I happened across A.C. Crispin’s and Victoria Strauss’ blog, Writer Beware Blogs!, which details how they find and research writing scams for their Writer Beware pages on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. site. Crispin and Strauss are both published authors and well known in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy world. While the blog is fairly new, Strauss has been offering information to writers for a long time. In fact, she was one of the few authors online when I first hooked up my computer and started my adventures into the strange new world called cyberspace. While her genre wasn’t what I was interested in, her advice was always well thought out and relevant for most writing genres.

I was excited to find this blog. Not so much because of the scam information but more because blogs about writing in general are hard to find. The posts on this blog are not entirely about scams, though they are all relevant. An example is A.C. Crispin’s newest post, What Does a REAL Agent Do?. The information is basic but new authors really should read it. New authors in particular are susceptible to scammers and their scammy ways, simply because new authors are often desperate to get their masterpieces published. It’s not easy to get published in today’s market and there are many excellent writers that can’t get an agent to look at their work, let along get a publisher interested.

This blog is well worth the read and I’m sure the authors would welcome well thought out comments.

As a side note: These two authors are doing something important in several areas. One, they are informing the writing community of what to look out for when pursuing the publishing industry. Two, they are marketing themselves, though that may not be their intent, it is an added benefit and writers should take note of how these two authors are creating interest in a very creative way, not in just their scam information but in each one as a human being, which in turn creates an interest in their books. How they present the information is as important as the information itself. I have purchased books based on something that intrigued me about the author’s personality or character, usually because of an interview with the author that went beyond talking about his/her book(s) and revealed something unique and/or interesting about the author. Once a masterpiece is published, the author will need to learn how to market themselves as much as their book. While some publishers do hard-core-marketing for selective authors, that’s not the norm in today’s market. Authors must become more involved in the marketing process if they want to succeed.

Here is A.C. Crispin’s and Victoria Strauss’ Web sites. I could do an evaluation of both of these two authors Web sites but that is better left undone for now. I’ll just say that Victoria Strauss really should get her own domain name and Web designer.

When I was researching writing contest scams I came across Today’s-Woman.net, a writing resource for poets. I landed on the Writers Warning section of the site where the focus is on warning writers of dishonest publishers, scam contests and fraudulent businesses. My first thought was, “Wow, this could be a great resource for researching writing scams.” While the basic information is good and sound, I became a bit sceptical as I started reading about some of the online businesses accused by the sites founder, Rose DesRochers, of being fraudulent. The first warning I read was about WritersWorld.co.uk and its owner, Mr. Graham Cook. Apparently Mr. Cook commissioned Mrs. DesRochers’ husband, Shawn DesRochers, owner and founder of Invision-Graphics Inc., a design and Web development company, to redesign his Web site but failed to pay the agreed amount for the work in the time frame agreed on. Okay, I’m thinking, “what does this have to do with writing and just because someone doesn’t pay for a product he never actually used doesn’t make his business a fraudulent one, does it?”

Okay, so the guy might be a slime-bag and made financial agreements he didn’t, wouldn’t or couldn’t keep but what does this particular issue have to do with writing? Yes, I realize that Mr. Graham Cook’s Web site is a print-on-demand book publishing business but is his business fraudulent? Is the business deceiving customers? So, I continued to read further and believe me, there’s a lot to read about Mr. Graham Cook on Today’s Woman. Apparently Mr. Graham Cook advertised his business on Today’s Woman and promised a commission for every book ordered from the advertisement and a discount for members of Today’s Woman. Well, you can guess the outcome.

I did a search for WritersWorld on Google and there is viable evidence from other sources on Mr. Graham Cook and his fraudulent business practices, including a Class Action lawsuit. Writers should be very wary about using his services. While Mrs. DesRochers appears to be correct about Mr. Graham Cook and his business practices, informing the writers community of his dubious exchange with her and her husband on not paying for Web development was curious and in my opinion, inappropriate. I asked myself why, why put that information on a site about writing? All the other information about Mr. Graham Cook was something writers needed to know in order to make an informed decision but did they really need to know that he didn’t pay for a service implemented by Mrs. DesRochers’ husband?

I decided to check out the other businesses Mrs. DesRochers has accused of some type of dubious practice. Jeff Paris (alias zerofunk), owner of Zware Creations and PoetryScams.com has been accused of harassing Mrs. DesRochers and her husband and making physical and libelous statements about them. Then she goes on to state that Mr. Paris has a history of mental illness and accusing him of stalking them all over the Internet and provides screen shots as proof. Wow, I’m blown away. What does this have to do with writing and warning “writers” about a particular business or Web site that might affect them in some way? Now it looks like Mrs. DesRochers has a vendetta and she’s using her Web site to vent her frustration, which only adds fuel to an already raging fire.

If Jeff Paris was posting inappropriate remarks on the forums at Today’s Woman, then there is where it should have been handled, certainly not on a public page that’s supposed to be about warning writers of what to look out for. A page that anyone can read and the information only makes Mrs. DesRochers look immature and vindictive. Her writing style is manic and repetitive, with lots of punctuation and sentence structure errors, making it hard to read. As a writer she should at least proof-read her writing before putting it online for the whole world to see or let someone else edit it for her. I know that editing your own writing isn’t always the best thing to do and my writing is not perfect but when you are going to discredit someone, you’d better look credible or you risk looking like a real doofus.

The waters get even murkier as I explore what Jeff Paris has to say about the DesRochers’. There’s a lot of accusations thrown back and forth, each blaming the other. Now, these are 40 something adults that haven’t figured out that they are active participants in their own victimization. I’m still not sure what caused the problem between these people. Each has their own version of the ensuing events with their own “selective” screen shots as proof and honestly, I don’t care how it started or who started it. The only reason I am writing about this is because I added the warning page from Today’s Woman to my Writing Resource Directory under Poetry Scams after Mrs. DesRochers submitted it. This caused me to take a closer look at the site and while there is some good, viable information for writers, there’s also some inappropriate and questionable content, which has lead me to write this post.

I originally though of removing the link from my directory but then though I’d leave it since there is some valuable and verifiable information on the warning pages. I’m linking this post to the directory listing so that those who may find it via my directory can read this and know to be discerning when reading some of the content. Never believe everything you read online. Always do more research before accepting that a business or person is less than reputable or even completely credible. If you feel uneasy or find yourself questioning the information, trust your instincts, you’re probably right or at the very least, have reason to question if the information is true or just a sampling of the truth.

The one piece of information that showed me that Mrs. DesRochers might have a problem was this post on VirusHead.net, which lead to James Landrith’s post on his experience with Mrs. DesRochers. These two people seem rational and credible while much of the other information I found was irrational, ugly, inflammatory and disrespectful. I’ll let the words of those involved stand for themselves. An example: on a ICQ forum. I’m sure you can figure out who’s who.

Just for clarity: I didn’t write this to discredit Mrs. DesRochers or anyone else for that matter. My intent is to inform with enough information to allow my readers to make up their own minds about whether or not to use a site and if it feels like a good fit for them and their creativity. I, of course, have formed my own opinion and that opinion does weave in and out of this post but hopefully the information is presented well enough that my opinion does not cloud the issues presented here even more than they were already. Do your own research if you are a writer looking for a place to land and commune with other writers. Tread softly and leave no footprints until you’re sure the sand beneath your feet is warm and inviting.

After posting information on several literary writing contests I came across some information on Poetry Contest scams. Now, poetry scams are not new, they’ve been around for a long time. Before the Internet they were published ads in writers magazines, newspapers and other marketing material geared toward writers, especially new writers. Since I’m not a poet I never entered one of those so-called-poetry-contests. But a friend of mine did and she won! Well, that’s what they wanted her to believe but of course there was a catch. What she won was the chance to win the grand prize (cash amount, don’t remember the amount) and just for getting into the semi-finals she would have her exceptional poem published in an anthology book, no purchase necessary. Such a deal, right? Wrong! The book was $49.99 plus shipping and handling and there was a deadline for ordering the book. There were other costs, depending on what you, the poet, might want, such as a bio and fancy typeset. It could easily have cost her $100 just to see her poem in print.

She did purchase the book but not with any of the extras and was disappointed at the quality of the poems. Her poem was very good as were a few others but the vast majority were terrible. Are these contests legit? Technically, they are as long as the cash prizes are awarded and apparently they are, though how much it cost the winner to receive the cash award may be more than the award itself. The anthology is published and sent out but only to those who purchased it before the deadline. The books were not marketed anywhere, meaning you could not go out and buy one, but now with the technology age, you can see/read the better poems published from past contests online.

One of the biggest online poetry contest marketers is poetry.com, which has also been known as The National Library of Poetry, Watermark Press, and International Society of Poets. What they all are is vanity press marketers. Essentially, you pay to be published along with hundreds of others and have a slim chance at winning the cash prize.

The National Library of Poetry was exposed on ABC’s 20/20 in January 1998. Read about it Here. Here is more information on poetry.com from WritersWeekly, an online ezine, that was posted in 2001 and updated in 2002. Then there’s this piece by David Taub, Failure is impossible at poetry.com — the website where every poem is a semifinalist, originally published in the Poetic Voices, an online magazine, in 2000.

Here is information on the Hollywoods Famous Poets Society Poetry scam. All the websites mentioned in this article are now apparently gone. Here is information on the other names this society had run their scam under, Famous Poets Society, amazing!

Here is a list of poetry/writing scams. And here is a WritersWeekly’s resent warnings. And here is an article written by Kurt Heintz, A Word to the Wise, on entering online poetry contests. It’s worth the read, especially if you are thinking of entering one in the near future.

The lesson here is to always research any online writing contest. Do a Google search for information on the organization, look at the whois information and see if the contact details match what’s on the site offering the contest, look to see if there is BBB information on the organization and last but not least, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. I’ll probably be writing more on online writing scams and warnings, along with supplying information on what I believe to be legit writing contests. Contests can be a good motivation to write but they can also become a thorn in an otherwise empty pocketbook.