The ABCs of Avoiding Scams

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by Debbie Burke

Seductive scammers have long targeted authors but, in the past few years, AI tools like Chat GPT, Claude, and Gemini scaled fraudsters’ abilities to reach millions more potential victims. Additionally, they constantly refine their techniques with fresh scam variations and new twists to con authors out of money.

Here’s a list of ABCs to help identify fraudsters:

Address: first, check the sender’s email address. If it’s from gmail.com or other free mail services, it’s likely a scam.

Real marketing companies, publishers, podcasters, etc. use their own domain names, not generic free emails. A genuine contact from a publisher is usually editorsname@publishingcompany.com or agentsname@literaryagency.com.

One scary aspect of AI is that it’s constantly learning and improving techniques. When it discovers that authors recognize gmail.com as a likely fake, it manipulates addresses to appear legitimate.

While writing this post, I received an email supposedly from Mary Altman, Associate Editorial Director at Sourcebooks. There really is a Mary Altman at Sourcebooks but this email wasn’t from her.

The bogus address was sourcebooks@mary-altman.com.

A real email from Sourcebooks would more likely be “maryaltman@sourcebooks.com”

While we’re on A…

Approaches: Scammers approach writers in various ways. Some are outright phony. Others are of questionable value and don’t justify their high costs. Here are a few approaches they offer:

Increase book reviews – yes, everyone needs more reviews but paying for them is risky. That  violates Amazon’s terms and may result in banishment. Amazon removes your book from the sale and prevents you from publishing future work.

Book visibility or discoverability assessment – lofty but vague assurances that they’ll find more readers who will see and buy your book.

Marketing maximization – better positioning on Amazon and other sales outlets, using key words and phrases.

Impersonation of actual editor, agent, well-known author, podcast producer, film director or producer. (see example above about Sourcebooks impersonator).

Book club invitations – the book club is often fake and nonexistent. Or it may be legitimate, but the scammer is falsely using their name and will ask for “donations” to cover expenses. No real book club charges authors.

Blue sky: did the contact come out of the blue sky? Assume it’s a scam.

When an email starts: “I ran across your book…”, “Your book came to my attention…”, or similar phrasing, an AI bot wrote it. Real publishing professionals don’t have time to browse through Amazon or Goodreads book listings, just shopping for the next bestseller.

Also, real publishers don’t offer to republish a book that’s already been published.

Did a famous author or celebrity contact you? 99% chance it’s an impersonator. They claim they want to engage in meaningful dialogue about the writing journey. If you answer, after a couple of exchanges, they’ll do you a special favor and hook you up with their favorite developmental editor or marketing specialist. That’s when the request for money happens.

Always beware of out of the blue contacts.

Compliments: Is the email filled with effusive compliments about your book?

Praise is a powerful aphrodisiac. We all want to hear that someone loves our work.

Scammers use psychological manipulation to their advantage. The more complimentary adjectives and adverbs they pack into the text, the more the writer basks in the warm glow of recognition. Wow, someone finally appreciates my story that I poured my heart and soul into.

Phrases like the following are tipoffs of a scam:  “deeply personal thought-provoking universal questions,” “penetrating insightful exploration of critical life issues and themes,” “emotional resonance that goes to the essence of human existence,” “lingered in my mind and deeply touched my heart long after I finished reading your book.”

Blah, blah, blah…

Due diligence: Check out the sender but DO NOT click on links they provide. Their links lead to phony testimonials or, worse, they may inject malware into your computer.

Do your own independent online investigation. Do they have a website or media presence? Probably little or none.

Always check with reliable trusted sources like:

Writer Beware – For decades, Victoria Strauss has been a tireless watchdog who monitors scams that target writers.

Authors Guild

Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi)

Jane Friedman

 Engagement: Scammers want to keep you engaged with them. The longer they prolong conversations with you, the better the chance they’ll eventually persuade you to send them money.

The best practice is not to respond at all. If you reply, even to say “no thanks,” they know they have an active email address that they can then share or sell to others. Your inbox will receive more solicitations from other shady senders hoping to get money from you.

Feelings: It’s human nature to want to feel good. Scammers specialize in appealing to author’s emotions. They know which buttons to push to tap into our desires, hopes, and dreams. If their message causes your heart to swell with pride and makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over, they’re counting on your emotions to overcome caution.

Take a step back. Why are they contacting you? What do they want from you? Ask a friend or colleague to take an objective look.

Golden opportunity: Scammers make sweeping statements that imply if you use their services, your dreams can come true. Your book can be showcased at book fairs, festivals, fan events. Their offers sound like promises but upon closer analysis they are vague, generalized platitudes. They’re selling sizzle but there’s no steak.

Recently, a colleague related her close call with impersonators that claimed to represent a writing festival. She paid them $200 by credit card. Then she learned it was a fraud. Fortunately, the credit card company reversed the charge. If she had paid by Zelle, gift card, or wire transfer, she wouldn’t have been able to recover the money.

How: Writers often say, “They must have read my book. How else would they know the characters’ names, their secrets, and plot twists? How else do they know my favorite hobby is [fill in the blank]? How else do they know the inspiration for my book is [fill in the blank]?”

How do they know? AI bots vacuum every detail about you from the book sales page, reviews, social media posts, author website, and other info easily available on the net. They collect data then spin it into a compelling web of flattery, emotional hot buttons, and urgency to convince you to act now to obtain the recognition your talent so richly deserves.

They personalize and custom-tailor solicitations that sound as if they truly know and care about you and your work. The scary part is they can do all that in seconds.

 

Bottom line, they only care about how they can make your money disappear. 

Invitations: Do you want to be interviewed on a podcast? Be the honored guest at a book club? Have your book selected for a curated list of influential titles? These gracious invitations sound like dreams come true.

Not long ago, I received an intriguing email that opened:

“Dear Debbie,

I want to be direct with you because I believe your time deserves that respect.”‘

Okay, that got my attention. It goes on:

“I did not come across your work through an algorithm or a mass submission list. Our curation committee has been conducting a deliberate and rigorous search for voices that our community of readers would not simply enjoy but would genuinely champion, and The Villain’s Journey stopped us in our tracks for one reason above all others. The question you have placed at the very foundation of this guide, whether someone is born bad or learns to become bad, is not simply a craft question for writers. It is one of the oldest and most searingly unresolved questions in human understanding, and the fact that you have built an entire framework for creating compelling antagonists around that tension gives this book a philosophical depth that most writing craft guides never come close to achieving.”

Now I’m suspicious but still curious because Linda anticipated my likely resistance to her pitch and attempted to overcome it. 

“My name is Linda Hole. I am a long standing and active member of The Perks of Being a Book Addict, one of Goodreads most engaged reading communities with over 37,000 passionate members worldwide. I currently serve as Selection Committee Chair, a role built specifically to identify authors whose work deserves sustained, meaningful attention from a deeply invested reader community. We are not a promotional platform.”

When I checked, I found there is indeed a Goodreads subgroup with that name with 37,000 followers. But when I scrolled down their page a ways, a message read: “We DO NOT contact authors via email and do not offer book promotion in exchange for money! (Every such attempt is a scam!)”

Suspicions confirmed but I kept reading because of a fresh angle I hadn’t seen before:

“We are currently finalising our 2026 Year of Impact project, a highly selective 12 month Managed Reader Experience through which we champion a cohort of just 15 authors across our full community infrastructure. Our focus is entirely on building genuine lasting readership rather than surface level visibility, and as we are now in mid May we are closing out our final Official Selections before the cycle launches.We believe your voice belongs in this conversation and we would be honoured to explore whether one of our remaining Residency spots is the right fit for you. If you are open to learning more, I would welcome the opportunity to walk you through exactly what this experience looks like for your title specifically.”

Wow, they’re offering me a residency. And they use British spelling. I should be honored to attract the attention of this prestigious organization.

I wasn’t and I didn’t respond.

A couple days later, Linda reached out again:

“I wanted to gently check in as I have not yet heard back from you since my last message. I understand you may be busy or still considering the opportunity.”

Uh no, Linda, you haven’t heard back because I don’t respond to scammers.

Now she applies pressure with the urgent deadline:

“That said, our final selections for the 2026 Year of Impact project are closing this month, and I would hate for your work to miss the window simply because we did not connect at the right time.
If you are still open to learning more, I would be glad to send over our Official Selection Overview Document so you can see exactly what the residency involves.”

I still didn’t respond. Gee, aren’t I rude?

Linda tried one last gentle nudge then gave up.

This solicitation interested me because the tone was more sophisticated and targeted than previous scam emails. It indicated that AI bots are constantly learning and refining their approaches.

That’s why authors must stay alert to new tricks to defend themselves from increasingly convincing and seductive scams.

However, some fraudsters may have outsmarted themselves. Next post, we’ll look at ways to turn the tables on scammers and use their words to our own advantage.

Stay tuned…

 

TKZers: How many scam emails do you receive per week? Answer in the comments. The highest score receives the coveted “Overflowing Trash Bin Award.”

 

 

 

~~~

The Villain’s Journey stopped Linda Hole in her tracks. To find out if my book  addresses “the oldest and most searingly unresolved questions in human understanding,” click on this link. 

Revisited: WHAT MY HORSE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CHARACTER ARCS

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Kay DiBianca is still on leave, so today I’m sharing her very first post here at TKZ, a guest post, hosted by Debbie Burke.

WHAT MY HORSE TAUGHT ME ABOUT CHARACTER ARCS – Guest Post by Kay DiBianca

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by Debbie Burke

Today, I’m pleased to host cozy mystery author Kay DiBianca who shares her fun and unique perspective on character arcs. Kay is a familiar name around The Zone, offering frequent, insightful comments. Welcome to Kay and the horse she rode in on! 

It was a day for speed. A wind-at-your-back, smile-on-your-face day when a youthful gallop overruled frumpy caution, so we barreled down the dirt trail into the park and around a blind turn. As the bushes on our right gave way and the road ahead came into view, a terrifying specter suddenly loomed up in the middle of the trail, no more than fifty yards in front of us.

Dixie, my high-strung, prone-to-panic filly, slammed on the brakes. I had no idea a horse could stop like that. Two stiff-legged hops – thump, thump — to a dead halt.

I went straight over her head. Turns out an English forward seat saddle is particularly ill-suited for sudden deer sightings.

As I was flying through the air, anticipating an unpleasant reacquaintance with Mother Earth, Dixie began some kind of crazy cha-cha in reverse, trying to flee the tiny deer creature. I was still holding on to the reins, however, so she couldn’t turn and run. Instead, she made a determined dart backward, dragging me along in her wake.

You might be wondering why I didn’t just let go of the reins and save myself from a mouthful of dirt and a painful awareness of my sudden change in circumstances. I’ll be honest with you. I would have let my horse drag me into the next county before I allowed her to return riderless to the barn. I have my pride, you know.

Body-surfing down a dirt trail at the whim of a frightened animal is an excellent way to focus one’s mind.  I’m older now, but sometimes I still get that urge to gallop furiously into the next adventure, no matter what form it takes. But when I recall that day in the park, the awful taste of grit in my mouth, the look of terror in Dixie’s eyes, and the acrid scent of fear in the air, I pull back the reins on my emotions and proceed at a deliberate trot.

Whether dramatic or not, we each have a set of experiences that have transformed the way we view the world. Likewise, we all know the characters we write about must change from the beginning of the story to the end, and the change must be meaningful.

So TKZers: Tell us about a character in one of your novels that went through a metamorphosis. Was it a dramatic, once in a lifetime experience? Or a slow coming to grips with reality over the course of the story? How did you accomplish the change in a way that would grab your readers?

I’m deeply grateful to Debbie Burke for giving me the opportunity to post to the Kill Zone Blog. And thanks to all the TKZ contributors and commenters for allowing me to be part of the journey.

SAVING ONE LIFE IS LIKE SAVING THE WHOLE WORLD.

Kay’s delightful cozy mystery, Dead Man’s Watch, features characters the reader cares about.

Available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.

Jack Woodford on Writing For Money

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

Jack Woodford (1894–1971)

In the golden age of the pulps there was a writer named Jack Woodford, who also wrote how-to books for writers. What’s refreshing about these is his no-hold-barred advice that eschews all flowery paeans on the romance of being a writer. He gets down to it in a book titled, appropriately, How to Write for Money (1944):

So there you are. A free-lance writer! Oh pitiable wretch! Oh miserable fool! Of all the business you could have gone into—operating a movie theatre, or making guns, running a drug store or learning how to be a tailor or a plumber, a typographer or a hot dog cook—you insist on going into the business of cash-and-carry prose. Well, you know best. As for me, I know there isn’t a so-and-so thing I can do to discourage you or make you change your mind. I admit (reluctantly) I’ve made a pretty good thing out of it myself. But I’ve had some breaks….Can you be sure of getting breaks? Of course you can’t. That’s what a break means—a stroke of luck that nobody expects, all pine for madly, and mighty few ever get. Where would I have been without my breaks? God knows. I don’t!

Do you feel like a “pitiable wretch” sometimes? Welcome to the club called Every Writer. We meet at the bar.

Writing is the most hazardous profession of which I know. It usually carries with it far less rewards than most people think, much more work, and very little satisfaction; since you cannot, ever, say what you really think about anything. Many writers appear to do so but they are always restricted one way or another behind the scenes. The rewards of writing, however, are worth it for those temperamentally suited to such rewards. The freedom it brings from alarm clocks, for instance, is, in itself, not an inconsiderable item; and from time clocks, and other devices of torture invented by people who hold stock in things and milk other people of their labor at usurious rates.

That is a lure, of course. If this gig gets big, you don’t have to “work for the man,” as they used to say. Better, though, to think of your writing as one little stream of income, a side hustle, that may or may not grow into a river. But a trickle is better than nothing at all if you love to write (and you should love it…most of the time, at least).

Woodford, writing in the middle of World War II, offers a military illustration:

In Boot Camp, tough sergeants deliberately try to break the morale of inducted men. Those who break they send back to civilian life, or to some more or less ignominious chore in army life. There are two or three hundred thousand “writers” who “write at” writing in this country. Ninety percent of them make next to nothing. The few who do get by are those who were not “broken” in the “Boot Camp” of their own wills, or lack of same.

Knowing all that:

If you really want to be a writer it is my observation, from a quarter century of association with successful and unsuccessful writers, that the hinges of Hell cannot prevail against you.

In Writer’s Cramp (1953), Woodford quotes the novelist Robert Ruark, who was big at the time:

“To write a book is no simple thing. One needs paper, a typewriter, a certain basic stupidity, and time. Also arrogance. Any bum who sits down and figures he has 300 book pages of importance is an arrogant ass. Nobody has that much to say worth saying. Neither Shakespeare nor Artie Shaw.”

Note: Artie Shaw was a famous big band leader, a clarinetist, who also had a fertile mind. In 1952 he published an autobiography titled The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity, which is no doubt what Ruark is referring to.

Woodford’s most influential how-to was Trial and Error: A Key to the Secret of Writing and Selling (1940), cited by no less than Ray Bradbury and Raymond Chandler.

Be glad that it is hard. Wish that it were more difficult than it is; for this is your protection, when you have learned it, from too much competition. Only this I can promise you—that even though you have no gifts whatever ever for writing, no knack, education, knowledge, imagination; no common sense, intelligence, anything, you can still learn to write commercial fiction and sell it, if you have really made up your mind to do so. If you really are a downright simpleton, this very fact may make things easier for you in the free lance commercial fiction racket, for nine-tenths of all stories and novels are in America read by ninnies who may understand you far better if you are a kindred spirit.

You could not learn to write literature, whatever that is, by simply making up your mind to do it; no, not even if you had a will like Mussolini’s.

All I can give you here is a rough idea as to how to go about turning exposition into the various sorts of narrative writing.

Okay, you pitiable wretches, if Mr. Woodford were still around, what would you say to him?

Words of Wisdom: Anthologies and Contests

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Anthologies, both traditionally published and indie, can be a wonderful opportunity to reach more readers and stretch your writing. I’ve had stories in three anthologies, Underground, Street Spells, and High Moon. I learned from all three experiences as well as found some new readers.

Legitimate writing contests can also be an opportunity to garner some attention and interest in your work.

Today’s Words of Wisdom brings you posts by Michelle Gagnon and Laura Benedict on getting work into anthologies and what was learned in the process, while Debbie Burke provides a terrific resource on writing contests. All three are worth reading in full.

I hope you’ll excuse a little BSP today. I have a short story out in the new Mystery Writers of America Anthology, VENGEANCE, edited by the wonderful Lee Child. Plus I think there’s a lesson to be learned from the long, occasionally tortuous journey this story has had over the past twelve years…

Some background first. This was the first real piece of crime fiction I ever wrote. I composed it while working with the San Francisco Writers’ Workshop back in 2000. I’ve never been much of a short story writer, but at the time I was just diving back into fiction, and figured that playing around with briefer pieces might help me find my voice. So this was one of the first (and only) stories I ever wrote. Shortly afterward, I started working on my first book (the one that never sold), and then, eventually, moved on to writing THE TUNNELS.

I always had a soft spot for this story, but had no idea what to do with it. Filled with hope, I submitted it to a few literary magazines. After it was roundly rejected by them, I shrugged and put it away in a drawer.

Fast forward to 2004. Lee Child was headlining the Book Passage Mystery Writers’ Conference, and at the last minute I scraped together enough money to attend. On the last night of the conference, all the participants were invited to read a short piece of fiction, kind of an informal critique exercise. I wasn’t happy with the opening of my novel yet, and was considering skipping the event entirely until I remembered this story. So I pulled it out of the drawer, dusted it off, and read it that night. All in all, it was well received; Lee attended the reading, and spoke with me afterward about how much he’d liked it. Which was terribly flattering, but again, I had no idea what to do with it. So back in the drawer it went.

Fast forward another seven years, to 2011. Lee emailed me out of the blue and asked if I’d ever done anything with that story from the Book Passage reading. He explained that he was putting together an anthology for the MWA centered around the theme of vigilante justice, and thought my piece might fit in perfectly. He asked if it would be all right to include it. Once I finished turning cartwheels across the room, I said yes.

So this week my little story, the first piece of crime fiction I ever wrote, was published alongside the work of some of my idols, including Lee, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, and Zoe Sharp. To say that I was honored to be part of this anthology would be a tremendous understatement. It really is a dream come true.

And from it, I’ve learned a few things:

  1. a) It’s impossible to judge the true value of a writing conference. Sometimes they might seem like a waste of time and money, but you never know what may come of the contacts you make there.
  2. b) Never empty that drawer. The story that can’t find a home today might bear fruit years down the road (or even decades!)
  3. c) Never give up. I have to confess, when those literary magazines first snubbed my work, I was disheartened and almost tossed in the towel. I really thought the story was pretty great, and discovering that not everyone agreed was crushing. It was hard to go on when it felt like what I was writing might never be appreciated, or even read, by anyone outside my critique group. Eight published or soon-to-be-published novels (and one short story) later, I’m really happy that I decided to forge ahead.

What follows is an excerpt from my story, IT AIN’T RIGHT. The VENGEANCE Anthology is currently on sale at bookstores and online.

Michelle Gagnon—April 5, 2012

My work has been in quite a few anthologies the past few decades, and I’ve edited five and published two of those myself. Yet I have never been involved in such an unprofessional exchange.

Publishing isn’t, “Hey, kids! Let’s put out a book!” Well, it can be, but the process needs to stay professional. And it would seem to me that a primary tenet of professionalism would be: Try not to alienate prospective writers.

Here’s a handy list for creating an anthology:

  • Define your theme. Make it broad, or make it narrow. Be flexible enough to push the boundaries a bit if you need to. The narrower your focus, the smaller your natural audience will be.
  • Put together a budget. Will you pay the writers in cash or copies or both?
  • Get a few writers on board that you know well so that if you will be going to a publisher, you have committed work from writers they recognize.
  • Write a proposal whether you will be shopping it to publishers or not. It will give you good guidelines against which you can measure submissions.
  • Find a publisher or, if you’re game and have some knowledge of publishing, put it out there yourself. How will it be distributed? Through regular distributors? Online vendors?
  • Decide if you want all original work or reprints or both.
  • Plot out a schedule backwards from your desired pub date. Give yourself three-four months before the actual pub date to assemble, edit, copyedit, and format the stories. Writers often miss deadlines. Build in an extra month for dawdlers or disaster. Allow writers three to six months for writing. It might as well be three because 90% of them will write the story in the last available month.
  • Scheduling six to nine months to put the whole thing together is reasonable. This is variable of course. Using all reprints may be faster—but often the writer will need to get permissions from another, larger publisher. And the larger they are, the slower they are. (It took seven weeks to get permission from one publisher for a Surreal South anthology, and we almost had to drop the story.)
  • Establish who will be the contact for all authors. Who will do the mailings and keep track of the files?
  • NOW open submissions for your slush pile, and give folks a few months to come up with stories and write them. If you have a solid core of committed writers, you have a head start. If you give everyone three months to write and submit, you’ll have plenty of time to read and choose.
  • Acknowledge submissions.
  • Get someone working on the cover art.
  • Draw up a contract. Do you want exclusive, or non-exclusive rights?
  • Choose the stories. Have a couple runners-up in case some submissions get pulled.
  • In the name of all that’s holy, send the appropriate rejection and acceptance emails to all of the writers.
  • Assemble the manuscript. Make sure all the rights are covered.
  • Plan advertising (or work with marketing dept.)
  • Write cover copy.
  • Have someone write an introduction that teases the theme and mentions all the accepted stories by name.
  • Make any necessary edits and okay them with the writers.
  • Copyedit the stories, send the manuscripts back to the writers for approval. Give them a deadline for getting back to you.
  • Get a blurb or two if you can. Put galleys up on NetGalley, etc. to encourage reviews.
  • Format, print, distribute.

NOTE: This is not a hard and fast schedule for every anthology. Big ones will take longer. Working with inexperienced writers will take longer. If you’re doing an ebook anthology of reprints or one that is very small, you may be able to do all this stuff in a few weeks.

Lisa Morton, Carolyn Haines, and I all wrote our stories for Haunted Holidays: Three Short Tales of Terror and had the book out in paper and ebook on multiple platforms in three months.

The point is, take your time. Think it through at the beginning of the project. Be friendly but professional in your communications with your writers. Admit it if you screw up, but don’t set yourself up for failure by setting unrealistic expectations for yourself and everyone else involved.

Laura Benedict—January 11, 2017

Why enter writing contests? Here are six reasons:

  1. Contests are incentives to finish your work and submit it to the outside world;
  2. Some offer valuable critique and feedback;
  3. Encouragement, recognition, and validation;
  4. Money and/or prizes;
  5. Awards help marketing;
  6. Intangible rewards.

Writers are often timid about sending their stories out into the world.

Contests however aren’t quite as scary as cold-submitting to agents and editors.You pay an entry fee and judges read your short story, novel excerpt, or screenplay. Some contests offer critiques to improve your craft and pinpoint what needs work.

If you don’t win, heck, neither did most other entrants so it’s not that humiliating.

If you do win, terrific! That recognition boosts confidence and increases credibility when you approach agents and publishers.

There are many reputable contests, but others are questionable or downright dodgy. 

Please note: contests mentioned in this post are not endorsements or recommendations.

Contests may be opportunities for the sponsor to expand their mailing list, offering their advertising and marketing services.

Some competitions require the author to give up all rights to their work. What happens if you create a character who later becomes a merchandising goldmine? Depending on contest terms, your earnings may be limited to a  one-time cash prize with no rights to future royalties. Victoria Strauss’s article cites a contest that solicits writers who want to become Manga scriptwriters. She writes:

Copyright surrender in a work-for-hire situation isn’t necessarily a “beware”, as long as the contract terms aren’t exploitative and you understand the implications of what you’re agreeing to.

In this case, however, the one-time money prize is the sole compensationyou’ll receive for your copyright transfer, from which [the sponsor] can then profit indefinitely. Be aware also that if you win and your script does not get developed into a series, [sponsor] will still own your work. Winning, therefore, has potential benefits–but also potential costs.

Before entering, check out contests with reliable sources like Writer Beware, The Write Life, Poets & Writers, ProWritingAid (this list is a year old and may be out of date), Kindlepreneur, Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

Run a Google search entering “[name of contest] scam” and look for red flags.

Before entering, always, always, always read the fine print.

What about entry fees? They typically range from free to $100+.

High entry fees raise questions:

  • Is the contest’s purpose to recognize excellence?
  • Or is this another scheme to take advantage of writers?

Valid reasons for higher fees are:

  • Pay honorariums to judges;
  • Fund prizes;
  • Support nonprofit organizations that help writers.

Research the contest, then use your own judgment whether or not the fee is worth it.

On the other end of the spectrum, “free” isn’t necessarily free. 

Debbie Burke—January 16, 2024

***

How about you, have you thought about having submitting a short story in anthology?  If you have had a short story anthologized, what was your experience?

Have you entered a writing contest?

Reader Friday: The World Was Our Ash Tray

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Over a glass of wine my octogenarian friend and I were discussing the habit of smoking and where people used to be able to smoke (back in the day). She is a former high school French teacher and remembered her high school students had a “smoking porch” where they could smoke on breaks. I remembered people smoking on airplanes. (Ew!) Where do you remember people smoking that seems SOOO off and odd to us today? And were you a smoker? Still? (No judgement!)

When Love Goes Wrong

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By Elaine Viets

Romance scams are the cruelest fraud. Scammers steal  your savings, self-respect, sanity, even your life. These scams are mainstay of Victorian novels – but now they have a modern twist, thanks to AI, dating apps, WhatsApp, and fake social media.

Consider Anne, a fifty-something French woman duped out of $855,000 by a Brad Pitt impersonator. Anne got a message from someone claiming to be Brad’s mother. Then “Brad” himself contacted her and they were online friends for more than a year. The fake Brad said he needed money for cancer treatment because his accounts were frozen, thanks to his split from Angelina Jolie. Anne also received photos of Brad in the hospital — AI-generated, of course.

The game was up when Anne saw real photos of Brad with his new love, Ines de Ramon. Ines, who belongs to a rich Swiss family, had more than enough bucks to take care of Brad.

What did Anne get for her kindness? When her story broke, she was ridiculed until she was hospitalized for mental health problems.

Stranger still was the senior citizen who fell in love with a fake Elon Musk. You read that right. The dark-haired, dashing Elon Musk.

The fake Elon sent her cheesy texts asking, “Hey baby, how are you? What are you doing tonight, baby?” The scammer used – what else? – AI for Elon’s voice, and stole $600,000. Why the richest man in the world needed what amounted to pocket change for him wasn’t clear, but he left that woman cold, stony broke.

Men are victims, too. A Las Vegas woman scammed at least four elderly men, drugged them, and helped herself to their savings and Social Security. At least one man disappeared.

Naturally, I had to add a romance scam to my new mystery, BEACH BLONDE BETRAYAL. In my second Florida Beach Mystery, someone is strangling young blonde women in the sun-splashed town of Peerless Point. One of the eccentric residents of Norah McCarthy’s apartment house, the Florodora, finds a body on the beach. The fear grows when a local restaurant owner is found stabbed on Norah’s doorstep. Norah has to unravel fatal secrets and deadly plots.

Including a romance scam that leads to murder.

Romance scammers have a real talent for figuring out who is vulnerable. These are ways to spot them.

Romance scammers can’t meet you in person. No matter how much Elon Musk hungers for your touch, he’ll never stop by your home. Ditto for love sick Brad Pitt. The scammer will have some reason they can’t visit. They work on an oil rig in the North Sea,  a research station in Antarctica or they’re in the military and deployed to Iran. Some romance scammers travel constantly for business, but never to your hometown.

Romance scammers are extremely shy. They’ll never make a video call. If they send you a photo, they will be good-looking. Too good looking to be true. Check out their photo in one of the reverse image search engines, such as Tineye, and you’ll discover the photo belongs to a model or a free photo service.

Scammers are extremely attentive. Their emails overflow with love and flattery. They’ll confess, “I’ve never felt this way before” or “I can’t live without you.” Romance scammers will say you are kind, beautiful and most of all, generous.

Especially generous . .  . Soon the scammers will have a little money problem. Nothing serious, mind you, but could they borrow 50 bucks until their paycheck arrives? And would you send it by Zelle? Smart scammers will  pay back that money right away. A short time later, they’ll have a real emergency: their sweet old  mother is dying. Or the scammer has been diagnosed with a terrible illness. They need your money. Of course, you send it. And keep sending it. Maybe you even sell your house.

If you question why they need so much money, romance scammers will ask: “Don’t you trust me? How can you say that when I love you so much?”

If these scammers don’t have a serious illness or a sick old mother, they often have beautiful dreams for a future together. They’ll send photos of a vacation house in Hawaii, Key Largo, or Costa Rica where the two of you can marry and live happily ever after. If you’ll just wire the six-figure down payment. And the money for airfare.

Some scammers want to make you rich. They have a hot investment opportunity. Usually in cryptocurrency. All you have to do is wire them the money.

Money is the key to romance scammers. In 2025 it’s estimated they’ve duped Americans out of $1.5 billion dollars. That’s billion with a B. As in be careful.

“With elegance and wit, Viets weaves each of these colorful subplots into an appealing tapestry. The result is a genial cozy that’s ideal for summer reading.” – Publishers Weekly on Beach Blonde Betrayal.  Preorder your copy here: https://tinyurl.com/bdhx3k66

 

 

 

 

 

What Writers Can Learn From Nursing a Sick Chicken

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When we love something, like writing, or somebody, be it a friend, partner, or pet, we persevere through good times and bad. Quitting is not an option.

Last week, as I mentioned in my previous post, I moved my six adult chickens from Massachusetts, where I had a coop at a friend’s house, to my yard in New Hampshire. During the hour-plus drive, one of my chickens — Biffy, an unfortunate pet name that stuck — was accidentally smothered by two of her sisters. When I lifted her from the crate, I thought for sure she was dead. Though she bounced back, they’d injured her crop.

Biffy

For those unfamiliar with bird anatomy, the crop is above the right-side of the breast. Food and water travel down the throat to the crop where it’s processed before dumping into the stomach.

About 24-36 hours later, I noticed Biffy seemed off. She sat alone in the coop while the others enjoyed the yard. She wasn’t eating and felt cold to the touch.

Uh-oh, is she dying?

I researched everything from accidental smothering to her cold body temperature. An impacted crop seemed to be the general consensus. When I felt her crop, it felt like a golf ball. Not good. In fact, it’s often a death sentence. I refused to except that, so I learned how to perform crop massages to break up the food that had hardened into a mass.

Several times a day, I marched outside to massage her. And soon, she recovered. But because her body had gone into shock from the move (hence, the cold body temp), she then became egg-bound. Another death sentence diagnosis.

Everyone told me she would die. Some suggested to mercy kill her, that it’s the kind thing to do. No, dammit, I’m a writer. I don’t quit. And I’m certainly not giving up on her.

So, I set up a hospital coop in my house. Again, I knew nothing about how to help her, but I researched everything I could find.

  • Epson salt baths to relax her stomach muscles.
  • A crushed Tums to give her the calcium she lost by not eating.
  • Olive oil on her vent or cloaca, where eggs come out.
  • Honey water to give her an energy boost.
  • Greek yogurt mixed with chick food to create an oatmeal-like mush.
  • Lots of love, patience, and understanding.

For four straight days, I did all the above several times per day. Still hadn’t laid the egg but it had moved into laying position. When I didn’t find an egg the following day, I crawled inside her hospital coop and stared deep into her eyes. “Tell me what to do, Biffy.”

And somehow, I knew she missed her flock.

Carrying her out to her regular coop was one of the hardest things I did. An injured chicken could get stomped to death. Survival of the fittest, and all that.

When I checked on her later that day, I found her hiding behind a straw bale, though her flock wasn’t harming her. I’d sneak in to administer the same treatment, except the baths. If the others caught me, they might retaliate against her for getting all of Mom’s attention. In between rounds, I ensured everyone felt special, but I still feared the worst.

Another three grueling days past. The egg moved even closer to her vent — so close yet so far!

Most chickens would have died a week ago. Not Biffy. She has the heart of a lion and the endurance of a cheetah. On day 8 or 9 (I lost track), I walked around the corner to the coop — Biffy was in the yard with her flock! Behind the bale of straw, I found two eggs. Not only did she pass the stuck egg but laid another.

Two weeks after she was almost smothered to death in that crate, she’s egging every day, eating, drinking, playing, roosting at night with the others, and has re-earned her #2 spot in the flock hierarchy.

What can writers learn from this?

  • Keen observation
  • The necessity of isolation for growth
  • Pacing

The Power of Micro-Observation

Chickens are prey animals. They instinctively mask their illnesses until they are critically ill. Chicken moms and dads learn to look for subtle cues: a drooping wing, a change in posture, or a loss of appetite.

Writer Lesson: Think of it as building subtext and writing characters whose internal pain is revealed through micro-actions rather than exposition.

The Importance of Quarantine

The first priority with a sick chicken is to remove her from the flock to prevent her from being pecked or stomped to death.

Writer Lesson: We can draw a parallel to our own creative process… we must detach from friends, family, and online activities to write. With an early draft or a deeply personable project, step away from the noise of critiques to give it the critical distance needed to develop it later through clearer eyes.

Prioritize the Essentials

When nursing a sick bird, basic hydration and warmth take precedence over complex medical interventions.

Writer Lesson: This mirrors the process of editing… strip away the clutter, focus on foundational structure, and ensure the core narrative works before worrying about elaborate prose.

Patience and Managing Expectations

Reviving a sick bird requires time, hourly monitoring, and the harsh realization that not every story has a happy ending.

Writer Lesson: Learn the delicate balance between fighting with a difficult draft and knowing when a concept must be shelved.

Today (written last Friday), I’m moving my 11 chicks outside to their junior coop. By the time this posts, I’ll finally have my house back. Though I love them dearly, it’s time. Yeehaw!

What other lessons can writers learn from my and Biffy’s story?

Cook Your Story

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by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell

There’s a legendary diner near my house called Bobby’s Coffee Shop. It’s been here since 1949, when Robert “Bobby” Perkins, a U.S. Navy veteran who had served as a cook during World War II, started slinging hash. The place has not changed much over the years. It still has a few tables, a counter, and a big old flat top and burners for the cook.

My dad brought me here as a kid. I was fascinated by Bobby. He had a stack of egg crates by the stove and worked several orders at a time. He’d grab an egg in each hand and crack them—at the same time—on both sides of a pan, and in went the eggs. Then in one, swift motion he’d bring his arms down and, without looking, throw the shells into a big container hidden under the counter. He would tend the eggs (flipping or scrambling), bacon, hash browns and pancakes, without pause (he did have an assistant cook so he could take the occasional smoke break).

The place was always packed. Why? Because Bobby knew his routine and what the customers wanted—the same satisfying breakfast every time.

In this way, Bobby was like a great genre writer. Give the folks what they want, with consistent quality.

I’ve also had a meal or two at a fancy-shmancy joint, sometimes featuring a celebrity chef. They’d have their specialties, a signature style making each dish unique.

In this way, they were like great literary stylists.

What both Bobby and the star chefs had in common was that they both worked with formulas.

I’ll sometimes hear a young writer say, “I don’t need to learn all this plot and structure stuff. That’s just a formula. I don’t want to write by a formula!”

I will then ask the whelp if he likes omelets. “Sure.” Then I ask, “Can you make an omelet without eggs?”

“Of course not.”

“Without a hot pan, some butter, some ingredients?”

“What are you getting at?”

“There’s a formula for omelets. You have to follow it, or you have no omelet. What gives it individuality is your mix of spices and ingredients. Same with writing, my friend.”

Thus, I was pleased to run across this recently in Story Physics, by Kill Zone emeritus Larry Brooks:

Equate the writing of a book to a lavish meal: multiple courses, different flavors, all aligning with a theme.

It will require tools—pots, pans, a stove, a butter knife—to prepare. It will require a basic recipe and some sensibility of cooking as a craft (note to self: don’t serve steak that’s as hard as a hockey puck). It will be composed of various ingredients, each with a different role that will add to the outcome.

The courses should be served in a specific order, in certain combinations, and both the ingredients and the recipes need to align with their assigned roles in the dining experience (a little Tabasco in the dessert isn’t gonna work).

Larry goes on to explain about spices, the individuality a chef brings to the formula:

Here’s an example of choosing the right spice for your story: You give your hero an everyday job because he’s an everyday guy—in other words, you give him a boring job—when any number of compelling jobs would better serve both characterization and plot. Why? Because it was—or is—your job, and you know it well. Somewhere in your writing past you’ve been told to write what you know—solid advice, but not always the best advice—so this leads you to unvetted choices in this regard.

Maybe your job fascinates you, but is it inherently compelling to others? Unless the plot depends on the hero’s occupation, in which case the plot defines it, then this is an opportunity to contribute to characterization and context by way of injecting something interesting into the mix. Something that possesses stronger story physics.

Simply put, the great cooks deliver consistent quality, and the great chefs unique tastes and textures, while both provide a satisfying meal. That’s a matter of craft, of knowing what works and what doesn’t, leaving room for your individuality, your “voice” and style.

If you want to sell books—or open up a restaurant—learn how to cook. Honor the craft. Master the seven critical success factors of fiction—plot, structure, characters, scenes, dialogue, voice, and meaning. Get to know your spice rack, which holds ingredients like minor characters. Give others a taste—a good editor, beta reader or crit partner. Keep on cooking. You’ll burn a few things here and there, but that’s how you learn.

Enjoy the process. Bon appétit.

How do you cook your books? (Maybe I should rephrase that…)

Why You Should Write at the Car Wash

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A car between two giant spinning brushes and a car wash

A couple of days ago I went to the car wash. To pass the time, I brought a hard copy of my latest project, which I was hand editing. I was there for an hour and was insanely productive. With the comfortable chair and their rocking soundtrack that was a mix of classic country, 70s rock, and 90s alternative, it was a magical creative experience.

It reminded me of a story from a few years ago about novelist Amy Daws who cured her writer’s block by writing in the waiting room of her local tire store. She became the unofficial mascot of the store with her own reserved seat. And she wrote a book, Wait With Me, about a writer who likes to write in the waiting room of a tire store and finds love there.

My time at the car wash prompted a creative habit I had forgotten. I like writing with noise. . Keep a list of habits that work for you so when your life changes, you don’t forget. It’s also good to have creative habits in rotation. When you get tired of sitting at your desk, go to the car wash.

Sometimes when you are searching for inspiration, try changing location.

Have you ever wondered why so many people like to write at coffee shops? There is actually science behind it. There is a noise sweet spot between too loud to be distracting and just loud enough to help you focus. Having noise that your brain has to work to block out actually makes you more creative.

There’s even an app called Coffitivity that mimics the noise of a coffee shop. I used it when I had to write at an office job that was library level quiet.

Some people use music as their ambient noise. Lots of writers like to have playlists for each project that evoke the mood and the theme of the story they’re working on.

What is your favorite kind of noise to work with?

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