My friend, if you’ve found this article, I truly hope it’s because you’re proactively looking to avoid scammers along your author journey, and not that you’ve already been scammed.

The truth is there are bad actors out there, just like in any industry. Almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day, I get emails or DMs from people who are trying to scam me of money. The gall! Of course, they don’t realize I’m on to their tricks, and I do my best to alert and educate my author clients and our Author Influence Circle community members.

Scams show up at almost every stage of the author journey:

• “Guaranteed” book deals
• “Editors” who are not skilled or trained
• “Book coaches” who have no real experience or credentials
• Shoddy self-publishing companies (usually the cheap ones) who take your money, return junk, and run
• Even shoddier hybrid-publishing companies who take more money, return junk, and run
• Professionals who straight up take your money and ghost you
• Marketers and publicists who charge a bunch of money for “custom” work and deliver little for the investment
• And on and on

There are also true professionals:

• Skilled and trained proposal coaches
• Values-driven agents and publishers
• Skilled and trained book strategy and writing coaches (like me)
• Quality self-publishing coaches, project managers, and companies
• Proven hybrid publishers who create books that can stand alongside any New York Times bestseller and hold their weight
• Marketers, PR professionals, and others who elevate your brand and support a successful launch
• And on and on

If you’re like me, you don’t like getting scammed. So let’s talk about how to avoid losing money, time, and momentum on your book.

Vet like your book depends on it.

I’m amazed sometimes by how trusting people can be when they’re moving into a space they know absolutely nothing about. And for most new authors, learning the world of publishing is like learning a new language.

So: Vet! Spend some time researching the professional you plan to hire and see what the internet has to say. Ask for testimonials. Talk with past clients (email or phone). If you hit negative reviews, or can’t find much on that person or company, that’s the first bad sign. Any skilled professional should have a proven track record and be able to provide testimonials or samples of their work.

A note: If your budget is minuscule, keep in mind there may be some unproven professionals out there worth taking a risk on. When I was early in my career, I was already well-developed in my craft but hadn’t proven myself professionally yet. Those authors got a cheap editor who cared a whole lot and put in two to three times the amount of work billed for—I considered it the cost of learning.

If you’re considering hiring an editor, I recommend asking if you can pay them to edit one chapter to ensure they do great work and that you feel aligned with their working style.

Check their cred.

Anyone—and I mean anyone—in publishing who is charging for their work should have credentials. While I have a master’s in writing and editing, that’s not a requirement.

Credentials can include university degrees, but they can also include proven work history, such as working at a major publishing house; completing a certificate in writing, editing, publishing, or marketing alongside their bachelor’s degree; or, in the case of marketing and PR, holding certificates in specific areas of marketing or previously holding a high-level role at a company. They might also have won awards or been named on lists, be a key thought leader in their space, or have a long list of happy clients who evangelize their work.

I do not generally recommend working with new self-publishing or hybrid publishing partners. There are a lot of them that crop up, and few of them stick around for the long run. There are some exceptions to this, of course, but when you’re looking for a partner to publish your book, I generally suggest choosing ones that have been around for two to five years or more.

Do a gut check.

Don’t underestimate the power of your wise gut. I could have avoided many mistakes in my life if I’d listened to that feeling inside—and I’ve tapped into incredible successes because I listened to it. Your gut instinct is almost never wrong.

Check into how you feel on a call with a potential publishing partner. For example, let’s say you’re exploring working with a book coach. After the call, do you feel lighter? Did you trust that person? Or did they say something that raised your antenna? Were there inconsistencies?

Pay attention to the follow-up.

One of our team members recently said to me, “You love a good follow-up.” It’s true. I do love a good follow-up, because I believe what happens after that first call says a lot about how reliable a potential partner will be. A few guidelines:

• Did they send an email within one working day thanking you for the call?
• If so, did they touch on all the items they promised?
• Did they send a proposal within the time frame promised?
• Did they check back in with you if you didn’t respond?
• Is their communication clear, prompt, and complete?
• If they had a delay in their communication, did they apologize and clarify?

If the answer is no to any of the above, consider whether they’re the right partner for you. And keep in mind: If you have to chase them, that’s not a good sign.

Look for a niche and lane.

In-demand, high-level professionals don’t generally work broadly. They know what they’re good at and what they’re not. They will generally specialize in a specific area—for example, I specialize in nonfiction books in business, leadership, personal development, social equity, and what I call “memoir with a message.” A simpler way to say this, though it’s not a perfect and fully inclusive description: transformative nonfiction.

I also know my lane. I don’t offer full-scale publishing; I offer private book coaching, group book coaching, and I run an author community. I specialize in the creation stage and have trusted publishing partners for the next steps. I am honest with the future authors I meet with if I’m not the right fit for them.

Great professionals understand their lane. They have specific services that serve their clients extraordinarily well. They have systems and processes and will push back kindly if you want something outside the scope of what they know works.

Ask your potential partner: What type of [books/authors/clients] do you specialize in? If they don’t have an answer, or say, “I work with everything,” chances are they aren’t the best fit for your book.

If it’s too good to be true, it is.

Did a publisher promise you’ll hit the New York Times best-seller list? Did a book coach say you’ll write your book in a month? Did a PR person promise you’ll hit Tier 1 media—the top of the top?

No one knows the future. We do know what works, and we have proven systems to get you there.

In my space, book coaching, I am constantly exhausted by the people out there promising the world, usually within a mega-fast time frame. Let me say this once and clearly: GREAT BOOKS TAKE TIME TO WRITE.

And, similarly, it takes time and a track record to become great at something. That’s why the people you can trust are going to cost more.

(Although I’ve seen some obscene price tags on some of these “write your book in a week” scams. You might write it—but it’s not going to be strategically positioned, transformative for you as an author, or of good quality.)

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While this is not an exhaustive list, I hope it helps as you continue your author journey. May you find nothing but trustworthy people along the way!

Have you experienced a publishing scam? If so, what advice would you add? Share with me in the comments—and maybe you’ll save someone future pain.

P.S. This is a genuinely human article. No AI was used to write this piece.