New writers: #ScamAlert
It sucks that people choose to try to scam you out of money instead of just doing the job you asked them to do.
In order to help you protect yourself, here are some more red flags you can look out for.
If the ad, website, or post from a “professional” that you see is riddled with grammatical errors, there’s a decent chance that the person is a scammer. Even if they aren’t, they probably aren’t someone who pays enough attention to detail to be paying your hard-earned money to for any services.
Here’s an example I recently saw posted in a Facebook group:
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Hi Author I’m an Artist i draw and I design book cover I wish we work In the future and i don’t charge hand and leg
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This post is only 26 words long, yet I found at least 15 errors including misspellings, misusages, and missing punctuation.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Nobody’s perfect. Having an error or two in a short post like this is common, and many people are forgiving about it. But even the worst student of grammar can likely tell that there’s a lot going wrong with this line of text.
Could the person who posted this be a scammer? Sure. Are they? I have no true idea. Should you be cautious with posts like this? Absolutely.
My biggest concern is that this person may lack the attention to detail that you would be looking for in a cover designer and that doesn’t bode well for you as an author (especially since your cover is the first, and often only, impression someone gets of you and your work).
From someone who truly is a seasoned, professional cover designer, I would have expected something more like this (I’ll even throw a couple of typos in for good measure!):
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Greetings, members! I’m Tenesha, and I work full time as a cover designer in partnership with Volo Press Books. I have included some samples of my work with this post and hope to partner with author in need of eye-catching, hand-drawn, genre-specific cover designs. Feel free to DM me or give me a call at 4o4-579-7Ƨ5Ƨ.
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Another reason someone’s English might not be all that solid is because it’s a secondary language for them or because they struggle with processing issues like dyslexia. There are a lot of talented people within the US and across the world who are gradually learning to get better with writing, reading, and speaking English (due to one or both of these circumstances).
So, in situations where you see an error-riddled post like this, how can you tell the difference between a scammer, an amateur/hobbyist, or someone who has issues with writing in English? Try the following steps.
- Look at their profile. This is a simple step that few people seem to take, even though it can be done in a matter of minutes. Wherever you see an awkward post like the one above on social media, click on the person’s profile picture and you’ll be taken to their profile (on most platforms). If you see nothing but sales posts trying to convince people to give them money, you’re likely dealing with either a scammer or a desperate amateur. This is especially true if the person has few or no friends, few or no followers, and has only been on the platform for a few weeks or months. Most professional social media accounts give tips and advice, share funny videos and memes, or notify followers of events and resources IN ADDITION to the occasional sales pitch post. But their profiles are not “all sales all the time.” Just like telemarketers on the phone, these people who are constantly trying to sell you something are highly unlikely to be of any value to you as an author.
- Check out their website. If they don’t have one, that’s not a good sign (I’d expect a Behance portfolio or similar, at least). But, if they do, you should be able to find past work that they’ve done, terms and conditions, contact information, and a menu of the services that they offer. Hopefully, their website will have been edited enough to look clean and be easy to read. This is because, in theory, they had plenty of time to edit what they wrote, or they hired someone to write their site copy for them (meaning maybe all the problems with their post were because they were rushing, though that still is a little concerning). But if their site copy looks just as bad as their post, it might be time to go find other options for whatever service you need.
- They refuse to discuss their services or prices in public. If you reply to their post and state that you are interested in their services, they should be willing to carry on that conversation publicly. I often let people know that they *can* DM me if they prefer since they might not want to get into details about their project in public. But I’m always willing to have that discussion where everyone can see it, if that’s okay with them. With the scammers, they generally try to get to your inbox as quickly as possible. They will often immediately reply to any kind of interest in their service with “Can I message you?” “DM’ing you now” (when you haven’t requested that), or “Check your inbox,” instead of answering your direct question about pricing, timelines, or service descriptions.
If you see the poorly written post, find that the person’s profile is full of similar posts, realize that they don’t have a website or that it is just as poorly structured as their post, and they immediately want to start communicating via DM without letting you make that decision, I recommend just letting them be and finding an open, transparent professional to work with on your project. You can do this through INeedABookEditor.com, ACESEditors.org, or The-EFA.org.
Stay safe! ♥