As WritersWeekly.com Whispers and Warnings becomes more well-known in the industry, there is a growing list of writers who I just can’t and/or won’t help. Those include:

Term Paper Mill Writers – Let’s face it. If you’re working for a company that helps students cheat, and then you get cheated by that company, I am the last person who will sympathize with your plight. We’ve received complaints about several of these term paper mills not paying writers. My response is usually, “What did you expect?”

Writers Working for a Couple of Bucks per Article – If you’re working for people who only value writers enough to offer them a couple of dollars per article, you can expect to get screwed. There’s a whole industry out there that treats writers this way and then doesn’t pay their bills.

Writers owed less than $100 – Unless a publisher shows blatant behavior that indicates they are ripping off numerous writers and that they never had any intention of paying the writer (possible criminal activity), or unless they have three or four or more victims, or unless they have launched a new company with which they are targeting writers anew (after having ripped them off under a different name), we usually don’t go after them unless they owe the writer $100 or more. We wish we could go after everybody, but I just don’t have enough time or resources to do so.

Victims who are not writers – Unless it is clear the company might be hiring writers, in addition to other freelancers, we can only publish Whispers and Warnings about companies whose victims are freelance writers.

Victims of other publisher problems – We frequently receive complaints from people who haven’t received their magazines, were overcharged by a publisher for a subscription, etc. We refer these people to the Better Business Bureau.

If you are a victim like one of those described above, you can contact the Better Business Bureau, or the police department nearest the publisher (if they have done something blatantly illegal, like writing a bad check or threatening you), or even the online writing forums.

You can also use my advice posted HERE. I’ve heard from dozens of writers who have successfully obtained payment after reading that article.