One of the things I love best about being a writer is that when I’m asked at a gathering what I do for a living I can reply, “I’m a writer.”
Almost always the person hearing it has an expression on their face of being impressed. They ask you what you write and when you tell them they ask how they can see your work on the internet. You tell them Amazon.
Recently a woman at an auto repair where I was getting my car serviced asked me to show her my work (on my Amazon author page) displayed on her cell phone. It’s like being asked for an autograph.
Another thing that I love about the profession of writing is the numerous attempts to scam me from scammers on the web. If it wasn’t a highly visible and desirable occupation, the scammers wouldn’t bother.
Writers are a major target for scammers, unlike other professions.
For example, what are the chances you would get an email that read? “Greetings, my name is I.L. Scamu. I am the President of the Fly by Night Book Club in Hackensack, New Jersey. We understand that you are a minimum wage clerk at a store. We would like to do an interview with you.”
That’s not likely.
But if you’re a book author it is.
I get perhaps one or two of these emails per month.
They tell me they have seen one of my books and would like to do a question-and-answer session interview between myself and members of the club. First off, they express praise for my work.
Here is an actual passage, although in this case the scammers called themselves The Regional Book Club of Albany, New York.
The woman making this pitch we’ll call her Roberta, had a logo on her website with her face portrayed inside a decorative picture frame.
“We’d love to feature your book Infested Waters with our readers,” Roberta said in the email. “The idea of mysterious creatures attacking swimmers in the beautiful waters of the British Virgin Islands caught our attention.”
I thought, yeah, I bet it did Roberta, as well as the chance of a payday for you from me… the potential sucker.
She praised me personally.
“I also found your background really interesting, especially your experience as a newspaper reporter, novelist and historical fiction writer,” Roberta continued. “You’ve certainly explored quite a range of stories over the years.”
I felt tempted to respond, “How about a story about literary two-bit pirates and cowards who try to take financial advantage of writers?”
Almost everyone wants to be an author. And almost every author (especially the newly published) wants to be praised, feted, honored, interviewed; become better known, maybe even famous.
The crooks know this.
Vanity is vulnerability.
“If you’re open to us featuring your book, simply respond to this message and I’ll share the details,” Roberta added.
“Which includes great profit to you, great cost to me,” I could have responded.
I sent an email to Roberta saying that I would be happy to do an interview as long as it didn’t cost me any money. She responded back that it would not cost me anything and then two days later—I got an email from her saying the interview could go forward if I paid $59.95.
Roberta thinks I have a very short memory.
I could send her money for an interview that would never take place.
Never but never send anyone a dime who asks for money to feature your writing in an interview. Never send money up front to anyone for any reason.
Vanity or subsidy publishing as it’s called, is a form of self-publishing where you pay up front a publisher to print your work (digitally or paperback). Most of the time they make their money from printing your work…..not selling or promoting your books.
Self-publishing (paying) to publish a book can be bad or good depending. This is a different subject that we’ll talk about another time.
But just be aware. If you’re writing a book that will eventually become seen on the internet, you will no doubt achieve a tawdry kind of fame—–among predatory thieves.
John Sammon is a freelance writer and the author of 41 books, many of which can be found on Amazon. He is a resident of El Dorado Hills. His commentary is part of a series on the trip of self publishing featured by Folsom Times.
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