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General tips about avoiding/dealing with scammers

SHunter-Wilson

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Thanks a bunch. Was just curiouse, didn't know where to ask that question. I didn't want it lead to a discussion:) I'm trying to find a good agent. I will check out what you said:). Thanks a bunch!

Shar
 

jimmyc

Research before you submit anything! There are numerous websites, books and magazine subscriptions on the subject.
 
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DaveKuzminski

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For those who want to get in on the fun, Writers Net is asking writers to send in a query to WL Literary Agency (details at the link) in an attempt to see if anyone can obtain a rejection from them. Your query should be as awful as possible and can even describe well known published books just to see if they even reject works that are clearly plagiarized.
 

Soccer Mom

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How tempting, Dave. And for a little inspiration is our very own BAD QUERY THREAD where we challenged one another to write the worst possible queries. There's some bad stuff in there.
 

Rodlen

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I can recognize one thing about many of these literary scams: they depend on your pride.
 

justintoxicated

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If an agent sounds like a coke head on the phone and tells you you're a genius, before stating "marketability" doesn't matter in a screenplay, without having read it. Oh and then he asks for money and doesn't appear to be listed on the ATA or NATR websites.
 

DaveKuzminski

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"On Thursday, March 20th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Dave Kuzminski, creator and manager of Predators [sic] and Editors, the infamous website where scammers and companies with a record of complaints are recorded. Dave helped us distinguish the dark side of book promotion, agents, and publishing by covering such thorny topics as: the difference between a bad business deal and a scam, the evolution of a scam and what types of people are running them, how to avoid a scam, and what to do if you think you’ve been had."

"Listen to the f-ree podcast at http://authorsaccess.com/archives/100
RSS podcast feed: http://authorsaccess.com/feed"

Gosh, infamous? Well, I guess it is from the viewpoint of a scammer. ;)
 
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Just as an addendum:
Not only do not send up-front money to an agent, but be adamantly skeptical of anything he wants to sell you, be it a guide, memoir, editing service, whatever. Do your own editing, as you’ve done your own writing. If the agent claims your ms. just needs a tweaking to be sold, and that he’s got a bargain, or a good friend in the business, flesh him out, but don’t be hooked. Book doctors, skimscam reviewers, scalphunters…watch out for some creepy shadow named Victor West. If everybody steadfastly refuses to pay fees, all these frauds will go out of business. This forum is a great place to spread the news. Tell a friend.
 

LindaJeanne

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The second link still goes to Neil Gaiman's blog.

But the first link now goes someplace that tries to install something called "mplayer_Setup.exe" on my computer.
 
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