Hi Angela,
Just a note to add another set of scams to watch out for. I used to be able to drop into Upwork and pick up freelance work when I was between editing jobs but, lately, the place is knee-deep in scammers wanting (for example) original first rate novels in a three-book series, 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 words for maybe .02 a word, delivered fully edited, complete with chapter synopsis, etc.etc. etc. Also, no less than 15,000 words a week.
Sometimes monetary compensation is significantly lower with the same phrase repeated from job to job posting “I’m new to the industry so I can only afford to pay $50 to edit 20,000 – 40,000 words.” Sometimes they’ll deliberately (and very badly) mis-spell the text of the ad to make viewers think they’re really new authors.
The chances of them receiving fine quality original writing at those rates is pretty slim so now I’ve noticed them looking to pay editors something like $25 to fix a full length novel. The problem however, when people look at those ads, is that people think writers and editors work for pennies. Not if we aim to keep the lights on we don’t.
It does occur to me to wonder (since there are so many requests for three book series) what they’re doing with poorly written stories. Where would they be marketing them and why on earth would anyone buy book two if book one was really badly written?
Just tossing that out there.
Best,
C.G.
Thank you for submitting this warning for our readers. I’ve always found that sites like upwork diminish the value of real writers because the fees can be so low.
The good news is, when a person or company hires someone for pennies on the dollar, and receives a very poor work product back, they are less likely to hire that person in the future. And, if it happens enough on one website, they’re going to be far less likely to keep using that website.
I recommend looking for high-quality writing work on WritersWeekly and on professional job sites like Indeed.com. On that site, you can click the “remote” option at the top of the site to find jobs where you can work entirely from home. Many of them are now full-time with benefits! We features several of those full-time, remote jobs each week in WritersWeekly. Look for Browse Recently Added Jobs RIGHT HERE.
Regarding the books they’re putting on the market: They are probably putting garbage up for sale on Amazon that costs just a few dollars to produce. They’re hoping on the occasional sale to make them some money. It’s a really dumb business strategy because, when those one-star reviews start piling up, nobody will be buying those garbage books.
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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