Fighting Back

Scammers are as much a part of life as breathing. There will always be people wanting something fast and free no matter who they hurt. That’s why it’s extremely important when submitting your work to do your homework first. Network with other writers or do some Google searches. Save yourself the trouble. If you have experience with a scam, pass it along to others. Help out your fellow writer. However, be careful who you call a scammer.

P&E, Writer’s Beware, Miss Snark and many other authors are in the middle of a libel suit filed by literary agent Barbara Bauer. This story began over two years ago. Writer Beware placed her agency on their 20 Worst Agents list as an alleged scam. The list was copy and pasted on a variety of websites and blogs. So, she threatened several website owners (who posted the list) with a lawsuit if it wasn’t removed. She made good on her threats, seeing as she filed a lawsuit in New Jersey on September 20, 2007 against like 20 people. The one against Wikipedia/Wikimedia was dismissed last week. The others are still pending.

Preditors & Editors as well as its owner Dave Kuzminski are also being sued in a separate case by Victor E. Cretella, III, Esq, an attorney for PublishAmerica, for supposedly reporting him to the Maryland Bar Association and damaging his reputation. The P&E site stated he infringed upon or is breaching terms on a contract. Any complaint made to the ethics board is investigated and P&E will have to prove that.

A valuable lesson in both situations is if you’re going to call a business a scam, you better have the proof to back it up.

Lawsuits are expensive. Dave Kuzminski has set up a legal defense fund if you would like to make a donation: http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/penulist.htm. A defense fund has also been set up for the authors in the Bauer case: http://authoradvocatedonations.googlepages.com/home.