International Association of Professional Writers and Editors Review

Typically, if something seems besides skilful to be true, it probably is.

And that was certainly the example for me when I applied as a freelance writer for the International Association of Professional person Writers and Editors (IAPWE). Information technology sounded good at the fourth dimension; I was looking for remote writing work and this Craigslist advertising seemed just the ticket.

(Note to cocky: don't chore hunt on Craigslist unless you want to exist a commitment driver - there are too many scams out there.)

The application process was piece of cake. In hindsight, it was a niggling too easy and that honestly should have tipped me off. As I call back they didn't even ask for my resume, just my proper noun and email. To prove myself as a writer, they also wanted a sample of my work - which I was all besides happy to pass along.

And then I didn't hear annihilation for a month. Usually, one can assume that the hiring company decided to pass on your application for more than experienced candidates and that'due south what I assumed had happened. Until I received an email today from Amy Wilkerson, informing me that my awarding had been accustomed and hence I was instructed to create a profile on IAPWE'due south website.

Then far, so good. I went ahead and did that... and hither's where it got weird: in order to access the writing resource, job lath, and fellow member sections I needed to subscribe to a paid account. I'yard distressing, what? I was under the impression that I had been hired on as a writer...

And then information technology clicked. This company is an "association" - so it's a membership club. Typically though, y'all bring together an association considering the benefits of beingness part of the in-grouping outweighs the cost and I wasn't seeing anything of the sort on IAPWE. The job board hadn't been updated in several days and none of the jobs bachelor were even in my wheelhouse. The writing resources offered were also all tools and ideas that I could easily access to free, elsewhere on the internet.

My Next Steps...

Unfortunately, I had gone ahead and subscribed to the paid version considering I really wanted to see if there would be any truthful benefit to having this access. Since there wasn't I immediately decided to cancel my subscription - which is non easy. Showtime there'southward a form to fill up out and then (according to a few other bloggers who went through this ordeal) Amy will and confirm that y'all want to cancel.

I decided to bypass that entirely and went straight into my Paypal account to abolish the recurring payment. This cut me off almost right away from the paid access on IAPWE. (If you signed upward via Paypal, I suggest this tactic because it worked right abroad.)

Here'due south the 1000000 dollar question: Is IAPWE really a writing scam?

Yep and no.

No, because subsequently a bit of research information technology is a visitor that has been around for quite a while and does offer members admission to writing jobs - even if those jobs aren't the best ones out at that place. They do post a lot of helpful blog articles on bettering yourself every bit a writer...but that's the extent of their helpfulness.

Yes, and this is considering they do not tell applicants upwardly front about the cost of joining to go access to these writing jobs. From the beginning, I was under the impression that I was being hired to write for IAPWE - non utilise them every bit a middleman for actual writing jobs.

What now?

Fortunately there are a ton of Gratuitous platforms that offer access to writing and editing jobs - Upwork and Fiverr being two of the most well known. I also recommend joining a local writing group or a Facebook grouping for writing jobs, since many of those options volition exist vetted more advisedly.

Yous can likewise practise what I'm doing and starting time a weblog, because there are countless means to brand money blogging with the utilize of affiliate marketing and sponsors.

Self-publishing on platforms like Amazon's Kindle Direct, Google, Netgalley, and iBook are also options if you've written a short novel or a drove of poetry. Y'all can detect my novella Anything But Monochrome on Kindle Direct for only $9.99.

No matter how you expect at it, writing is often a thankless job that does non pay what information technology should for the time, research, and attempt involved in creating a good piece of content, only hopefully a little bit of Googling (and this blog post!) volition help you avoid writing scams like IAPWE. I got duped so you don't have to.

Have you lot always fallen for a job scam? How did yous react and what steps did y'all have to get out of it? Let me know in the comments.

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Source: https://on-th3-cusp.blogspot.com/2020/04/falling-prey-to-writing-scam-iapwe.html

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