A word of warning to NaNoWriMo contestants…

…from A.C. Crispin at the Writer Beware blog:

“…I know that a significant percentage of the writers who participate in writing novels in November, are going to wind up getting SCAMMED in December, January, February, March, etc., when they submit their novels to scam publishers like American Book Publishers, or PublishAmerica, or scam literary agents like New York Literary Agents or Children’s Literary Agency…or any of the dozens of other scam agencies in Writer Beware’s database. Finding scam agents or publishers is far easier than finding real ones. All you have to do is type “literary agent” into google, and the the first entry that comes up is a scammer. Ditto for typing “publisher.'”

If you took part, or know somebody who did; or, in fact, if you are an aspiring novelist of any type, do yourself a favor and check out those tempting-sounding offers from “agents” and “publishers” at www.writerbeware.com before you sign or say yes to anything.

And, yes, you can trust Writer Beware. As Crispin notes:

If you’ve never heard of Writer Beware, we are sponsored by a professional writers organization, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), www.sfwa.org Writer Beware’s website contains all of the info aspiring writers need in order to spot fake publishers and agents BEFORE they hand them their money or their books. We are volunteers. We don’t ask for, or even accept, donations. We’re just trying to help writers avoid scammers.

Permanent link to this article: https://edwardwillett.com/2006/11/a-word-of-warning-to-nanowrimo-contestants/

2 comments

    • Edward Willett on November 21, 2006 at 9:53 pm
    • Reply

    “Publisher Beware!” It’s got a nice ring to it.

    Spare time? Not unless some slipped into the sofa cushions sometime when I wasn’t looking.

    • Janet on November 21, 2006 at 9:46 pm
    • Reply

    Now we need a website warning authors and publishers about the influx of Nanowrimo’ers coming along and begging for critiques, sending unsolicited manuscripts, and generally being obnoxious. So you’d better keep telling people you have 15 irons in the fire at once, or they may be begging you to look at manuscripts… hehehe.

    Speaking of that, got any spare time?

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