SCAM WATCH
New scams targeting writers are highlighted attention by Victoria Strauss in several forensically detailed posts for the excellent Writer Beware website. In short, if you are contacted by anyone – either by email or phone – claiming to be a publisher or agent interested in traditionally republishing your selfpublished novel, be very careful. It is not that this really can’t happen, and very occasionally it actually does, but that is part of the ingenious rottenness of the scam, that it has a level of plausibility of something that is a real, if highly unlikely possibility. A genuine agent or publisher will never ask you for money.