The pitfalls of writing and being conned

The ever helpful Sally Quilford has blogged today about the pitfalls of writing here and it is certainly an eye opener. Thankfully I have never been conned in my writing endeavours, but then I am naturally suspicious and we never have any spare money anyway.

However, Sally's blog reminds me of an experience where we were conned out of quite a lot of money for us. Our eldest daughter wanted to break into modelling and she did attract the attention of an agent. Alarm bells stated ringing when you had to pay a joining fee etc. and we said thanks, but no thanks, only to fall foul a few weeks later. The free photo shoot and introduction tuned out to be a "Oh but you need to buy the pictures for your portfolio" session *rolls eyes*.

Now she does have some stunning photos, but needless to say that introduction was never forthcoming and whilst she did secure some modelling work on her own, she has not been discovered as the next Kate Moss ;-)

It was an experience anyway and I think she realised that actually this modelling lark was far too much like hard work and she is now concentrating on her studies.

Of course this anecdote has nothing to do with writing, but it shows that conmen are everywhere, praying on our desires and ambitions and sometimes we do get caught out.

Personally I live by the motto that if something looks too good to be true then it usually is! So I shall stick to well known publishers for my quest into publication and practice patience. It is a virtue after all and I am not constantly checking my e-mail to see whether I have one from my editor, no of course not...