. Of course, such shortcuts don’t exist (or if they do, very few have access to them). But creatives want them to, especially if they’ve been hitting walls on their own…which makes them vulnerable to false promises.
The lure of the giant payday.
The creative industries are not, by and large, very lucrative (at least for the average creative). Most, even those with active careers, don’t earn a lot of money. But media coverage of the big bucks outliers creates a distorted picture of the odds of financial success. Predators take full advantage, spinning tales of big money: We can make your book a bestseller! Enormous advances await! All you have to do is pay this fee/buy this service!
The lure of flattery.
All creatives struggle at some point for acknowledgment and recognition. Trying to break in can be an especially lonely business. Scammers exploit these vulnerabilities: offering fulsome praise, claiming you’re one of a select few, promising unique opportunities and incredible outcomes just for you. The validation is fake, but the need is real. If you’ve been banging your head against walls of indifference and rejection for a long time, just having someone pay attention can make your good sense fly out the window.
The lure of hidden knowledge.
Creative industries are opaque: they don’t like to expose their inner workings. This is less true than in the past–especially in publishing, where Very Online agents and editors freely offer all kinds of information and advice.
But it’s still a problem, and scammers leverage that by purporting to possess “inside knowledge” that will dispel the mysteries and open a secret back door to success. Relatedly, they take advantage of many creatives’ lack of experience to paint a false picture of how business is done, so that they can portray whatever scam they’re selling as the way things really work.
DEFENDING YOURSELF
It’s tremendously important for creatives to fortify themselves with knowledge of their chosen field before diving into it.
For writers, that means taking the time to build some knowledge of publishing and self-publishing before trying to get published. Writer Beware hears from a lot of authors who figured they could just jump in and learn on the fly, and who got into trouble as a result. The more you know about how things should work, the more alert you’ll be to bad or nonstandard practice when you encounter it. (This is especially important if you self-publish, because that’s where the majority of scams are concentrated these days.)
But awareness is also key.
Be aware that scams exist.
Yes, that’s a truism (thank you, Captain Obvious). But if you don’t know what threatens you, you don’t know that you need to be on guard. Many of the first-time writers who contact me to report a scam fell into it because they didn’t realize they had to be wary.
You don’t have to acquire an encyclopedic knowledge of every possible variation of writer-focused fraud. Just know that fraud is out there. This may help you to ask that one question, or listen to that one inner doubt, that could save you from being defrauded.
Be aware that you’re vulnerable.
As with all creative fields, building a writing career can include a lot of difficult, disappointing, and bruising experiences. Rejection, low sales, the struggle for access and exposure…these things take a toll. That’s something scammers can exploit, no matter how smart you are, and no matter how prepared.
It isn’t just creatives, either. Anyone can be vulnerable to a clever scam. If you’re mindful of that, and acknowledge the ways in which you may be susceptible, you’ll be better prepared to resist.
LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST: DON’T DESPAIR!
Writer Beware’s mission is to track and report on writing scams, with the goal of educating writers on how to avoid them. The largest part of what I write for my blog, and share here on Writer Unboxed, comes from that viewpoint. I’m aware that this kind of advice can come across not as empowering, but as scary and overwhelming: scams are inevitable! There is no escape!
That isn’t true, of course. Yes, the writing world is haunted by scams, but that doesn’t mean you can’t evade them. I’d urge you to read this essay not as a proclamation of unavoidable doom, but as the kind of warning you get before doing something that may be a little dangerous, and requires some reasonable caution, but is also intended to be fun. Common sense advice to keep in mind that shouldn’t discourage you from doing, and enjoying, the fun thing.
Have you ever been targeted by a scammer who tried to lure you into one of the four traps described in this essay? What did you do?
Victoria Strauss is the author of nine novels for adults and young adults, including the WAY OF ARATA epic fantasy duology (THE BURNING LAND and THE AWAKENED CITY) and PASSION BLUE and COLOR SONG, a pair of historical novels for teens. In addition, she’s written a handful of short stories, hundreds of book reviews, and a number of articles on writing and publishing that have appeared in Writer’s Digest, among others. In 2006, she served as a judge for the World Fantasy Awards.
She is the co-founder, with Ann Crispin, of Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group that provides information and warnings about the many scams and schemes that threaten writers. She received the Service to SFWA Award in 2009 for her work with Writer Beware.
She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Being raised around writers’ conferences and local writers’ groups did a lot for me, since now the basic structure of the industry, as far as it’s talked about often in those places, now feels second nature. More recently, though, I’ve realized I still grew up on the outskirts of publishing. Most of that world’s true inner workings—I think I mean professional and business practice and culture, history and strategies of the industry as an industry—are still a mystery to me. I’m not in this category but I’m curious, how does the nature of scams targeting authors change after they’ve broken in?
Bryan, I received a Facebook message once about turning my novel into a film by someone who seemed to be in a position to make something happen. It was shortly after my debut sold, and I knew next to nothing about the After part of the business, but my agent took control of that situation — and, yes, it was a scam.
A friend with a self-published novel recently received a film pitch, too, via email. The note had some red flags, and Victoria confirmed that it was a scam.
Wherever there’s hope and room for a dream, there’s an opportunity for a scam.
“How does the nature of scams targeting authors change after they’ve broken in?”
I think it depends less on breaking in than on the publishing path you’ve chosen–self-pub or traditional. Most scams these days focus on self-publishers, who don’t have the support system a traditional publisher provides (and yes, I know that trad pub often doesn’t come through, but it is a different publishing framework, with different structural supports). These scams recruit largely via direct solicitation from lists of leads, which really only look at the fact that the writer self-published, not whether they’re doing well with it or not. So even if you’re successful as a self-publisher, you’ll be targeted by the same scams that target first-timers.
You’re less likely to be solicited by scammers if you trad-pub–again, they’re mostly interested in self-pubbers so that’s where they get their leads, but also, as a trad-pubbed author, there are fewer things you need to outsource (thanks to the structure offered by traditional publishers). Marketing scams, the book-to-screen pitches Therese describes, interview scams, contest/award scams, and boxed set scams are the ones most often reported to Writer Beware by trad-pubbed authors–and again, it really doesn’t depend on how successful they are or whether they are with a small press or a big house.
Hello Victoria. Thank you for your timely, real-world post. The latest scam theme is AI. As I understand it, wannabe writers who have mastered tech if not writing are now able to further dilute the word world by using bots. It won’t work with experienced agents and editors–for now–but it will further crowd legitimate writing.
“Rejection, low sales, the struggle for access and exposure…these things take a toll. That’s something scammers can exploit, no matter how smart you are, and no matter how prepared.”
Exactly. A marketplace bulging with too much “product” means all writers must find ways to market their work. It’s a fertile field for scammers. But the stark reality is that being savvy about scams and marketing can’t effectively guard against bad timing, bad covers, or just plain bad luck. All we can do is soldier on, and learn from others on Writer Unboxed.
Thanks again, Victoria. It’s always better to know than to not know.
I think I might have been lucky in some ways that it took me so long to finish my first manuscript. I’m not even going to tell you how old I was. But for years, I had been religiously reading Writer’s Digest and books like Lawrence Block’s “Telling Lies for Fun and Profit.” I had been told over and over that money should flow toward the writer. Anything else should be investigated thoroughly.
I chose to connect with a person who had an entry on a popular FB group which allows one day a week for their members to list their services.
After making an appointment for a video call, I realized I hadn’t done my due diligence – so I went looking after their name+’scam’, and was horrified to discover some of the comments.
It was tricky to extricate myself, because the comments included listing some pretty bad behavior when people tried to get disentangled from this person, and I have a low energy level, but I managed to cancel the video appointment and get myself out of there.
The experience was enough – I hope to never repeat it! I’ve been writing since last century, but the person’s presentation was honed to be exactly what authors like me would need – and it could have cost quite a lot. I was a perfect ‘victim’, frustrated by not being able to market myself well, and having been ghosted by several pro PR and marketing firms after thinking I had found companies looking for clients, and thinking a more personal indie-oriented person would work better.
I don’t know yet what I WILL do, after finishing my mainstream trilogy’s final volume, but then I’ll have a bit more time and energy to spend on the task. I had thought to get some velocity on the first two volumes while I was writing the third, to have readers waiting for it, but I think I’ll wait.
My conclusion: THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS – but there are many pitfalls.
How can we find honest publishers?
What can we do if we think that the we might have been scammed?
My advice, always, is to arm yourself with knowledge of publishing before you start trying to get published. The more you know about how things _should_ work, the easier it will be to screen and assess publishers, and to recognize and avoid the questionable ones. No system is perfect, and even the best research isn’t an infallible guard against mistakes–but you will be much safer and better prepared.
There’s detailed information to help at Writer Beware’s Small Presses page, including tips on assessing publishers’ business practices, warnings about the stealthy ways vanity publishers try to disguise themselves, and links to reasonably reliable lists of publishers to help you research.
If you think you’ve been scammed, I’ve written a post here at Writer Unboxed that suggests things to do and places to report.
Victoria, a year ago my co-author of a novel of ours got several gushing emails from “Bruce Berman,” former CEO of Village Roadshow Pictures about turning our book into a film. Here’s one sentence: “Your characters leap off the page with such vitality, from Pinky himself to the real-life figures like Sylvia Beach and Alice Hamilton. Their interactions, their struggles, and their triumphs promise an emotional rollercoaster that will keep audiences gripped until the very end.”
Sure, Bruce. Bruce wanted to grip our money.
So did “Robert Munsch,” a well-known and successful children’s author. He quickly sent me a string of messages about my own work on Bluesky, and then suggested that a book trailer for a book of mine would help enormously. Robert, your trailer has no wheels.
The worst, by far, is a friend of mine who got scammed—for many thousands—by one of the fake Amazon publishers you list here: https://writerbeware.blog/2023/07/07/how-scammers-are-using-amazon-and-amazon-trademarks-to-rip-writers-off/
Unfortunately, I’d told him about your site about a year before he signed on with them, and he hadn’t looked at it for the Amazonian grave-robbers after they contacted him. This is a savvy guy with a PhD, but they flattered him and explained how much time in book production, release and marketing they’d save for him, and he bought it. They did actually release the book, which was wretchedly formatted, and included eye-blistering typos. Ouch!
Thanks for what you do for writers!
Tom, thanks so much for your comment illustrating the traps scammers set! All three you describe are among the most frequently reported to me.
You are a treasure to writers, Victoria. I’m sharing this one in my newsletter for authors–as I so often share your wonderful resources. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words!
You do a great job. I was sent to your site after getting scammed by Xlibris. Way overpriced “services”. I did get some completed books from them but that is all they really did for me. Since then, I’ve been on the lists of everyone who ever worked for Author Solutions. I continue to get emails about marketing, publishing, movies, publicity, etc. You name it, I’ve been contacted about it. I have this folder called “spam” and it gets tons of use along with blocking the senders.
My rule of thumb. If I didn’t contact you, I’m not talking to you and your email goes to spam. If you call me, I’ll hang up on you. If you are a reputable person, then send me a letter and I’ll check out your letter, you, your website etc. And you’ll end up in file 13 with the rest of the junk mail.
I’m tired of all the “I can help you (fill in with service) BS.
Thank you, Victoria, for this timely warning. I’ll be sharing it widely. And thank you for your energetic campaigning to help us all keep out of trouble!
I think I’ve seen most of the scams over the years. I’ve had offers to ‘republish’ my books, with no definite offers or evidence of a market. I’ve had approaches from people who claimed to be from famous film companies – rather bafflingly, ‘Disney’ wanted to make a film out of my writing craft book, which just made me laugh. The most recent was an apparent approach from the bestselling author John Green, who wanted my help with a vague project he was working on, which turned into a demand for (sit down, everyone) $320,000. I wrote it up on my blog recently and just heard from another author who went further down the line with him but thankfully didn’t hand over any money.
We need Writer Beware more than ever.