Writers are generally creative people; they can make up a story within minutes, and get you carried away by it. So creative are writers, they can pen a story about a con artist – a King and Queen Con – and lay out such elaborate tricks on how to scam people, they would leave the reader with a jaw to the floor.
As such, you would expect that all writers should then be immune to scams, and can never be caught napping by these silly tricksters. FALSE. More and more writers fall prey, especially authors of self-help books such as motivational, empowerment, business and skills development books. These are the authors most prone to scams, and are fraudsters’ darlings.
CON 1: The Publicity Scam. Every author wants maximum exposure for his or her work, be it on TV, radio, newspapers or magazines. And King and Queen Cons know this too.
Author Godfrey Malibe couldn’t believe his luck when he got a WhatsApp text from a well-known national TV news anchor, who expressed interest in interviewing him live on TV on his book, Happily Ever After. But there was a catch – the news anchor needed 10K to make the interview happen. We knew immediately that it was a scam, and encouraged Malibe to blow the lid on it. Needless to say, the news anchor had no idea someone was using her name to con people. She was just as shocked, and went on to lay charges with the police.
The scam artist hasn’t been unmasked, which means he is still out there prowling the author streets. He could have diversified his approach to not baiting authors with just TV, but also using radio, newspapers and magazines.
CON 2 – Last year, PUBLISH’D AFRIKA unearthed an elaborate scam where a ‘wealthy’ medical doctor approached an author, who opted to remain anonymous, after reading a PUBLISH’D AFRIKA post promoting the author’s book. He said he needed to speak to the author urgently, and needed her numbers.
“The first red flag was that this ‘doctor’ said he had read the author’s book and it touched his heart, so he wanted to speak to her and thank her for writing such an interesting book,” said PUBLISH’D AFRIKA co-founder Sukoluhle Nontokozo Mdlongwa. “The problem with this was that it was impossible that he could have read the book, because we had only just started promoting it.”
His story then changed – he now wanted to donate to the author, and have the books given to those who cannot afford them. The author gave us the go-ahead to give him her number. He offered to purchase R20 000’s worth of books, which totaled 133 books. He promised to pay the amount at the end of November. However, two days later he contacted the author, this time needing help with petrol money. He did not neglect to remind the author that he would be donating R20 000 towards the purchase of her books. What’s more – he forwarded emails from his employer, showing that his pay that should have clocked in on the 15th, had been moved to the end of the month, hence he was as broke as a church mouse.
“As much as I would have loved to help, I didn’t have the money,” said the author. “I had just spent it on printing the books.”
FACT – the guy isn’t even a doctor. He is just a King Con preying on authors’ desperate need to sell more books. He requests something as little as R300 to R500 for petrol, but if you multiply that by 50 authors, this man is making a killing on a daily basis, as much as 15K and that’s just on a bad week. As soon as you send him the money, he vanishes quicker than Houdini.
Note: He could have many eliases. He could pretend to be a businessman, a representative of a charity organisation, etc.
CON 3: We want to win awards; the more the better. Nothing boosts an author’s profile than a trophy on the mantelpiece –it tells the readers that this author’s work has earned the respect of his peers, and is therefore worth reading. The King and Queen Cons of this world know it too, and have already set out to cash in on this ambition.
A big scam PUBLISH’D AFRIKA has unearthed is where a con artist gets on social media and makes a call to authors to submit books for some awards, which of course, carry a purse of thousands for the best book. Yes, the authors are asked to submit hard copies, possibly three to five because each judge has to have a copy. To spice things up even further, on top of the prize money, the winning author will get mentorship at some posh literary agency that you have never even heard of. Of course, the disclaimer is that if you don’t hear from them within a month, assume that your book didn’t make the cut.
FACT – no one ever makes the cut. These con artists, most probably one individual too, is simply stocking up his or her own little book shop somewhere. They might even be running an online bookshop and you, the author, get zero royalties.Before you submit to any awards call, first check if they have any track record. Is it an annual call for submissions? Has there ever been any winners? Where are those winners now? Have you seen their books at any bookstore? How credible are the conveners of these awards? Google often has all the answers.
CON 4: A scam similar to the one above made the rounds last year. They asked authors to submit books for Provincial Library Services in the Northern Cape. Every book submitted (100 copies per title) would be accepted and payment made in two months.
No questions asked, acceptance was guaranteed. That was the red flag. Library Services wouldn’t guarantee acceptance of every book submitted; every submission would first have to be evaluated for its educational value. The second red flag was the Gmail email address supplied for inquiries.
Although some authors had already submitted books by the time we got wind of it, hundreds of other authors were dissuaded from submitting their books.
CON 5 – Quite a number of writing contests have cropped up over the years, where writers are promised publishing deals and prize money if they win certain contests. But for your entry to be considered, the writers have to part with a certain amount of money. “Basically, the writers are asked to fund the contest, in the process bagging the organisers a bit of jingle in their pockets,” said Thokozani Magagula, author and co-founder of PUBLISH’D AFRIKA. “If 200 writers entered the contest, each paying R350, the organiser smiles all the way to the bank, having scored himself a R70K nest egg. If the contest is genuine – most of the times it isn’t – the organiser will use less than R20K to award the winner and publish his book. A real con artist will award himself, announcing a winning author that doesn’t even exist.”Again, should you want to enter such contests, check if they have any track record. Is it an annual call for submissions? Has there been any winners? Where are they now? Have you seen their books in any bookstore? How credible are the conveners of these awards? Again, Google often has all the answers.
“Writers shouldn’t pay to enter writing contests, it should be the other way around,” said Thokozani. “If a writing contest organiser cannot find a corporate sponsor for such awards, he isn’t passionate enough about the craft and isn’t worthy of your hard-earned cash.”
CON 6 – The author submits a manuscript to an ‘international publisher’, and a day later is told that it is the best book they have read this year so far, and that it will hold its own in the market. They will handle the distribution, and will see to it that it goes international. Except of course, that it will need a bit of editing first to fit their titles, and they have an editor who has worked with them for years who can do the job. The author, however, has to handle the editing costs, which run into thousands.
Now who doesn’t want to be an international best-selling author? So the author takes the bait, pays the requested editing bill, which often is around 10 to 15K. It’s a worthy investment, I am about to become an international bestseller after all. The editing done, the author is ‘knocked for six’ to discover that he has to pay the printing costs as well. The print run has to start at 500 copies, no less. After all, the books will be distributed across the globe. Why not, I have already parted with 15K anyway. The only direction is forward from here on, so he makes the transfer – another hard-earned 20K.
An email pops in a few days later – they are sending him 100 of the 500 copies, and he has to pay the shipping costs himself. The cost? 5K. Hey, I have been gloating on social media that I will be published internationally, and the people can’t wait to lay their eyes on this international book. So he parts with the 5K, and a month later the shipment arrives. He is pleasantly surprised to discover that not much editing had been done – it’s still the same book, only this time it is packaged in a trashy little cover that doesn’t really say much about the story contained. Anyway, it’s an international book.
FACT – you have been scammed. Although you were told that the editor is an independent contractor who does freelance work for the publisher, the fact is that the editor and the publisher are one and the same person. They are only good at marketing themselves – these guys can sell ice to an Eskimo – but they are not proficient at publishing books.
As soon as they are done with you, they move on to the next gullible victims, some of them referred by you. Of course, some writers give up along the way because they cannot afford the exorbitant costs of publishing an ‘international book’, and these guys don’t care. They had already made money out of you when you paid for the editing costs, but they won’t stop sending you nifty marketing literature, each one more tempting than the last with even juicier carrots dangled in front of you.
CON 7 – The author is promised that if they publish with Publisher X, they will get as much as 40 to 50% royalties on the first of the third month. That’s a cheque in the mail four times a year! His book will be sold not only in bookstores, but also on the publisher’s website.
FACT: Not every book will find shelf space at Exclusive Books, Bargain Books or CNA, especially one that has been self-published. Bookstores run a business, and every business has to make money. As an independent author, you first have to prove that your book will sell, that there is a market for it and that it won’t gather dust on their shelves. The bigger the following you have, the better your chances of retailing your work.
Anyone can sell anything online, but you also want to sell where there is a lot of traffic. How much traffic does Publisher X have on his or her website? Books do gather dust online too, especially on a website that doesn’t see much traffic. It is impossible for an author to get 40 to 50% royalties on their work, mainly because both the bookstore and the publisher have to take a cut from the book sales. A publisher who promises you this off the mark, without having even read your manuscript or been privy to the following and fan base you have amassed, that publisher is a KING CON.
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