About Us

Mission
Who we are, what we do, and why. Includes information on how to contact us.

Overview and Site Map
What you’ll find on the Writer Beware® website, plus links to general resources about literary scams.

Writer Beware®

• Contests and Awards
• Copyright
• Editors and Editing
• Literary Agents
• Pay-to-Play Anthologies
• Serialized Fiction Apps and Platforms (Coming Soon)
• Self-Publishing
• Small Presses
• Vanity, Subsidy, and Hybrid Publishers
• Writers’ Services

Legal Recourse and Other Remedies

What do you do if you’ve been defrauded? We offer suggestions and resources for taking legal action, along with a variety of options for making reports and filing complaints.

Scams in Action

Case studies of notable literary scams, including Edit Ink, Commonwealth Publications, Deering Literary Agency, Martha Ivery/Press-Tige Publishing, and more.

Writer Beware®: The Blog

To complement the general advice and warnings on the Writer Beware® website, the Writer Beware® blog provides up-to-the-minute information and warnings about a wide variety of scams and schemes–along with advice for writers, publishing industry news and commentary, and a special focus on the weird and wacky things that happen at the fringes of the publishing world.

Connect With Us on Social Media

Visit our Facebook page for publishing news, writing advice, and other items of interest to writers. Join the conversation!

Follow Victoria on X and Bluesky for scam alerts and the latest info on the writing biz.

Writer Beware® is actively seeking documentation

We maintain an extensive archive of documentation on literary agents, independent editors, vanity publishers, self-publishing services, small presses, and others that engage in the questionable practices we warn about on this website. If you have letters, contracts, brochures or other material you think we would like to see, please help us build our database.

Writer Beware® is a registered service mark of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.

  Except for graphics, and where specifically indicated, all Writer Beware® contents copyright © Victoria Strauss

Writer Beware® logo by James F. Beveridge

MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION