Writers beware!

Upon reading the letter regarding the acquisition of rights to publish my book, alarm bells went off.

Writers beware. Read on.

Scam advice follows the proposal.”

The email letter:

Dear (my name),

I hope this message finds you well.

Congratulations on your successful 2023 acquisition!

This is Andrea Parker, from the acquisitions team working with HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan. These Companies are major traditional publishers who will buy the rights to your book.

Because of the potential we see in this book, we tried to test the waters of this book. We introduced the book three weeks ago to a couple of traditional publishing companies that we are partnered with and we received a lot of positive responses, they are saying that the book is very well articulated, timely, relevant, very well written, and such a great piece.

Congratulations on obtaining positive comments for your book from traditional publishers. You are now a candidate for an initial screening of these traditional publishing companies.

The Initial screening for possible consideration to land a contract with Traditional publishers will happen towards the third quarter of the year so we have ample time to prepare for the presentation.

Once you pass the final screening, you’ll be given an upfront payment for your book’s publishing rights or what we call an “Option Price”.

The standard option price is:
$20,000 upon signing;
$80,000 upon acceptance; and
$150,000 upon publication. That is a total of $250,000 plus the royalty
for every book sold.

These are the requirements for the endorsement:

1. Your Curriculum Vitae with photo

2. Query Letter signed by IP lawyer (If you don’t have an IP lawyer we can get one for you to expedite the process and that comes with an IP lawyer fee of $999)

Good Day!

3. Soft Copy of the Full raw manuscript (PDF or Word format).
Please know that we are not a self-publishing company and we do not earn anything from your book’s sales. We work as an agency that will endorse your book to be acquired by a traditional publishing company. We have inside contacts with major publishers and we know which of them are most likely to buy a particular material. So you won’t need to hire literary agents to promote your book to major traditional publishers as we’ll do the endorsement for you.

Once you land a contract with them, they will buy the copyright of your book and you get paid an advance payment for its projected sales. We get 5% from the advance payment – and that’s how we earn.

Please reply to this email at your earliest convenience since are finalizing the official list of book titles that will be included in the 2023 acquisition.

 

Peace and Blessings!

 

Kindest Regards,

Always research before responding to these emails. The following blog should clarify the risks of responding to such a letter.

 

 

 

 

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Anne R. Allen’s Blog… with Ruth Harris

Writing about writing. Mostly.

February 20, 2022 By Anne R. Allen 60 Comments

Publishing Scammers are Everywhere: How to Stay Safe

by Anne R. Allen

Publishing Scammers get more brazen all the time, and there seem to be more of them every day. Sometimes I wonder if all those people who have mysteriously quit their jobs aren’t now working as con artists and phone scammers.

Just recently, the respected site Wattpad ran a contest that involved a blatant rights grab that gave them rights to any submission in perpetuity. That’s right. Not only do you have to pay to enter, but your entry now belongs to them, and they can publish it without giving you credit. Forever.

Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware was on her toes and called them on it.

When even legit companies are scamming writers, what can a new writer do?

With contests, you have to read the fine print. Most writing contests are legit. But some contests you can be pretty sure are scams from the get-go.  Look out for excessive fees, rights grabs, and puny prizes.  Here’s a great post from C. Hope Clark of Funds for Writers on how to tell legit contest from the  scammers.  And always check with Victoria at Writer Beware.

Assume All Cold Calls are Scammers

Do not trust any business proposition that comes from an unsolicited phone call.

These days, all of us should be aware that all aspects of our lives are likely to be targeted by scammers. I overheard a couple of women recently talking about how much they hate getting unsolicited phone calls.

“Those telemarketers keep calling me,” one said. “They always want to sell me car insurance.

“Yes”, said the other. “I prefer to buy insurance from a local agent.”

I wanted to jump in and shout:

“Those aren’t telemarketers! They are scammers. And they don’t want to sell you insurance. They want to steal your personal information so they can clear out your bank account.”

I didn’t, and I hope they’ll stay safely with their local agents, but they brought a problem to my attention. Lots of people  — especially older ones — still think phone calls from strangers are from “telemarketers” trying to sell you stuff. Seriously, I’m not even sure there’s any such thing as a telemarketer anymore.

Pretty much everybody who cold-calls you is a criminal who wants to steal from you.

Publishing Scammers Can Use Your Words Against You

Do not give cold callers any information, ever. Don’t try to play pranks on them or say rude things. They know how to use those words against you.

Don’t even say “yes” because they may record it and use it to show you agreed to anything from a buying a ticket to a bogus cruise to letting them republish your book — at huge expense.

Yes. This happens. I know of one instance when publishing scammers phoned an elderly self-published author who had gone into memory care, and they claimed he’d agreed to let them republish his book—for thousands of dollars. They’d conned him out of his bank information and refused to give the money back.

Legit Literary Agents and Publishers Will NEVER Cold-Call You

I know authors like to fantasize that Oprah or Reese Witherspoon will call to say they’ve chosen your memoir for their latest book club read. Or that a film scout will call to say Netflix wants to make a series based on your epic fantasy novel. We know this stuff is far-fetched, but it could happen, right?

So while we’re having far-fetched fantasies, why not visualize some literary agent who works for Simon and Schuster falling in love with your indie book that had 5 sales last month? And why wouldn’t they phone you to say they want to republish it with Simon and Schuster?

Because agents and publishers don’t do this, ever. There are far-fetched fantasies and then there’s outrageous fiction.

If you have massive sales, and you’re making the national news, you might hear from them. But now days, you probably won’t. Agents want fresh stuff that hasn’t already saturated the market.

And this is important: AGENTS NEVER WORK FOR PUBLISHERS! One of the most common current scams involves a bogus “literary agent” who claims to “work for” one of the big  New York publishers. She wants to republish your book and send it to her “bosses” at Random House or Simon and Schuster.

This could never happen. Agents must be completely independent of publishing houses in order to shop around and get their clients the best deal. Any agent who works for a publisher is a crook.

There are scam agents affiliated with publishing companies. An “agent” will team up with a small publishing company — usually a vanity press — and will steer all her clients to publish there. It’s an old scam, but it still surfaces in some victim’s complaints

Unsolicited E-Mails, DMs, Etc. Are Also Likely to be Scams

Be very, very skeptical If anybody approaches you with an unsolicited  publishing “deal” – whether to republish your book, pay for pricey reviews and interviews, or buy advertising on a site you’ve never heard of.  Some of the red flags are exaggerated praise, dodgy English skills, and of course solicitation of large sums of money.

Yes, there are places where you can buy a review to be posted on the website of the review outfit. Most of these are not worth paying for because nobody visits the site but other authors. But if a reviewer offers to put the review on Amazon, you are in scam territory. Plus your entire career could be ruined. Amazon has very strict rules against paid reviews, and you could be kicked off Amazon for life. See my post on. Amazon’s New Review Rules.

Educate Yourself About the Publishing Industry

The best way to stay safe when entering  the publishing industry is to learn how this creaky old business works. The best place to start is at the blog of Jane Friedman.

If you want to be traditionally published, don’t self-publish hoping to be “discovered”. You’re much more likely to be discovered with a good query in an agent’s inbox. After sending lots of good queries into agents’ inboxes of course. For solid info about agents, I suggest you read the blog of Nathan Bransford and Janet Reid aka the Query Shark.

Or you can publish with a small press. But here be dragons. Watch out for vanity presses masquerading as “traditional” small publishing companies. If anybody asks for money up front, they are most likely a vanity press. They may call themselves “hybrid” presses, but the usually aren’t. I don’t recommend that a newbie go with a hybrid press. You need to be pretty savvy to tell the good guys from the publishing scammers.

Do not publish with a vanity press unless you only are writing for friends and family. The book will cost too much to make any profit and readers will recognize it as vanity-published and figure it’s not good enough to waste their time on. Also, the up-front fees for a vanity press are usually exorbitant.

Or you can self-publish because you prefer to be an independent author. Then read everything you can about marketing. I suggest you read everything you can get your hands on by David Gaughran,.  Then prepare to open a business. When you are your own publishing company, you are the boss, so you need to know what you’re doing.

More Info on Publishing Scammers

I have written dozens of posts about Publishing Scammers over the years. Here are some of the most popular.

How to Tell Legit Publishers from the Bad Guys https://annerallen.com/2018/10/legitimate-publishers-or-bad-guys/

Friends don’t let Friends Fall For Publishing Scams https://annerallen.com/2021/05/publishing-scams-look-for-these-signs/

6 New Writing Scams to Look Out for in 2018 https://annerallen.com/2018/06/new-writing-scams/

Writing Scams to Look Out for in 2019 https://annerallen.com/2019/01/new-writing-scams-2019/’

10 New Publishing Scams to Watch Out for in 2020 https://annerallen.com/2020/02/new-publishing-scams-2020/

Publishing Scammers to Watch Out for in 2021 https://annerallen.com/2021/01/publishing-scammers-2021/

The #1 Mistake New Writers Make that Leaves them Vulnerable to Scammers https://annerallen.com/2019/06/1-mistake-vulnerable-publishing-scams/

Don’t Fall Prey to Publishing Scams https://annerallen.com/2017/09/publishing-scams-7-new-writer-mistakes/

You Won’t See This New Publishing Scam Coming https://annerallen.com/2021/09/warning-to-writers-new-publishing-scam/

Publishing Scammers are Proliferating like Tribbles. https://annerallen.com/2021/09/publishing-scammers-how-to-stay-safe/

5 Scams that Target New Writers https://annerallen.com/2015/12/5-scams-target-new-writers-spot/

6 More Scams that Target New Writers https://annerallen.com/2015/12/6-more-scams-that-target-new-writers/

Good luck everybody and stay safe out there!

By Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) February 20, 2022.