The article is good as far as it goes.

But it presumes throughout that deadbeat publishers are out there, hoping against hope for a reversal of their fortunes.

It doesn’t report in full on serial scamming deadbeats who with malice aforethought hoodwink writers and advertisers.

Writers should be alert to the special warning signs attached to serial scammers.

One, for example, is a publisher with whom one has never worked before who nonetheless requests more than one article for a single issue of a publication.

What the scammer is trying to do is to accumulate content, to attract advertising dollars. Then, surprise surprise, the multiple articles don’t get published in the issue for which they were commissioned; lots of luck collecting the money you’re due from the serial scammer.

Unless one has worked with a publisher and consistently been paid on time, one should never accept multiple article assignments for a single issue of a publication without receiving at least one half of the fee upfront before work begins. If your existing work is of such conspicuous high quality that the publisher is sure they’ll want to publish two, three or four articles by you in a single issue, they should be willing to pay at least half up front.

Scott Rose