Avoiding Scams and Schemes

Avoiding scams and schemes

My seasonal job is over, so I’ve been looking for a new job. Preferably not fast food or retail again. One of the places I applied to was for a remote teaching assistant job for a community college. But when I heard back, I was a little suspicious. First, they wanted things like full name, address, was I a native English speaker, etc. Fine. I answered them. They then told me that I was accepted and had to verify my identity and then we could discuss things like duties, salary, etc. This seemed odd to me, as I hadn’t had an interview or talked to anyone in any meaningful way. Then I found out that verifying my identity would mean giving them my social security number and pictures of the front and back of my driver’s license. While this is standard after being hired, it felt presumptive at this point in the process.

Wary, I looked at the school’s website. The school was legitimate as far as I could tell, but the job I applied for wasn’t mentioned on the site, and the people I talked to weren’t listed in the directory. Now pretty sure I was dealing with an identity theft attempt, I emailed the HR department, explaining my name, what job I had applied for through which site, who I had talked to, and what they had asked me to do, asking if this was real or not. Luckily, they replied back in about an hour saying that they had never posted a job on that website and the only openings they had were listed on the school’s website and I had to go through them.

Earlier this month, a man was arrested for a literary phishing scheme that took place over years where he used over one hundred domains carefully crafted to mimic legitimate publishing houses to steal unpublished drafts. His motivation for doing so remains questionable, as those drafts do not seem to have been sold or released online.

In an ideal world, everyone, or at least the vast majority, would be honest and willing to help each other. In this world, while a good percentage of the population does meet that, a lot of people don’t. And a lot of people want to cheat others out of their money, time, resources, and intellectual property. As writers, many of us dream of ‘making it big’ someday. What that means to you may not be the same as what it means to me, but for most people would include some amount of fame and fortune. Most writers never actually get it. But we dream. Which can make us particularly susceptible to those who promise to grant our wishes, if we just…

If anyone should be aware of the cost of accepting a deal or making a wish, it should be speculative fiction writers. But sometimes, we let our hopes (or greed) blind us. I can’t advise you about every situation, but I can help with a few rules of thumb.

Money flows towards the writer. Yog’s law, put basically and succinctly by James McDonald. There are some exceptions, particularly when self-publishing, but keep that as your basic rule and you won’t go far wrong. The publisher makes money by publishing the work and pays the author for their work. An agent gets a percentage of what the author makes based on advance and royalties. Any attempt on the part of either of them to get money from the author is a sign that something is wrong, and you need to get out of that work relationship immediately.

The biggest and best-known group of literary agents, the Association of Author’s Representatives, or AAR, outright forbids member agents from charging reading fees. Membership in the AAR is voluntary, and while one could be a legitimate agent while charging reading fees, I know that I, as a writer, am not going to sign an agreement with an agent who charges me when I can find hundreds, maybe thousands of reputable agents who do not.

Some caveats. If you want to hire someone, of course, you have to pay them. If you are self-publishing, you want a professional agent to look over your work. You probably want a professional cover artist. Maybe a professional typesetter. In those cases, yes, you pay them.

If you are self-publishing, you have to choose between a publishing company that will print an agreed upon number of books, that you now own and are responsible to sell, or a print on demand company that prints a copy of the book every time someone orders a copy with no financial outlay on your part. Oh, and that agreed upon number of books? Will be, at minimum, in the hundreds, possibly thousands.

Speaking as someone who has self-published in the past, and likely to do so in the future, I cannot recommend enough that you go with print on demand. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the money or space to buy five thousand copies of my book that sit around unless and until I find a way to sell them off. Maybe if you have a public speaking career that would work, as it may be cheaper per copy. But with print on demand, I give them the manuscript, the cover, etc. The book (like one of my Hyde Chronicles or one of the Moonlight Memories series) is available on Amazon, and actually several other sites, like Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. If someone buys a print copy, a copy is printed out and mailed to them, and I get a trickle of royalties. If they order an ebook, they are given it immediately, and I get a trickle of royalties. No muss, no fuss on my side. If I need a bunch of copies because I’m going to a convention or doing a book signing, I can order any amount I want for a reduced rate.

Okay, commercial done. So, how do you know if the offer you are looking at is legitimate or a scam? Well, fortunate you, you live in the internet age. And there are a host of websites that warn writers about potential scams. I used to love looking at Preditors and Editors (now defunct, though there are some archive captures. Attempts to renew it are here.) Writer Beware, from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, is another good place to look. Small caveat, Preditors and Editors would discourage from entering any writing contest with an entry fee. Writer Beware is somewhat more nuanced claiming that any entry fee should be in proportion to the prize and prestige level of the contest. Doing a search for the entity in question should tell you a fair bit on what others say about it.

Know your rights. When I was in college, I submitted a poem to what turned out to be a vanity publishing site. They accepted all poems submitted and put them in book collections… if you bought the book. For years I was given more and more opportunities on things I could do with my poem, if I gave them money. Please note that they never responded when I tried to point out the dropped word in the poem, so it never got fixed. Did I lose anything? Well, some money. Those books were expensive, and I seem to recall they shorted me one. And while I retained rights to my poem, I couldn’t sell it for First Rights anywhere and certainly not for All Rights.

When you are submitting something, what rights are you selling? First North American rights? First global rights? Reprint rights? All rights? If you don’t know what these mean, take a few minutes to research them.  But in short form, suppose I sell a short story. If I sold it for all rights, that’s it. It no longer belongs to me. I can’t put it on my website or in an anthology unless I buy back rights from the publisher. I might even have trouble using the same character, depending. If I sold it for first global rights, I’m swearing that this is the first time it has been published, in any form, anywhere in the world. But I can sell reprint rights later. Or use it for my own purposes. If I sell First North American serial rights, I could, if I find a market, also sell First European serial rights, maybe a couple others. Then reprint rights later. Am I likely to be able to? No, but it’s possible.

Look at publishing as a game. The writer’s objective is to sell as few rights as possible for as much money as possible. The publisher wants as many rights as possible for as little money as possible. Maybe money isn’t your aim, maybe you’re just trying to get publishing credits. Or maybe you do want money, but don’t see how you can make more money with any other deal. Still, think carefully before you sell all rights. Want an idea on how bad it can get? Look at the copyright issues with Superman.

There are a lot of wolves in these woods. And always remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. But be careful and that once in a lifetime success story could be yours someday.

What scams have you seen or fallen for?

Worldbuilding 101: Jobs and Careers

Sorry this one took so long. I got a seasonal job that kept me super busy for a short time. The majority of this post got written during that time but in dribs and drabs. So, I apologize if it doesn’t hang together right, or if I left any mention of my job as present tense instead of changing it to past.

Worldbuilding 101: Jobs and Careers

Life, in a massive show of unfairness, requires most of us to work, usually at a job we are less than thrilled at, in order to survive. There are exceptions, of course, some age or health-related, some people are unemployed, some people are simply independently wealthy. But for the majority of people work is a major part of life, love it or hate it. If your characters are adults, they will probably have some thoughts to work. Even if your characters are teens, they may be considering where they will work in the future. Maybe they have a dream occupation or a path they are expected to follow.

Some characters have a job that is inextricably entwined with who they are. Your king probably can’t quit his throne to fulfill his dream of being a traveling tea merchant. Being a king will impact almost every part of his life, especially in your book where we may not see him reading bedtime stories to his children and pretending he can actually cook in the kitchen. Though actually, I would recommend putting those in if the king is supposed to be any type of important character. But no matter what he does, he’s still the king.

The farmer’s oldest child is likely to be expected to continue the tradition and the farm. The Star Admiral will probably remain working with the space fleet until her retirement.

Maybe your character is, or at least starts out, following the patterns expected of them. Maybe they found their own path. Maybe the path found them and dragged them along.

Other people, their work isn’t nearly as important to them. I have just finished work on a seasonal job. It wasn’t bad, but certainly not dream career material. But it is a job, which meant some money coming in, some interesting experiences, and a lot of time in my day that’s going to have to be concentrated for work. And getting ready for work. And getting to and from work. And because I was also my Dad’s ride, anytime either of us work, I’m had to be there. Which was literally every single day from the middle of November until Christmas, except Thanksgiving.

So despite not being a deep driving ambition of mine, it took up a fair portion of my time and thoughts for a few weeks. And this is a job that can literally only be done on-site.

People who work full-time, who have work that can, and sometimes has to, be taken home, it’s an even bigger part of their lives. I suspect that some workaholics aren’t so because they love to be busy but because it just takes up so much of their time to do it right.

Sometimes, your characters have to have certain jobs because that’s part of the plot. And sometimes those jobs are the same ones we have seen in ten million other stories. The knight. The starship captain. Royalty of all stripes. And that’s fine. But you can add depth and flavor by bringing up some less than conventional jobs too, whether real or made up.

No matter your time period there have always been and likely always will be a wide variety of occupations that people have held. Sure, sometimes people get shoehorned into a certain direction based on lack of opportunities and family tradition. But even still, history is a much richer place than most people think.

Specialization has existed to some extent or other for centuries, probably millennia. In small places, they are more likely to be generalists, but in general, you don’t go to a blacksmith to shoe your horses or make your armor. You go to a farrier for the horse and an armorer for your armor. Your local blacksmith is more likely to make tools and knives. A cooper makes barrels, not baskets or boxes. A dairymaid probably doesn’t work with sheep. Jobs were not basically regulated to farmer, soldier, or royalty. Craftsmen and skilled laborers of various types existed. And women weren’t barred from all occupations. Some, yes, but some were open to anyone, and some were particularly suited to women. A spinster would spin wool, which was a very valuable commodity, particularly when it was spun into broadcloth. Most men felt it was beneath their dignity, so it was an excellent way for a woman who didn’t want to marry to make an independent living. Women were the primary ones who made beer for a very long time. Most craftsmen guilds would permit a craftsman’s widow to continue working using her late husbands identifying mark unless and until she remarried.

Currently, the automation of work as more and more is taken over by computers and machines is something a lot of people consider, some pleased and some dismayed. Does this mean there are fewer jobs available? Maybe, maybe not. My personal theory is that it’s less a case of more or fewer jobs than it is different types of jobs. Sure, not many people make buggy whips anymore, but we have a lot more computer technicians than we did two hundred, or even fifty years ago. All that machinery has to be built, maintained, upgraded, improved, inspected, and more. Some of those steps simply have to be performed by people. Okay, maybe oxygen tank inspector in a spaceship sounds like a boring job, but it’s absolutely vital too, especially if and when those oxygen tanks are ever needed. It also offers several plot possibilities. Maybe the oxygen tanks are stored in lesser-used parts of the ship, letting the inspector find something they weren’t supposed to. Or perhaps they uncover a plot to tamper with the tanks. Or maybe they got complacent, only for an emergency to prove that they have been too lax.

 Maybe I’m wrong, but I imagine that a future with increased technology would include increased regulations and rules for how that technology is maintained and operated. At least if widespread anarchy isn’t the setting. Even in a post-apocalyptic setting where chaos is the order of the day, your character’s current or past occupation could provide them with skills, coping strategies, or insider information that could affect their actions and the plot.

Now, maybe your plot demands your character have a standard job that we’ve seen a million times or even no job at all. No problem! Your character is probably not the last one alive. Who do they interact with? What kind of careers do they have? What kind of careers did your character have in the past?

Let’s say you are writing a mystery and your main character is a private detective. Okay, fine. Some stories require that. But it’s also been done a lot, so how can we make that more interesting? Maybe you play around and decide that your private detective used to be a beekeeper before she developed a severe allergy to bee stings, one that could prove fatal. Allergies can come at any time, and bee stings aren’t something you can acquire immunity to by repeated exposure. The opposite in fact, the more stings you receive, the more sensitive you become.

So, how would that affect your character? Is she upset about having to give up beekeeping? How smooth was the transition to being a detective? Does she have some specialized knowledge that sometimes helps her solve her cases? Does she suffer a shock of fear every time she sees a bee now? Does someone take advantage of this and try to assassinate her via fatal bee sting? Or maybe she can’t go to certain places to get clues.

There are a million ways that stopping to think about occupations can inspire plots and add depth to characters. Take a moment to think about the less obvious jobs and who would do them, and what would happen if they didn’t get done. There is a box in front of me, that is supposed to hold a combination mirror and fan. I have absolutely no way of knowing how many people were involved in the making of that box. Someone decided the most effective way of packaging the product. Someone designed what the outside of the box would look like. There’s a photo, so there had to be a photographer involved. Someone named the product. Most of these steps probably went through testing committees. This particular box was transported to a store, probably by a truck that had to be driven, where it was unloaded and sold by a cashier. There are possibly steps I have no idea about. And that is for a box. Not even the product itself. These less obvious steps could host a wealth of possibilities. And so can thinking about non-humans at work.

Maybe sirens have an edge in marketing and advertising since they have an instinctive understanding of what people want? Or perhaps they do better in one-on-one sales. Maybe there’s a question of whether or not it’s safe to buy coffee from a fae barista. Perhaps your vampire does an excellent job as a night watchman or leads people on cave tours. After learning about xenoderma pigmentosum, a rare disorder where the body cannot repair damage caused by sunlight or UV lights in general, I was fascinated and played around with a character idea of a woman who had that and was an expert in night-blooming plants. Never wrote much with her, but she’s available if inspiration strikes.

Research is your friend here. Unless you are writing about your own career which you have had for years, there are going to be things you don’t know about it. If you are using an actual career, do a little research, see if you can find people who actually have that job. Maybe they have a trade journal. Maybe you can ask someone questions, or at least find an online group. Most people love to talk about themselves and their work. If you are making up a career, try to extrapolate from what already exists. I don’t know if oxygen tank inspectors actually exist, but they would probably be pretty similar to other safety inspectors, of which there are many.

What kinds of unique careers have you or your characters had? Also, is anyone else now curious about the king who dreams of being a traveling tea merchant?