3 ms·

Interesting info. But neither this, nor the previous post linked from it, explain what exactly the money scam is. I guess the main audience is supposed to know

Interesting info. But neither this, nor the previous post linked from it, explain what exactly the money scam is. I guess the main audience is supposed to know already.

gkoberger 2y ago
Each one explains the scam — book trailers, ghostwriting, book seals and access codes, “relicensing”, etc. High level, they’re each trying to sell nonsense to unsuspecting writers who think they’ve found a publisher for their book.
- palmfacehn 2y ago
  All variations of advance fee fraud?
  - pjc50 2y ago
    Not quite; it's more selling shovels for a nonexistant gold rush. Lots of people want to "become a Writer" for ego reasons, and it's easy to sell them services that promise to help with that. But even if you're legitimately trying the book market is terrible and most people make nothing.
    - mattmanser 2y ago
      Yeah, but it's no different to trying to become a rock star. And you don't have to be in the 16-24 age bracket. Part of what you're paying for is the dream. When I was a naïve young person we did something similar, paying a bit for our track to be on a CD. I've no illusions now, but I still joke I'm a published musician. And there are still plenty of ways to become an author if you want. I have a guilty pleasure of LitRPG books, which are generally terrible and riddled with problem authors, but there's a cadre of writers who are making good money. They write in a serialized format like Dickens used to. Chapter by chapter, release it for free on RoyalRoad, get traction. Then they package a book up for Kindle Unlimited, take the old chapters off RR apart from some taster chapters, and start a Patreon for advanced access to new chapters. There's one series which is absolute trash, Defiance of the Fall, where he's admitted he's dragging the story out as he's making so much money.
bryanrasmussen 2y ago
the scam when preying on writers will always be the same - pay some money here. As such it is actually easy to catch out the scammer.
- magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
  It's easy to catch when the customer is sophisticated. Business-unsophisticated writers looking at random for literary agents may well end-up paying money up-front for zero value services. I had a quick look around, and found this seems to be one sensible rubric: https://aalitagents.org/canon-of-ethics/ https://aalitagents.org/canon-of-ethics/
deeviant 2y ago
The article did indeed get to where the actual scam is, albeit quite a bit into it. These fake agencies obviously give no advance, then push you to buy services related to supposed publishing of your book. 5k this, 10k for that, we're almost ready, just another 15k for xyz and we'll totally pay you that 350k for you book!

Interesting info. But neither this, nor the previous post linked from it, explain what exactly the money scam is. I guess the main audience is supposed to know already.

gkoberger 2y ago

Each one explains the scam — book trailers, ghostwriting, book seals and access codes, “relicensing”, etc. High level, they’re each trying to sell nonsense to unsuspecting writers who think they’ve found a publisher for their book.

palmfacehn 2y ago
All variations of advance fee fraud?
- pjc50 2y ago
  Not quite; it's more selling shovels for a nonexistant gold rush. Lots of people want to "become a Writer" for ego reasons, and it's easy to sell them services that promise to help with that. But even if you're legitimately trying the book market is terrible and most people make nothing.
  - mattmanser 2y ago
    Yeah, but it's no different to trying to become a rock star. And you don't have to be in the 16-24 age bracket. Part of what you're paying for is the dream. When I was a naïve young person we did something similar, paying a bit for our track to be on a CD. I've no illusions now, but I still joke I'm a published musician. And there are still plenty of ways to become an author if you want. I have a guilty pleasure of LitRPG books, which are generally terrible and riddled with problem authors, but there's a cadre of writers who are making good money. They write in a serialized format like Dickens used to. Chapter by chapter, release it for free on RoyalRoad, get traction. Then they package a book up for Kindle Unlimited, take the old chapters off RR apart from some taster chapters, and start a Patreon for advanced access to new chapters. There's one series which is absolute trash, Defiance of the Fall, where he's admitted he's dragging the story out as he's making so much money.

bryanrasmussen 2y ago

the scam when preying on writers will always be the same - pay some money here. As such it is actually easy to catch out the scammer.

magic_smoke_ee 2y ago
It's easy to catch when the customer is sophisticated. Business-unsophisticated writers looking at random for literary agents may well end-up paying money up-front for zero value services. I had a quick look around, and found this seems to be one sensible rubric: https://aalitagents.org/canon-of-ethics/ https://aalitagents.org/canon-of-ethics/

deeviant 2y ago

The article did indeed get to where the actual scam is, albeit quite a bit into it. These fake agencies obviously give no advance, then push you to buy services related to supposed publishing of your book. 5k this, 10k for that, we're almost ready, just another 15k for xyz and we'll totally pay you that 350k for you book!