{"id":1470,"date":"2019-09-03T08:55:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T14:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/?p=1470"},"modified":"2019-09-03T11:39:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T17:39:13","slug":"scammers-gotta-scam-an-update-my-early-career-debacle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/03\/scammers-gotta-scam-an-update-my-early-career-debacle\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammers Gotta Scam: An Update on a Literary Con Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\nIf you&#8217;re a new writer looking for that first bit of industry attention, a literary agent, a publisher, etc., <em>PLEASE <\/em>read these blog posts.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve read my <a href=\"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/cautionary-tales-for-writers\/\">Cautionary Tales for Writers<\/a> here in my blog, you know who Don Phelan is, former CEO of Commonwealth Publications, the scam publisher who screwed me and hundreds of other authors out of millions of dollars in the mid- to late-90s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turns out, he&#8217;s still at it, conning inexperienced writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re a writer, avoid the AMS Literary Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/accrispin.blogspot.com\/2019\/02\/ams-literary-agency-approach-with.html\">https:\/\/accrispin.blogspot.com\/2019\/02\/ams-literary-agency-approach-with.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m glad to know that Alison Aldrige and Victoria Strauss are out there paying attention to these frauds, and sounding the warning klaxon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-link is-provider-alison-aldridge\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/allyaldridge.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/02\/writers-beware-know-who-you-are-querying\/\">Writers beware!  Know who you are&nbsp;querying.<\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/allyaldridge.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/02\/writers-beware-know-who-you-are-querying\/\">https:\/\/allyaldridge.wordpress.com\/2019\/09\/02\/writers-beware-know-who-you-are-querying\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One other note. This is also documented in a great expose written by former FBI agent Jim Fisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ten-Percent-Nothing-Literary-Agent\/dp\/0809325756\/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=li3&amp;tag=thwrli-20&amp;linkId=227b8016a7760913568c0f3d9cb8ae1f&amp;language=en_US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;ASIN=0809325756&amp;Format=_SL250_&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=thwrli-20&amp;language=en_US\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I can&#8217;t stress this enough. If you&#8217;re an aspiring writer, you need to do some homework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Ftravisheermann.com%2Fblog%2F2019%2F09%2F03%2Fscammers-gotta-scam-an-update-my-early-career-debacle%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re a new writer looking for that first bit of industry attention, a literary agent, a publisher, etc., PLEASE read these blog posts. If you&#8217;ve read my Cautionary Tales for Writers here in my blog, you know who Don Phelan is, former CEO of Commonwealth Publications, the scam publisher who screwed me and hundreds of other authors out of millions of dollars in the mid- to late-90s. Turns out, he&#8217;s still at it, conning inexperienced writers. If you&#8217;re a writer, avoid the AMS Literary Agency. https:\/\/accrispin.blogspot.com\/2019\/02\/ams-literary-agency-approach-with.html I&#8217;m glad to know that Alison Aldrige and Victoria Strauss are out there<span class=\"more-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/03\/scammers-gotta-scam-an-update-my-early-career-debacle\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Scammers Gotta Scam: An Update on a Literary Con Man<\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 21:57:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1470"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1470\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travisheermann.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}