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Watch Out for this Publishing Scam

When a publisher reaches out for work unprompted, be skeptical

Jay Sizemore
6 min readAug 16, 2021
Macmillan publishing logo

A crazy thing happened to me a couple weeks back. I was fairly astonished to open my email inbox and find I had an email from someone working at Macmillan Publishing!

The subject heading read as follows: Creative Writing and Poetry Conference — We Need Your Experience!

Wow! I just so happen to be a creative writer. I’m a poet, AND I have experience! I felt like I had just received a letter from Willy Wonka inviting me to visit the chocolate factory. What luck! I was being clearly rewarded for all my hard work and creativity. The universe was finally going to acknowledge me!

The email was from someone named Kristen Pecci, and her credentials at the bottom told me she was a Human Resources manager at Macmillan. This seemed totally legit to me!

Look at the text of the email:

screenshot, email inbox

There may have been a few red flags in this email, but pshaw. I didn’t care about that! So what if this email address wasn’t matching up with the actual email addresses of people who work for Macmillan. So what if the…

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Jay Sizemore
Jay Sizemore

Written by Jay Sizemore

Provocative truth teller, author of APNEA & Ignore the Dead. Cat dad. Dog dad. Husband. Currently working from Portland, Oregon. Learn more at: Jaysizemore.com.

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