The International Association of Professional Writers and Editors, also known as the IAPWE, is an organization that often appears in Google searches for questions such as “is IAPWE legit” and even “how do I cancel my IAPWE subscription.”
With these types of questions cropping up on page one of Google, it’s important for us to discuss what exactly it is and whether or not it is a legit option for you. There’s nothing quite like thinking you’ve discovered a gold mine of opportunity…only to realize it’s a scam.
I know from experience. As a young, eager writer, an organization approached me about publishing my book. I knew I was green, inexperienced, and also that my excitement was obvious.
The issue was, this company wanted me to pay them, not for their services as a team of qualified individuals, equipped and ready to help me publish my book…but pretty much pay them to print my book and let me speak at a little-known conference.
I’m grateful my writing mentor saw the red flags and guided me away. Today, we’re here to help you identify if there are green, yellow, or red flags for the IAPWE.
We’ve spent the last 10 years teaching over 8,000 authors how to write, publish, and market their books. Many of our authors have become self-publishing success stories. If you’re looking for writing opportunities, it’s important to assess exactly what you’re getting into with the IAPWE. Ready to get going?
IAPWE: The questions we answer for you
- What is the International Association of Professional Writers and Editors?
- What does the IAPWE offer?
- An overview of their history
- Is IAPWE legit?
- Alternative to IAPWE?
What is the International Association of Professional Writers and Editors?
According to the IAPWE website, they are an organization that provides resources to both writers and editors and “disseminat[e] helpful ideas and resources across the greater professional community in the form of outreach, blogging, networking and thought leadership.”
They also say that in addition to these resources, they are always looking for writers and editors to create content that is:
- Engaging
- Locally relevant
- Educational
- Inspirational content
…to help support their outreach efforts. In addition, they say, “The IAPWE is also dedicated to bringing the most updated, legitimate and vetted writing and editing job opportunities to its members.”
We can break this down into two key offerings: resources for writers and editors and a job board. With this in mind, what exactly do they offer?
What does the IAPWE offer?
When you first search their website, you will find a long list of their offerings that include courses, a grammar tool, AI writer, rewriter, plagiarism check, job board, resources, and of course, a contact page.
When I clicked on the courses tab, I was immediately led to a password-protected page. This seemed a bit odd to me.
But, I can understand protecting courses that haven’t been purchased (although it would likely benefit them to at least give a preview of their offerings).
Since I couldn’t access their courses, I clicked on their grammar tool…also password protected. Clicking through, I quickly realized everything is password protected, except for their contact page and a sidebar with their recent blog posts.
Side note: The most recent is dated from May 2024. More on this later. While many companies neglect to update their website copyright date, the IAPWE’s copyright, at the time of this writing, is three years overdue.
Their offerings look helpful, but it’s difficult to get a firm grasp of the quality of their offerings without access to previews, sneak peeks, customer reviews, etc.
Especially for new customers, questions arise, such as:
- What topics do the courses cover (plot structure, themes in storytelling, something else?)?
- What does their grammar tool entail? Is it like Grammarly or another AI tool?
- What is their rewriter like? Does it keep your tone and voice or rewrite it completely?
- How does their plagiarism checker work?
It would be nice to have these questions answered, or at least acknowledged, somewhere on the website. A sampling of their workshop topics would also help draw in the right customers.
For example, if you log on to a subscription-based job board, typically, users get at least a glimpse of jobs before being prompted to sign up and subscribe for further opportunities.
They are definitely missing out on some quality marketing opportunities by gatekeeping most of their offerings.
We don’t need access to everything, of course, but even Amazon’s book categories often offer a look inside feature to hook you and get you to click their Buy Now button.
An overview of their history
While it’s difficult to find exact information on its founding, the IAPWE is typically said to have been founded in 2015 (they joined Twitter/X in 2015 as well).
The International Association of Professional Writers and Editors emphasizes collecting credible, not scammy, jobs for writers and allowing writers to access these jobs.
Unfortunately, much of the online dialogue around this company raises yellow, if not outright red, flags. Without much of their history to go on, let’s take a little bit of a more intentional look at this company.
After all, all writers want to make money, and if this company promises to reveal a job board free of scammy jobs, it’s worth at least taking a look.
Is IAPWE legit?
If you search “IAPWE scam” online you will quickly see it pop up on Reddit, Scam Advisor, Quora, Trustpilot, as well as a blog post a freelancer wrote on Medium documenting their unfortunate engagement with them.
Trustpilot users have quite a bit to say about IAPWE as well. Here are just two reviews:
- “Absolute scam and a company full of liars. I let it go the first time they tried to scam me back in 2019, but I regret not adding my voice to the others that are warning people off this utter sham of a “business”. They have recently started posting job/project listings under false names, obviously because the word is getting out about them and “ruining” their scam…DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM.”
- “I received an email from IPAWE and everything seemed legit until I tried to login where it was mendatory (sic) to purchase a membership, even if it’s free. There I got a chill in spine and I opted to check the website on scamadviser.com which directed me to trust pilot (sic) as well. Both the websites were showing suspicious rating and lastly the reviews confirmed that this is a SCAM!”
If you go to the Trustpilot website yourself, you’ll find that the IAPWE has a 1.3 star rating and 45 terrible reviews. Here are screenshots of several more.
In addition to these users’ experiences, a big red flag is one I started waving above: their lack of recent content. One of the above reviews also mentioned this.
To recap, and add a bit:
- Their website copyright is outdated.
- Their most recent blog post is over a year old.
- Their social media content lies dormant.
Typically, legit companies have a regular output of quality content, positive reviews, and at least a glimpse of their offerings. None of this is the case with this company.
How much does it cost?
In most of the reviews I write, I break down the cost structure for you, but the IAPWE did not have a single reference to their price points.
When I searched online, the AI Overview said that, “The basic membership is free, but access to job boards and other resources requires a paid subscription. These paid subscriptions range from $4.99 to $19.99 per month, with some users reporting discounts. However, some users have reported issues with recurring charges and difficulty canceling subscriptions.”
In fact, in doing some of my research, I discovered some reviews say they were charged even though they signed up for a free subscription.
Of course, this is alleged unless we had actual bank statements, but there seems to be enough unease around this company to raise yellow and outright red flags.
Alternative to IAPWE?
You are of course welcome, and encouraged, to come to your own decision regarding IAPWE, but if you feel uneasy about using the platform, as I do, you may want an alternative.
One of the best ways to raise your credibility as an author and gain clients as a writer is by building your author brand and platform.
What better way to do this than write and publish a book that showcases your expertise, all while showing your audience how to overcome the hurdles you yourself have overcome?
This is the path that many of our authors take. It’s a journey that launches their business and their author career. They don’t have to rely on scammy business to bring them work.
They create the opportunity for themselves by sharing their expertise in book form…something that allows them to share their expertise 24/7, from anywhere in the world…all by writing their books just once.
Here are some guides to help you:
Take your next step today
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