So-called services: yellow flags

Here’s a post from, hmm, okay, from an editorial service called Fox Print Editorial: Buyer Beware: Vetting Services for Writers

I was skimming this post and found this tidbit: Here are what I’d call … yellow flags to consider avoiding with goods and services marketed to authors

And I thought that was both funny and kind of a good idea. Not red flags, necessarily, that mean run away. Yellow flags, that mean consider this with some care.

As a writer, you may need help structuring or finishing your book. It may take hiring a professional editor to help you see your way out of the woods of your manuscript, and working with one is likely to teach you an enormous amount about storytelling and writing craft. You may need designers or programs for covers and interiors and graphics. You may need support for packaging your book or formatting or marketing or publicity, or any of the increasing number of writing career–related tasks that fall to the author—skill sets we may or may not have, or where professional assistance or training are the most efficient and useful way to get where we need to go. Your job is to determine how much of it you need and where you want to spend your resources and time and money.

Bold in original. Yellow flags mentioned here:

–Solicitation. Someone contacts you. You haven’t gone looking for them. They email you saying, “Hey, would you like to write a book?” or “I’m offering this exciting chance to take your writing to the next level!” or whatever. I’d call that an … orange flag at least. Maybe a red flag. I don’t trust any such offers.

–Hard sells. Limited time offers. Only two spots left in this course. Again, to me, that looks like at least an orange flag, not a yellow flag.

The linked post does go on to offer what seem to be good suggestions for how to evaluate services you’re considering.

The post winds up with this:

No one can do it for you. You can hire all the pros and sign up for all the classes and services and tools in the world, but at the core, this art is based on the artist. 

That’s certainly worth mentioning, yes.

Seems like a decent post; give it a look if you’re considering hiring somebody to do something, or considering signing up for a course of some kind. I do consider, from time to time, signing up for a course on, say, Amazon ads. I haven’t yet because I have way (way) too much to do already. Maybe someday.

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