Beware the Snake Oil Salesman

When I first started down this self-publishing journey, I heard quiet rumours of the dangers of scammers. I knew they were out there. I knew they wanted my money (What little of it I have), and I knew they had no shame.

What I didn’t know, and was unprepared for, was just how many of them there were.

From the very first post on Facebook, I began to receive messages and comments promising me all manner of services and products. Completely unsolicited.

From cover design (I already have a cover), to various marketing strategies, there didn’t seem to be a single area which was underserved by these brazen hoodwinkers.

The worst part of these messages… some of them were very clearly written by AI. I, and I’m sure many other writers, can tell the difference between a paragraph written by a person and one written by a computer. We do spend a lot of our time with words after all.

Then there’s the horror stories you read from other writers taken in by these people. How they took the money and ran, or delivered a sub-par, low-effort product. Promises made and not fulfilled and writers out of pocket.

Now, the easy and obvious answer to all this is to ignore them, block them, and disengage, but the scammers have created, almost by accident, another problem.

Genuine, sincere professionals are now viewed in a suspicious light. I for one have been on a few websites with narrowed eyes as I comb the place for the catch or pitfall I’m about to fall in, and more than once, after not finding one, I’ve been too cautious to proceed anyway.

The scammers have created an air of mistrust, and it is all too easy to forget that the consumer is not the only one affected by it. I imagine a lot of business has been lost to amazing professionals because an author has been stung by a chancer.

We need to close ranks and call out scammers when we see them. Warn our fellow writers when they are found and make business untenable.

And on the flip side, shout loudly about the excellent professionals that deliver quality products. Recommend them to other writers and build a gated community to exclude those who would take advantage.

Because sometimes, an offer can seem too good to be true and that little part of you will always wonder…

What if it is?

Jake