Dear Black Lawrence Community,
We’ve become aware of at least two instances in which a writer was targeted by an AI-generated phishing scam impersonating one of our editors, so we wanted to take a moment to put out a little PSA about these scams, which have become unfortunately rampant over the past year. The email purported to solicit work from a writer, suggesting that if the writer supplied materials, Black Lawrence may be interested in publishing them. While emails such as this may appear innocuous, although specious, they are typically phishing schemes, the goal of which is to eventually extort money from the writer after a period of engagement with the scammer.
At Black Lawrence Press, we consider submissions through several annual contests and open reading periods, all of which accept entries exclusively via Submittable. We will never reach out to a writer with whom we do not have a prior relationship to solicit work. If you receive such an email from someone claiming to be one of our editors, please report it as spam/phishing and delete. Don’t engage.
For more information on these scams, the Author’s Guild has put out a blog post with information for writers you may find useful.
Stay safe out there on the internet.
Warmly,
Black Lawrence Press publishing staff