No Social Security Number Until Contract Offered!
If anyone asks for your social security number (here in Canada it’s the SIN – Social Insurance Number), run.
They are up to something. Only an employer can ask that and only after s/he’s hired you, for tax purposes by law. A publisher can ask, yes, but only after the assignment is accepted. Amen.
Linda M. Gigliotti
https://groups.msn.com/WritingClinic
HowMaster: The Writer’s Guide to Beautiful Word Crafting
https://filbertpublishing.com/howmaster.htm
The little book that demonstrates with real works exactly how great
writing happens.
Amazon.com Best Seller? Ha!
Dear Angela:
Thanks for the article on rigging Amazon rankings. I fell for a “free telephone seminar” scam perpetrated by a different person than you mention in your article. I was a little slow to catch on, but it was clear that the lengthy testimonials during the call were in fact carefully scripted pitches by shills for the host’s services. The mechanics of the process were similar to what you describe. The sad part: this scheme was promoted by the editor of an online writer’s newsletter! I wrote to her expressing my dismay at being duped into a session of free advertising but have not heard from her since. I still get her newsletter, which typically opens with a hefty wad of self-promotion by the editor, in the guise of informing all of us less successful freelancers how it’s done by a pro. As Rumpole of the Bailey used to say, “Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.”
Regards,
Farron D. Brougher
—
Thanks for the heads up in last week’s article. I had just received an email regarding this scam. I won’t waste another moment on follow-up thanks to you. Your WritersWeekly publication proves invaluable and timely. We writers owe you an incalculable debt.
Mal King
—
Hi:
It is precisely the fact that you print replies such as the one about the Amazon Best Seller List that I trust WritersWeekly to be my writer’s magazine. I do subscribe to a print type one but you are the best. I like your attitude.
Dick Learned
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Morris Rosenthal posted a note about this topic last week RIGHT HERE.
MJ Rose weighed in on her blog as well! Click HERE.
She also describes how the Amazon rankings are essentially meaningless anyway HERE.
Cathi Stevenson also put in her $0.02 HERE.
Don’t miss PART II of our article in this week’s issue HERE.
From A Friend In Argentina
Dear Angela:
I hope this email finds you -and your family- very well.
I wrote you some weeks ago, telling about an online mag that was not sending my payments. After some weeks of emails, now I have my checks.
Also, now I am writing my column for another new magazine, 13 Minutes.
Just I wanted to say thank you!!! again for your kind reply, for the work you do for all of us, the writers, and because you are so “good heart” (as we say in Buenos Aires).
Best for you,
Your e-friend of Argentina
Elizabeth