Don't let your writing dreams trip you up

Beware of publishing industry scammers

When you are chasing a dream, it’s easy to get tripped up. Writers are dreamers, and as such, are vulnerable.

Photo by Katya Wolf: https://www.pexels.com/

Would-be writers, unsure how to get a traditional publishing deal, have turned in recent years to self-publishing. It’s harder than ever for new writers to break into traditional royalty publishing, but it’s easier than ever to self-publish. It’s also easier than ever for bad actors to try to take advantage of writers’ dreams.

The number of self-published books has jumped by 264 percent in the last five years, according to www.wordsrated.com

Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a free service anyone can use to self-publish their work, has driven a lot of this growth. Amazon and other platforms use “print on demand” technology that allows them to print one book at a time, when its ordered. No more having to order books 500 or 1000 or more at a time. This technology has transformed the publishing industry, opening the opportunity for writers to get their work out into the world easily and cheaply.

However—getting your book into the world (the noisy, crowded, full of books world) is one thing. Getting it into the hands of readers is another. While Amazon reports that more than 1000 self-published authors made $100,000 from Amazon sales last year, that is out of 300 million self-pubbed books. It’s the tippy tiny top of the pyramid. The average self-published book sells just 250 copies, and 90 percent of self-published books sell less than 100 copies. (These stats are from WordsRated.com)

So while the barriers to publication have fallen, the barriers to actually selling a lot of books remain. You still have to publicize and market your book. To get your book discovered. Many authors wonder how to do that, and are vulnerable to scammers who offer to “help.”

Writers’ desperation to actually sell their books, or sell a lot of books, (as opposed to just publishing, which is now fairly simple) has created the perfect environment for scammers. From vanity publishers (who offer you a “book contract” which turns out to require you to pay to get your book published) to marketing firms that promise far more than they produce, scammers see opportunity everywhere in the wild world of publishing.

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/

If you’ve self-published or are trying to figure out how to do so, please beware. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

If someone calls you out of the blue and says they want to turn your book into a movie, or get you a traditional publishing contract for your self-published book, or some other wild and incredible opportunity—think twice. In fact, just think.

Typically, no one who is legit is going to call an unknown writer to turn their book into a movie or broker a deal with a royalty publisher. They are manipulating you, because your dream of being a best-selling author clouds your vision and freezes your discernment.

The Writer Beware blog is an excellent resource to see if the company reaching out to you is legit.

A recent article there by Victoria Strauss notes that there are a number of scammers posing as “literary agents” who contact writers in an effort to get them to pay for services that they promise will lead to a movie deal or a contract with a Big 5 publisher.

I was stunned (and so sad) to read that Strauss has “heard from writers who’ve spent $70,000, $100,000, $300,000, and even more on such frauds.”

You can read the whole post here.

It’s definitely worth your time. The Writer Beware blog has a ton of helpful content about scams and schemes writers need to watch out for.

What makes us vulnerable?

Why do writers fall for deception? I think it’s because they assume (wrongly) that becoming not just a writer, not just a published writer, but a best-selling, famous author will somehow heal them. If their book becomes famous, they’ll finally prove the bullies, teachers, parents or whoever didn’t believe in them that they are worthy and talented. They will be okay with themselves.

Publication won’t validate you. Even selling a lot of copies of your book won’t heal your soul. We long for significance—a completely legitimate desire, by the way—but we look for it in the wrong places. Book sales or a contract with a big publisher won’t bring the significance we seek. That must come from within.

When we realize we’re loved, we’re enough—with or without fame or a book deal—we begin to taste the satisfaction we seek. The insecurities never completely disappear, because writers are human and lean toward being neurotic humans at that. But taking the pressure off of what writing can do for you actually allows writing to do much more for you than you ever thought.

Writing is its own reward. Writing is a beautiful and painful undertaking. When we write, we make sense of our story. We are transformed by the very act of getting down on paper our thoughts, what happened to us, what we’re thinking about, the questions we’re asking. We realize our story is powerful, especially when we tell it.

If we can find an audience with whom our words resonate, that’s great. But it’s a bonus, because writing itself carries its own weight, releases in us a joy and satisfaction that we sometimes rush past in our hurry toward recognition, or toward the financial rewards that we think await us.

I’ve been traditionally published more than a dozen times. I can tell you that the financial rewards are far sparser than you can imagine. But the act of writing, the act of wrestling with my own questions and ideas on paper—the intangible but deeply satisfying reward of that—that is the best part of being a writer.

Writers, beware of wolves, of scammers. Lean in to writing for its own sake. Hone your craft. Write, publish, market what you write. Figure out how to share your words with the world, if you want to. But don’t fall for lies—especially the lie that fame will satisfy your soul. It won’t. But writing itself just might.