I Got Scammed by a Ghostwriter...

About this video

Dale tells a cautionary story about outsourcing Kindle book writing through Upwork. After vetting applicants, he hired a freelance writer with publishing experience and a strong portfolio, and together they produced a full series over about three months that he says gave an instant return on investment and still makes him money. About three steps into a five-part project, however, he became comfortable and lazy and started skipping one vital step: checking for plagiarism. He defines plagiarism as passing off someone else’s writing as your own, and warns it can bring dire consequences from Amazon or other retailers, and worse if the original creator discovers it. After finishing that series, he started a second five-part series, approved the first book without a second look, released payment, and green-lit part two. During his usual pre-editing corrections in Grammarly, he decided on a passing thought to run Grammarly’s plagiarism checker. He notes the checker is very sensitive and flags common or coincidental phrases, but this time it found an entire sentence and a half of word-for-word plagiarism and provided the exact source and a link, which confirmed the match. He re-checked the first five-part project and found no issues. When contacted, the writer neither confirmed nor denied the accusation but refunded his money. He ended the relationship and left an honest review. The experience soured him on outsourcing writing, and his lesson is to never take any part of publishing for granted and always check outsourced work for plagiarism.

Key takeaways

• Always run a plagiarism check on outsourced writing before approving or paying for it, even if earlier books from the same writer were clean
• Becoming comfortable after initial success is when Dale made his error — he skipped the check partway into a multi-book project
• Grammarly’s plagiarism checker is sensitive and flags coincidental phrases, but it can also surface exact sources with links for genuine word-for-word copying
• Plagiarism risks serious consequences from Amazon and other retailers, and from the original content creator if discovered
• In Dale’s case the writer neither confirmed nor denied the claim but refunded the money; he ended the relationship and left an honest review

Episode details: published July 2, 2017 · 5:06 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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