Scam or Nah? HELP

[Sethstiel]

I actually opened another thread like this but it was for a different person so here I am asking you again because different from that situation, this time this person contacted me from private messages. Twitter.
(And that’s why I covered their @ and email since it was a DM)

Y’know I cant really tell if it’s a scam or nah so..
What do you think?
And also how should I reply?

[LunarScyphozoa]

They didn’t say anything about your work specifically, so it’s definitely a scam.

[Sethstiel]

Should I ask them like..
What did you like about my work specifically?
or something like that?

[joannekwan]

Honestly, if you're interested, go ahead and ask them questions like: Can you tell me more about your platform? How do you think my work would do on there? Is there an audience for (insert the genre your story is)?
Asking questions will suss out this person/company more.

Like I was contacted by Webcomics app before. I ignored it, thinking it was a scam. But it turned out it wasn't.

It only becomes a scam when their TOS or a contract they offer you is crap. Or if they ask for personal information or money from you.

Just be mindful! But shooting questions back at them won't put you in any immediate danger in this case.

[Sethstiel]

Thank you for great advice!
I’ll definitely ask these questions!! ^^

[vapidink]

Most likely a scam. I've gotten these messages through Wattpad DM, Twitter, and a bunch through the e-mail I have listed on my WP profile. You can usually tell because they don't mention any particular details about your work, the message is pretty informal and provides little to no info about the company(or the info doesn't check out), or they have grammatical errors. In general, I'd stay away from any site trying to actively lure authors in. Legit sites don't need to do all that.

[Kaydreamer]

I did a quick search on Libri a little while back, they looked sketchy as heck. A lot of bad reviews, a few 5 star reviews which looked like they were paid for, heaps of comments about how the work on the site is poorly written and badly translated.

I'd say avoid them. There are sometimes questionable things in the TOS of such sites which can land you in hot water regarding copyright if you're not careful about where you post your work. Just stick to the sites which are large and well-known, especially if you have ambition regarding publishing in the future.

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

If they didn't even take time to type your name, they probably didn't even take time to read your stuff, did they? Didn't even mention which story they liked! It's spam. Canned spam.

[thedude3445]

I've never even heard of Libri before. There's a dozen of these web fiction apps/sites popping up every year that mostly exist to skirt copyright law and make some quick ad revenue for a year before they go bust, and almost always if they contact you out of the blue but without specifically referring to your story it means they're just mass spamming/carpet bombing in hopes of picking up a few extra pieces of content. They probably didn't even look at your account before copypasting that message in.

I would personally avoid any single web fiction platform that is app-only, except for Radish which has actually proven itself (and is owned by the same company as Tapas even though that never seems to come up).

[fleurravenbooks]

• Ask them some things about your work that they can know only if they had read your novel.

• Ask for their rates ( do you need to reach goal or is one view equal to few cents)

• Ask them about their audience

With that being said, they probably are scammer, they didn't even name you nor your work, probably copy pasted paragraph

[fleurravenbooks]

ofc don't make it as pop quiz "what was the color of shirt in chapter x" , but if they want to publish your work they should of checked it out

[Calculus_Homework]

I second this reasoning. It's ALWAYS a scam if they say a vague "I came across your work on " and give no links or do not say their position within a company.

Also... they asked you to post works on their platform--BIG RED FLAG. They basically want to steal your art by having you upload the original files at full res. -_- I hate these people.

They also have a grammatical error as well: "I found out your work really intriguing"
But real people DO make grammatical errors, even in a professional setting... though it's rare.

Btw, this is a type of thing a LOT of artists get all the time. Especially when your artwork is between decent - very good, but you aren't a well-known artist with a huge online presence. They prey on the fact that not all good artists are popular, so they think they can get away with these types of scams because it sounds exciting. :{

Take care of yourself out there! Your art community has your back. :}

[Calculus_Homework]

Nice work. Doing research is the way to go about these things.
You find some major indicators of a scam.

[Sethstiel]

@Kaydreamer
Yeah, I also -finally- found their site and it does look sketchy...
Couldnt see the reviews but, well.. it's obvious..

I'll definitely avoid them and thanks for your reply!!! ^^

@Ordinaryaverageguy
You're definitely right. They should've at least bother to write my or my novel/comic's name..

@thedude3445
This was the first time I've heard of them as well.. but most likely scam..

@fleurravenbooks
This is a good advice for the questions, next time, I'll keep these in mind
Thank youu!!

@Calculus_Homework
OMG.. want me to upload because of the full res. scam...... I havent thought about that..
That's.. well.. clever.

I'd say my art is not that good (I'm still very new at this) so I dont even know why wanna scam me and my comic...

Also thank you so much for the reply!!