Publishing Fraud Alert Affecting Writers and Publishers
C&R has issued a warning to writers, professors, and others that third parties are targeting authors, photographers, and potentially other folks in order to solicit money and personal information. It’s come to our attention that the scheme not only involves the fraudulent use of C&R’s name and likeness, as well as the names of our editors, but also many other publishers, small and large. Please see MacMillan’s important statement for a sense of the scope of these scams. To repeat, C&R is not the only press whose name is being used to defraud people. We highly advise folks to be careful and report fraudulent behavior to the authorities (links below). Authors and small presses are struggling enough as it is, and we are horrified by scammers taking advantage of the community and authors.
Specifically, we’ve been shown evidence that a third party or parties not affiliated with C&R or other publishers have been impersonating C&R’s editors, as well as literary agents, editors from other presses, and providers of other literary services. These scams take the form of emails made to look like they’re coming from official domains (usually with misspellings or adjacent sounding domains, e.g. crpress.net or c&rpress.com and others). But the scams are not limited to email. It turns out people are receiving phone calls and social media messages and even snail mail. The scammers tend to request money in exchange for a contract or some other perk, or the target’s personal details or even manuscript. Sometimes fake checks are forwarded to the recipient to garner trust. Scammers have been known to create false documents and contracts that use our logo and names. Do not trust screenshots or randomly solicited contracts or exchanges of info.
C&R Press does not operate in this manner. We publish nearly all of our books through our submittable. When we look outside, we will professionally email and set up call times. We do not ask for payment as a condition of meeting or send checks outside of a well vetted contract with several rounds of vetting on both ends.
C&R Press has an imprint called Steel Toe Books. Steel Toe Books operates exactly as C&R Press does. We opened and closed an imprint called Mastodon. That was closed and all titles were folded into the C&R family.
Alas, our warning is likely not exhaustive. Please take extra care these days.
Again, please pay close attention to the sender’s email address. Scammers often use misspellings or other variations of our C&R’s domain name and email address. Our only and official website is crpress.org.
Tips (via MacMillan’s website)
- If you receive a message from someone claiming to represent C&R (or another press) on social media, ask them to send you an email from their official email address and pay close attention to the domain.
- C&R (and nearly all presses) does not ask prospective authors for payment or bank account information as part of the manuscript submission process outside of Submittable.
- If you are unsure of the identity of the sender of a communication, do not click on any links.
- C&R will not request a book trailer or promotional video as part of a manuscript submission.
- If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of an email appearing to be from a C&R employee or claiming a connection to C&R, please email info@crpress.org
- Seek legal advice before signing any contracts with a literary service.
- If you are the victim of a scam, we encourage you to contact law enforcement immediately (Local police, state AG, FBI, BBB, and trade organizations).
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