Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Writers Beware?

We've been receiving spam from Ecostamps in the Strange Publications inbox.

I'm skeptical. (as I often am about things that sound too good to be true)

One line that made me wary: "Writers pay a nominal fee per submission"

Um, I don't pay any fees to submit anywhere (unless you count the cost of stamps or contest entries, and then I'm very selective).

Another line that raised my eyebrows (Spock-like): "100% of "profits" (fees after expenses) directly supports literacy programs."

Yes, the word profits was in quotation marks and then defined for the reader. I'm not stupid. I know what profits are. I'm not sure I know what "profits" means, though.

Maybe I'm just grumpy the day after St. Pat's. Check out the site: http://www.ecotamps.org/ and see what you think. The folks at Strange Publications won't be using any service that requires authors to pay a fee.

9 comments:

K.C. Shaw said...

Sounds more than a little fishy. You ought to forward their emails to Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware http://accrispin.blogspot.com/ I don't remember seeing her post on her blog about this particular scam.

Aaron Polson said...

Yeah...they do quote one of the editors at Glimmer Train, but the quote is a bit fuzzy for me. It does have that stink about it.

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. So many people dream of being a writer, I hate to see them scammed.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Smells like $^@* to me. I have a hard time parting with my wife's hard-earned money to begin with. Especially for my writing.

Cate Gardner said...

Thanks for the warning, Aaron. Like you, I don't pay fees to anyone.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Is it just me, or is ecostamps.org not working?

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Sorry, disregard...I was going to ecotamps, not ecostamps.

Their business model is upsidedown. They are creating a submission gateway, but if it does truly add value, the publishers should pay for the service, not the writers. That makes little to no sense.

Aaron Polson said...

Preying on the weak pisses me off. Sorry for the colloquialism, but just sayin'

BT said...

Ecowank's are bloody assholes - nope, not apologizing because this really annoys me.

Money flows to the writer.

Live by it. Anything else is wrong.

Thanks for the heads up Aaron.

Fox Lee said...

I'd give them a pass as well. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...