Comments on contracts and getting scammed

Check out this week's issue of Writers Weekly for an excellent article highlighting the top ten ways to know you've been scammed! It is, of course, another of Angela's rants about writing without a contract. However, it is also a very important topic, and I'm sure there's tons of new writers who visit the ezine for the first time every day, who have no clue about the likelihood of getting scammed. Honestly, I worry a lot about getting paid when I don't have a contract. Obviously, I need to make more of an effort to get contrats!

One circumstance I've always avoided, however, is the "writing sample" ploy. There are so many scams that operate on a writing or editing sample that I've begun to take great care not to provide one at all, unless the employer is paying for the sample. Otherwise, I direct them to my online portfolio, which has all the previously published work they should need to make a decision on whether or not to hire me.

I never hear back from about half of those I direct to my portfolio. Maybe they were planning on scamming me, and maybe not, but as far as I'm concerned, it's safer not to know.