How to check an agent or publisher is real before you reply
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R. S. Breed Founder
The fake editor emails from last month have raised a broader question. If someone claiming to be an agent or a publisher gets in touch out of the blue, how do you check they're real before you answer? None of this takes long, and all of it is free.
Start with their website, not their email. Search for the agency or publisher yourself and find its own site. Don't click the link in the message and don't ring the number in the signature. If the person who emailed you works there, they should be listed on that site, and the site will have its own contact address. Write to that address and ask whether the approach is genuine. A real agent or editor won't be offended by the question.
Then check the sender's domain letter by letter. A real agency emails from its own domain, and it should match the website exactly. One swapped letter, an extra hyphen or a different ending (.co instead of .com) is enough to make it someone else entirely. A Gmail or Outlook address claiming to speak for a company is the end of the conversation.
Search the name alongside "Writer Beware" and "scam". Writer Beware has been recording publishing scams for a long time, and if an outfit has form, there's a decent chance it turns up there: https://writerbeware.blog
Look for a track record you can verify for yourself. A real agent has sold books you can find, to publishers you've heard of, and those sales tend to show up in acknowledgements and on the publishers' own pages. A real publisher has books in shops and libraries, not only on its own website.
Follow the money. Legitimate agents don't charge reading fees. They're paid a commission when they sell your book, not before. A traditional publisher pays you. If the conversation drifts towards what you'll be paying them, for editing, a marketing package, a "submission fee" or anything else, you have your answer.
And notice the pressure. A real opportunity will still be there after a day of checking. An offer that expires tomorrow, or a contact who gets pushy when you say you'd like to confirm who they are, is telling you something.
If you've done all that and still aren't sure, post it in the pinned "Is this email a scam? Post it here" thread with your own details blanked out.