I am delighted to see more and more authors joining literary agents, publishers, booksellers and editors in the campaign through articles on their websites and social media to educate the public about the risks presented by fraudsters at work in the industry.
Scammers can be plausible so are difficult to spot and I am sure that genuine people pitching for work will be finding themselves wrongly branded as scammers. As I have said before, they are as much victim as anyone.
So, in my latest article on the subject, I have pulled together some of the advice that is out there, including the red flags to look out for, including people stealing the identity of genuine agents, authors, publishers etc to either con you into paying for so-called services or find a way into your bank account. You can find the article on the menu on the home page.
September 23
As an addendum to this article, since writing it I have received plenty of dubious approaches, all of which were deleted and blocked. However, one made me hestitate – an invite to speak at the Hay Festival. Fame at last! A quick check with the Hay Festival office told me all I needed to know, though, and the scam email went the way of all the rest. The moral of the story? When in doubt, check.
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