Being an author is hard. It just is. You know it. I know it. Selling our books, getting them properly edited, and so on is expensive, time-consuming, and can be intimidating if you don’t have a lot of experience with the process. Even if you do have experience with the process, it can be a lot.
What makes it worse? Scammers. There are so damn many of them out there, and seeing them never fails to make my blood boil. I start foaming whenever they approach me, and the more sophisticated ones are even worse.
I had one approach me this week, and he had the gall to get all self-important when I gave his email a politer response than it deserved but still one that was quite snarly. So… this week’s article is about those jerks and how to identify them.
Also, to anybody who knows me, if you think I’m talking about you, I am definitely not. I’m talking about scammers. I don’t associate with people who I believe fall into that category and never will.
What Kind of Scammers Are There?
There are oh, so many. However, I am going to focus on a few categories that specifically pop up over and over and over again.
“Marketers”
Show of hands, how many of you have gotten DMs from people on social media who sound interested in your book only to immediately start trying to get you to pay them for “marketing” or “reviews” or other such “services?” If you have an author social media, I’m sure you’ve received a few of those messages as your platform grows. I get about thirty of them a day on Instagram. I’ve had to actually turn on post moderation and set up filter words to prevent people from being able to message me because I was overwhelmed by these things. That’s one flavor.
These messages are often sent from dummy accounts and may well start with “promote it on…” if they’re just a cold DM, or the person might start by complimenting your book (which can be a red flag because I know people who get these who haven’t even published one yet) and then they ask where to buy it and then start trying to get you to hire them.
While I’m not going to say that everyone who DMs you a compliment is a liar. They might well be fans, honestly, but there’s a specific flavor to the scammer DMs that I’m good at picking up at this point in my life.
“Editors”
This one in particular sets my teeth on edge given that I am one. There are so, so many people hanging out shingles as “editors” who have no credentials, no skills, and who think they can earn money off authors by running manuscripts through Grammarly Pro and then calling it “editing.” There are too many people who have no business being in the industry who call themselves editors, and I will never not snarl at them in the most vicious manner I have.
To be VERY CLEAR, I’m not talking about newbies who are just starting work. I’m talking about people who fancy themselves editors because they caught a comma misplacement in someone’s Facebook status once.
There are also a lot of people who are not well-versed in a language who fancy themselves editors in that language. While I most often see people trying to edit in English who are not highly proficient English speakers, I’m sure it goes other ways too in other places. This isn’t to say you can’t edit effectively in a language not your native language. However, in order to do so, you need to be deeply proficient in the language as well as in the cultural elements that go into the language.
“Cover Designers”
Another group that makes me foam at the mouth. False cover designers will often have websites with false designs on them or will rely on AI images to create covers. These covers will be poor quality and may often contain unlicensed images and fonts in their construction.
A good cover designer will have a distinctive style to their covers that you can identify, will often have samples in some sort of portfolio, and will be able to answer questions about things like trim size, DPI, and image/font licensing (with proof of that licensing since you might well need). Vet these people because if your cover has unlicensed images, you can (and will) have your account shut down by distributors. They don’t want to get sued and absolutely will close you down.
“Formatters”
If your book formatter is just using Atticus or Vellum to format your book, find a new formatter. A true book formatter/typesetter will understand leading, kerning, tracking, and all sorts of other things. They will ask you about trim size, be able to point to licenses for their fonts, and will typically work in InDesign or Affinity Publisher or similar programs.
Book formatting is more complicated than just setting the page size to 5.5in x 8.5in in Word.
How To Identify Scammers
Scammers are pretty easy to identify most of the time. There are sophisticated ones who might well take in even the most experienced of us. That said, there are a few specific things you really want to look for as a general rule. This list is not all-inclusive, and one or two red-flags won’t necessarily mean someone’s a scammer, but it does mean you should do some more digging.
Most likely someone is a scammer if they…
approach you unsolicited.
don’t have a sufficient website/social media presence (doesn’t pass the sniff test).
have no client list they can show you — with the exception of folks who work as ghostwriters or certain spheres since they legally can’t show you that.
attempt to hard-sell you a service you haven’t asked for or said you need.
ask you to pay for things that usually are not for-pay (like reviews posted to Amazon/Goodreads or to publish an article).
charge a very low rate for a service that usually costs a good deal of money (e.g. editing for $200 flat rate any word count).
tell you, you will get a certain number of followers/sales guaranteed if you purchase their services.
attempt to force you to make an immediate decision (rather than taking time to consider it) or try and convince you not to show their contract or terms to others.
cannot tell you what their study and education in the sphere they operate in is. Some of us come from the school of hard knocks, but we can point to how we learned what we know.
These are not all the red flags, I’m sure, but that list should give you a solid basis to start with. As with all things, if your gut is uncertain about something, take time and sit with it, and if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. Use caution because the boom of self-publishing has created an entire species of scammer who is out there attempting to bilk people of money, and most authors I know aren’t exactly rolling in it.
Scammers, Shysters, and Sharks