I have spoken before about the need for freelancers to be careful when applying for jobs. This is especially true when a HR person states they must contact you through Google Hangouts. This blogger actually documented the process these scams take.
Still, even the most knowledgeable and wary freelancer can succumb to a scam or even lose money because an employer does not pay him or her. As of yet, I have not been "scammed" but I have lost money from non-payment. This is why I am a strong advocate of methods of pre-payment like Guru's SafePay. The employer is required to verify their bank and deposit funds with Guru before you begin working. When the job is finished, you get your money from Guru. That said: If you are hiring a freelancer and you need a job done ASAP, make sure your accounts are set up and verified so you can immediately transfer funds into the escrow.
It took me two times before I made SafePay a mandatory part of my contract. In the first case, I had written a book with an employer and they hired me to write a second one. I had no problems getting payment for the first book, so I did not require an upfront deposit for the second one. In addition, I had done my research, and this was a valid company. I turned in the product, and the person who hired me said they would send it off to review and get back with me for any changes I needed to make (just like the first book). Two weeks passed, and I had heard nothing. However, some employers are like that. I waited a full month (which was the "up to" amount of time I had been told, even though it had only taken two weeks the first time). By the time I contacted the company, I discovered (1) The person who hired me was no longer with them (2) No one knew anything about the manuscript I had submitted to her and (3) that meant I wasn't getting paid. This showed me that even a legitimate company may not pay you for your work, and you really don't have any recourse since the person who signed your contract was no longer with them.
The second one was a Christian publishing company. Yes, I know, my grandma would be like "any business can SAY they are Christian." I had been dealing with them off and on over small projects for a couple months. They were based in the Caribbean and had sent me $25 projects. Then, I was told I needed to write an entire book based off a person's live sermons in one week. This was a huge (expensive) project, but they were willing to pay. Of course, I had to start immediately to complete it. Then, I was supposed to contact the minister. The minister was not a nice guy. I would explain how the book needed to be done and what I had done with the chapter, and he wanted me to make all these changes--which took a lot of time. I was writing the book for him, but he wasn't my boss. The guy who hired me then told me to stop talking with him and just finish the book. He believed the minister was trying to deliberately hold things up. So, I did. I finished, and, I never got paid. The guy who hired me kept telling me that he was having trouble transferring the money to Guru. Sigh. In my mind, it is easier if I just believe the minister never paid them for the work and that is why I never got my check. But, that was the end. Everything must go through SafePay now, no matter how many times I have worked with an employer.
I know UpWork offers a similar payment protection escrow. That is why they are the only other online freelancing website that I recommend. Working with a payment protection is the only way to prevent scams, too. When you tell a scammer that you are not going to give them your bank account, but they can send the check or direct deposit to Guru, you will get resistance. You might cringe at the paying Guru or UpWork a commission on everything you earn, but if they save you from being scammed, it is worth every penny.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Monday, September 2, 2019
Book Reviews on Goodreads: Part II
The least effective and worst method I tried for getting reviews through Goodreads was the general reading review groups. There are some review groups sorted by genre, I am not talking about those. Those actually got me the best number of reviews that had the best quality.
In the General review group, you don't have any say in what genre or book you are going to be reviewing. This is a tragedy.
A review group already has a few marks against it because you are meeting with other desperate authors--it stinks to give a poor review but not everyone is an author and even authors need good editors (or at least good beta readers) in order to write well. A good author will be constantly reading books in the genre in which they write--I met indie writers who did not read--at all. You have no way of knowing whether the person you review is a good author or not. This means you may get a book that doesn't even make sense, and you must review it, which puts you in the uncomfortable position of how to be honest in a kind way.
Many people would not have a problem letting someone know that there are problems with their books. However, these same people who do not know how to write may be leaving a review for your work--and they think their books are great. Let me put it more bluntly: would you want a doctor working on you if he had never gone to medical school, never studied under another physician, and never read any medical literature? I am not trying to discourage anyone from writing, but if you want to write, you must read. If you don't want to (or can't afford) college, you must surround yourself with college educated editors who will give you constructive feedback. And finally, you must be prepared to accept that feedback. Some people in the review group will not accept feedback gracefully and some people in the review group might not be able to tell what a good book is like. But if you know nothing about books, you should not be reviewing an indie book. This hurts the indie writers who do know what they are doing and who may have even put money into the book by paying editors or proofreaders.
These are general problems with any review groups. When you join a general review group, the problems are compounded. In a general review group, you may have one person who reads and writes non-fiction dog books, one person who writes erotica, a children's book writer, and one person who writes epic science fiction. A person who has submitted a 20 page children's book for review will not want to read a 1200 page epic sci-fi novel. So, once he finds out the book they must review is 1200 pages long, he already hates it without even turning to the first page.
Now, say the dog person gets the erotica. The dog person signed up for the group knowing full well that he might get erotica because it is a general group, but now that he must actually read it he has decided it goes against his religious sensibilities. But the dog person will get disciplinary action if he doesn't write a review. He made it to page 4 before becoming completely disgusted, so that is what the review will be based on (the first four pages) as well as his dislike of the genre.
On the other hand, the lady who wrote the sci-fi tome gets the dog book. The lady thinks dogs are cute and fluffy, but by page 40 she begins to wonder how anyone could write more than 10 pages about dogs little less read about them. She perseveres and finishes the book and gives it 4 out of 5 stars because she gets that some people might like it. Her written review ends up being: "This was a great book about dogs. I highly recommend it." Not necessarily the kind of review that is going to get much notice.
Finally, the guy who writes erotica gets the children's book to review. He doesn't have kids. He doesn't even remember ever reading a children's book except maybe "The Cat in the Hat." He doesn't care because the book is only 20 pages long- it will be a breeze to run through. But it doesn't rhyme. Since he only has one other kids book to compare to, he begins a three paragraph critique on how this book is not a good children's book because it doesn't rhyme. He says nothing about the plot, nothing about how children responded to it (ideally all children's books should be read to children and their reactions judged before giving a review), and absolutely nothing about the adorable pictures that the author paid thousands of dollars to get so it would have a professional look.
Some review groups will have people who skimp out on their job. That means after reading someone's 1200 page tome and writing a review just so your 20 page children's book will get one, you might not get any review at all. I did not have this problem, but it has become such a problem recently that some groups are asking for alternate reviewers--people who like to review books but don't necessarily have one of their own to submit. I did, however, get several reviews that were in the above categories--didn't know anything about the subject so couldn't really tell if it was a good book or not, didn't read the whole book, wasn't familiar with the genre and therefore had no clue that the things they were complaining about in their review were standard for it, and were just angry they had to read your book when theirs wasn't that long. For me, the general review group was completely useless.
In the General review group, you don't have any say in what genre or book you are going to be reviewing. This is a tragedy.
A review group already has a few marks against it because you are meeting with other desperate authors--it stinks to give a poor review but not everyone is an author and even authors need good editors (or at least good beta readers) in order to write well. A good author will be constantly reading books in the genre in which they write--I met indie writers who did not read--at all. You have no way of knowing whether the person you review is a good author or not. This means you may get a book that doesn't even make sense, and you must review it, which puts you in the uncomfortable position of how to be honest in a kind way.
Many people would not have a problem letting someone know that there are problems with their books. However, these same people who do not know how to write may be leaving a review for your work--and they think their books are great. Let me put it more bluntly: would you want a doctor working on you if he had never gone to medical school, never studied under another physician, and never read any medical literature? I am not trying to discourage anyone from writing, but if you want to write, you must read. If you don't want to (or can't afford) college, you must surround yourself with college educated editors who will give you constructive feedback. And finally, you must be prepared to accept that feedback. Some people in the review group will not accept feedback gracefully and some people in the review group might not be able to tell what a good book is like. But if you know nothing about books, you should not be reviewing an indie book. This hurts the indie writers who do know what they are doing and who may have even put money into the book by paying editors or proofreaders.
These are general problems with any review groups. When you join a general review group, the problems are compounded. In a general review group, you may have one person who reads and writes non-fiction dog books, one person who writes erotica, a children's book writer, and one person who writes epic science fiction. A person who has submitted a 20 page children's book for review will not want to read a 1200 page epic sci-fi novel. So, once he finds out the book they must review is 1200 pages long, he already hates it without even turning to the first page.
Now, say the dog person gets the erotica. The dog person signed up for the group knowing full well that he might get erotica because it is a general group, but now that he must actually read it he has decided it goes against his religious sensibilities. But the dog person will get disciplinary action if he doesn't write a review. He made it to page 4 before becoming completely disgusted, so that is what the review will be based on (the first four pages) as well as his dislike of the genre.
On the other hand, the lady who wrote the sci-fi tome gets the dog book. The lady thinks dogs are cute and fluffy, but by page 40 she begins to wonder how anyone could write more than 10 pages about dogs little less read about them. She perseveres and finishes the book and gives it 4 out of 5 stars because she gets that some people might like it. Her written review ends up being: "This was a great book about dogs. I highly recommend it." Not necessarily the kind of review that is going to get much notice.
Finally, the guy who writes erotica gets the children's book to review. He doesn't have kids. He doesn't even remember ever reading a children's book except maybe "The Cat in the Hat." He doesn't care because the book is only 20 pages long- it will be a breeze to run through. But it doesn't rhyme. Since he only has one other kids book to compare to, he begins a three paragraph critique on how this book is not a good children's book because it doesn't rhyme. He says nothing about the plot, nothing about how children responded to it (ideally all children's books should be read to children and their reactions judged before giving a review), and absolutely nothing about the adorable pictures that the author paid thousands of dollars to get so it would have a professional look.
Some review groups will have people who skimp out on their job. That means after reading someone's 1200 page tome and writing a review just so your 20 page children's book will get one, you might not get any review at all. I did not have this problem, but it has become such a problem recently that some groups are asking for alternate reviewers--people who like to review books but don't necessarily have one of their own to submit. I did, however, get several reviews that were in the above categories--didn't know anything about the subject so couldn't really tell if it was a good book or not, didn't read the whole book, wasn't familiar with the genre and therefore had no clue that the things they were complaining about in their review were standard for it, and were just angry they had to read your book when theirs wasn't that long. For me, the general review group was completely useless.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Book Reviews on Goodreads: Part I
Getting book reviews is one of the most difficult things for an Indie author. You can give books away, but even giving them away to friends who have promised an honest review in exchange for said free book does not get you that review.
So, what are you to do? You can pay plenty of people to give you a stellar (although not always coherent) review, but anyone who agrees to review your book on Amazon for money is breaking Amazon's terms of service unless they disclose in the review that they were paid to give it. If you are paying someone to review your books, make sure they include this disclaimer. If you give people free books in exchange for a review, make sure you have them note that in their review. Amazon has sued thousands of businesses for posting paid reviews without disclaimers.
For those of us who don't want to get into the messiness of paying people for reviews, we often turn to websites like Goodreads to find people willing to review the books we write. I wanted to share some of my experiences with this.
One easy way to get reviews on Goodreads without forcing the reviewer to include a disclaimer on the review is using the Goodreads' Giveaways. At one time, these were only open to people willing to give out paperbacks, but digital content is now accepted. Since the people who enter and win these books do not have to leave a review (it is asked but not forced), they do not have to write any disclaimers about them. In some cases, they may leave a disclaimer, which is also perfectly okay. After all, they simply won the book in a contest that was impartially judged.
When I did this, I got an average return of 1 review for every 10 books I gave away. Not all of these reviews were positive--but the negative ones came from people who didn't seem to understand what they were getting. So, if you do this method make sure to spell things out. List a couple other traditionally published (and well-known) books that are similar to your book in the description. And, be prepared to give away a lot of books in order to get substantial reviews.
So, what are you to do? You can pay plenty of people to give you a stellar (although not always coherent) review, but anyone who agrees to review your book on Amazon for money is breaking Amazon's terms of service unless they disclose in the review that they were paid to give it. If you are paying someone to review your books, make sure they include this disclaimer. If you give people free books in exchange for a review, make sure you have them note that in their review. Amazon has sued thousands of businesses for posting paid reviews without disclaimers.
For those of us who don't want to get into the messiness of paying people for reviews, we often turn to websites like Goodreads to find people willing to review the books we write. I wanted to share some of my experiences with this.
One easy way to get reviews on Goodreads without forcing the reviewer to include a disclaimer on the review is using the Goodreads' Giveaways. At one time, these were only open to people willing to give out paperbacks, but digital content is now accepted. Since the people who enter and win these books do not have to leave a review (it is asked but not forced), they do not have to write any disclaimers about them. In some cases, they may leave a disclaimer, which is also perfectly okay. After all, they simply won the book in a contest that was impartially judged.
When I did this, I got an average return of 1 review for every 10 books I gave away. Not all of these reviews were positive--but the negative ones came from people who didn't seem to understand what they were getting. So, if you do this method make sure to spell things out. List a couple other traditionally published (and well-known) books that are similar to your book in the description. And, be prepared to give away a lot of books in order to get substantial reviews.
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