Watch Out for Web Scams!

by Moira Allen

While the Web abounds with opportunities and resources for writers, it has its share of pitfalls and traps for the unwary as well. Sadly, many shady individuals and organizations have found the Web an excellent place to hunt for amateur, inexperienced, and "desperate to be published" writers. Unscrupulous agents, subsidy publishers who don't deliver, and book doctors who offer to make a manuscript "saleable" are just a few of the perils writers face. Unfortunately, these types of predators actively hunt for amateur, inexperienced, and "desperate-to-be-published" writers on the Internet, stalking their prey in newsgroups, discussion lists, and chat rooms. Here are some of the more typical scams facing writers online:

Unscrupulous Agents

Granted, not every agent who charges a fee is necessarily running a scam (although I have yet to meet a professional author who has anything good to say about fee-charging agents). The problem is, a fee-charging agent is making money off the wrong person: You. A reputable agent makes a decision about representing a client based on whether he or she believes that the client's work can be sold successfully to a publisher. If the agent feels that the work can't be sold, or that he or she is simply not the right agent (or with the right connections) to sell that work, the agent will say no. In short, a reputable agent won't take on your work unless fairly sure that he or she can make money by selling it.

A fee-charging agent doesn't have to worry about that, because he or she is already making money from you, whether the work sells or not. While many no doubt do make an attempt to market the work of their clients (or they wouldn't still be in business at all), the incentive to select only work that can be marketed is gone. The agent earns a fee whether you get published or not -- and since that removes any incentive to be selective about clients, it means that there is absolutely no guarantee that by signing with a fee-charging agent, you will have any better chance of getting published.

That doesn't mean that editors and book doctors are fraudulent. There are many excellent, reputable editors and book doctors -- and unfortunately the cost of a high-quality manuscript edit is high. And, sadly, very few publishers are willing to provide the type of editing service for a manuscript that they once did, which means that if your manuscript isn't just about perfect "as is," it may have less chance of getting published. The scam, however, is when agents and editors work together to bilk a writer of money with promises of acceptance and publication -- as with the cases below.

Agents and Book Doctors: Woodside and Edit Ink

In February 1999, the Woodside Literary Agency of Queens, New York, was ordered to stop its Internet publishing scheme, provide restitution to consumers, pay penalties and costs to the state and post a $100,000 bond to protect consumers in future business dealings. Here's an excerpt from the official press release of the Office of the New York State Attorney General:

The Attorney General's office had received complaints from dozens of consumers, many of whom said they lost as much as $400 in fees to Woodside. The company lured would-be authors with glowing evaluations of writing samples, and then imposed steep charges for further review and processing of manuscripts. Consumers who paid an initial reading fee of as much as $150 were informed that their work was "publishable." They were then asked to pay an additional $250 contract fee. To lend credence to the scam, Woodside told authors that only five percent of submissions were accepted by the agency. In reality, the company offered contracts to anyone who paid the initial reading fee.

The Attorney General's Office investigated Woodside after receiving complaints from writers who grew tired of the company's repeated solicitations through literary-related news groups and bulletin boards. In an effort to test Woodside's literary standards, a group of writers actually submitted a bogus writing sample that was filled with nonsensical prose, and grammatical and spelling errors. Woodside later requested the author's entire manuscript -- and a fee.

Woodside was also accused of harassing writers who attempted to warn others of the scam by posting warnings on newsgroups or by e-mail. In some cases, writers were threatened with legal action when they tried to spread the word about Woodside. According to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, "This is another example of how scam artists are using the Internet to cheat consumers out of their hard-earned dollars. Internet users and all consumers must be on guard against unscrupulous businesses."

Another such unscrupulous firm, and perhaps the most widely publicized, is EditInk, run by four residents of Buffalo, New York, and one California man. The participants ran a "fictitious literary agent and publishing house business" that defrauded more than 3,600 writers nationwide. According to the Office of the New York State Attorney General:

This phony literary service generated approximately $4.75 million in revenues. Consumers were duped into believing that their manuscripts showed "great promise and excellent commercial possibilities" but required professional editing. The participants then made referrals to Edit Ink, a Cheektowaga firm which charged hopeful writers up to $2,000 per manuscript. What was not disclosed to the consumers, however, was the fact that these fake literary agents were receiving a 15 percent kickback from Edit Ink for every referral. After resubmitting their edited writings to the literary agent or publishing house, the victims were informed that their manuscript had been rejected.

The operators of Edit Ink were fined $2 million in civil penalties, with additional fines for damages to the victims. According to Spitzer, "These victims placed their hopes and dreams in fraudulent literary agents and publishing companies only to be deceived into paying for an over-priced editing service, lied to about the qualifications of the editors, misled about the potential for acceptance by a publishing company, and ultimately rejected by fictitious literary agents or publishing houses. It is equally important that we fight to get substantial refunds for these consumers."

Subsidy Publishing Scams

Authors who would "do anything to get published" are especially vulnerable to the promises of subsidy publishers. While most professional authors regard subsidy publishers as anathema, most are not actually "scams" -- they are simply companies that take your money and deliver a "published" book that is virtually impossible to sell. Such a book is not considered "published" by any professional standards; it won't receive reviews, it won't get into bookstores, it won't qualify as a "publication" credit applicable to membership in a professional organization (such as Romance Writers of America or Science Fiction Writers of America). It's simply a book-shaped hunk of pages that makes authors feel good. But it's not, technically, a scam.

Unfortunately, a handful of subsidy publishers go a step farther, and take authors' money without delivering even that "hunk of pages." One such publisher is Northwest Publishing of Utah, founded in 1992 by James van Treese. Treese worked through a network of literary agents, who received kickbacks for referring their clients to Northwest. The company claimed to be selective in the manuscripts it chose for publication, but in reality, any author willing to pay the price could be published.

The scam lay in the fact that the books were never actually published. While a handful would be printed to send to the author, the author was told that the rest were "warehoused", when in fact they were never printed at all. According to charges brought against Van Treese, much of the authors' money was actually gambled away in Las Vegas. In 1997, Van Treese and his son were charged with 22 second-degree counts of communications fraud, securities fraud, tax evasion and racketeering.

In 1997, Charles and Dorothy Deering launched a subsidy publishing company called Sovereign Publications, following the same model. The Deerings also operated a fraudulent literary agency, which served to direct clients to the publishing house. Again, authors generally never saw the books that they had paid thousands of dollars to print.

The most recent entry in the subsidy scam sweepstakes is Press-TIGE Publishing, run by Martha Ivery, aka Kelly O'Donnell. As Kelly O'Donnell, Ivery ran several fee-charging literary agencies, as well as a vanity publishing house. Ivery was noted for soliciting clients through newsgroups, chat rooms, and discussion groups. She also obtained mailing lists of writers through conferences and other sources. According to lawyer Charles Petit, "Many complaints and extensive documentation demonstrate that Press-TIGE doesn't print the books that authors pay for, had no ability to do so, and probably never intended to do so." Authors with claims against Ivery (e.g., books paid for but not produced) were encouraged to file with the court. During the hearing, Ivery admitted to operating yet another vanity publishing house, New Millennium, in Leeds or Catskill, New York. According to Petit, "Ivery admitted under oath that she unilaterally transferred some unfulfilled publishing contracts from Press-TIGE to New Millennium."

There are circumstances in which subsidy publishing (particularly electronic or print-on-demand subsidy publishing) can be a viable way to get one's book into print. It is not, however, considered a professional or commercial form of publication under any circumstances, and is generally considered a means of taking advantage of amateur or desperate authors. At least a reputable subsidy publisher will deliver the promised book, however!

Warning Signs of a Scam

Amateur authors are often so thrilled to be approached by an agent or publisher (and have heard so many stories about how "hard" it is to acquire an agent or publisher) that they are willing to grab at any offer, no matter how improbable it may seem. As usual, however, if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. If an agency or publisher refers you to a specific editorial service, especially with the implied suggestion that your work "might" be acceptable with just a little help, run like the wind. Watch out for these "scam" lines:

• "Your book is 'almost' good enough to publish, but needs work." If you are a good enough writer to produce a book that is "almost" good enough to publish, agents and publishers will assume you are good enough to take it the rest of the way. They may offer tips and suggestions, but they won't advise you to farm it out for someone else to do the work. (After all, how would that make you a better author -- and one who could produce more books for that agency in the future?)
  
  
• "Publishers can't afford to hire editors anymore." Nonsense. Publishers still use editors; no reputable house lets a manuscript travel straight from author's pen to reader's eye. If your work has grammatical or content errors, the house may suggest that you clean them up -- but it won't tell you to do the publisher's job of "hiring" an editor.
  
  This doesn't mean all editors or book doctors are unethical. It simply means that specific "referrals" are highly suspect. If your book needs work, an agent or publisher may tell you so -- but will leave it to you to decide how that work should be done.
  
  
• A publisher who asks for an "investment" to defray publication costs. Any publisher (other than a select handful of nonprofit university and technical presses) who asks for funds is a subsidy house. No commercial publisher asks an author to pay "expenses." If a reputable publishing house doesn't believe your manuscript is worth the financial risk, it will simply reject that manuscript; it won't ask you to pay for publication.

The golden rule of publishing is simple: Money flows from the market to the writer, not the other way around. It either flows from publisher to agent to writer, or from publisher to writer. It does not flow from writer to publisher, or writer to agent. If your money is flowing in the wrong direction, someone is taking advantage of you. In short, don't worry about agencies that might steal your writing; worry about those that go directly for your cash!

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