Cobwebs Of The Mind: Scam! OMG! Look Who Pulled A Scam On Me!

So there I was all excited because over at At Last! Writer Beware Blogs!, one of the two best Scammer Police Women (Police People?) on the Internet, A.C. Crispin, posted a teaser on the blog a few days ago, Looking Forward to Valentine's Day... In that teaser she wrote:

But I thought I'd just give you a heads-up...Victoria and I have a very special treat planned for our faithful blog readers on Valentine's Day -- because we LOVE you!

So keep watching this space...

Of course great fan that I am of these two denizens of the scammers and contests that should not be contests, I figured we are all going to get a PRESENT! You know - Valentine's Day flowers or chocolate or maybe even a Mug that every time I looked at it reminded me not to fall for the sweet lines and not to delude myself. Something on these lines:

So there I was day after day checking in waiting to get a peek at my Valentine's day present. I was really excited. Hey, one Valentine's Day Gift is better than none right?

Sheesh! Talk about being scammed! NOT FAIR! I want my money back! (Oh wait. I didn't pay anything. Scratches head for a second.) I still want my money back.

So what is the present?

Well in the post, Happy Valentine's Day from Writer Beware!, these two scary ladies begin with:

Well, here it is, the Valentine's "gift" we've been promising our faithful readers for what seems like a long time now: the companion piece to our list of scuzzy agents--Writer Beware's "Two Thumbs Down" publishers list!

Sheesh! What a let down! Now since they did ask to link to the list and not copy and paste it, and since I am still hoping for my mug, I think it is important to follow the rules. As they write:

So...read and enjoy, while you nibble your Godiva truffles. Oh--and if you want to disseminate the list (and we know you will), please link to this post rather than copying and pasting.

But..but..but..but - This stuff is still kind of important. More than kind of if you are looking for an agent or publisher. I am not going to copy the list - (hint hint...where is my mug?) but I am going to just post the headlines of the SEVEN CARDINAL RULES that are posted over at At Last! Writer Beware Blogs! in the post Happy Valentine's Day from Writer Beware!.

I strongly urge anyone who is looking for an agent or publisher or into a contest make At Last! Writer Beware Blogs! a Bookmarked blog and visited often. In short "don't mess with Crispin & Strauss - just listen to them and take their advice".

The following is just the headlines of what you should be watching for. Go and read their whole post - Happy Valentine's Day from Writer Beware!

1. Fee-charging
2. Author-unfriendly contracts
3. Deliberately misleading advertising
4. Conflicts of interest
5. Lack of editorial gatekeeping
6. Poor or inadequate editing.
7. Repeated breach of contractual obligations

Now let us get back to this teaser thing. Next year for Valentine's Day we want something colorful and original. (I am putting in my order way ahead of time!) And since it was Valentine's Day below is the Valentine's Day Picture from Cobwebs Of The Mind to Writer Beware.

Thank you for all your work. Thank you for being there. Thank you for making sure without giving in to fear or intimidation that the "real information" is out there for all those who care to look for it. Thank you for trying to help.