Amnet-Systems Amnet Publishing, Amnet Outsourcing Freelance editing scam, outsourcing scam Internet

Maui Cat points out that the Better Business Bureau gives Amnet Systems an F rating, seemingly offering this as evidence that the company is somehow illegitimate.  I have no direct experience with Amnet (I'm actually researching the company prior to applying), but I can comment on the company's BBB rating.

It is true that Amnet Systems has a BBB rating of F, but the Bureau attributes the grade to a single factor:  "BBB concerns with the industry in which this business operates," i.e. "Publishing Consultants."  That's it.  (This factor can account for up to -41 rating points, enough to earn an F all by itself.)

The Amnet Systems report shows 0 customer reviews and 0 complaints closed in the past 3 years.  Additionally, BBB "knows of no government actions involving the marketplace conduct of Amnet Systems, LLC," and has "nothing to report concerning Amnet Systems, LLC's advertising."

In short, there is nothing at all in Amnet System's Better Business Bureau review that should raise particular concerns about the company--only an implied need to exercise caution when dealing with publishing consulting firms in general.

About a week ago, I received a form letter e-mail from Sylvia at Amnet informing me that I had not passed the test. I replied politely requesting feedback, scores, etc., but to date nothing has been forthcoming. In my experience, this company is a complete waste of time, and to think that I paid for a subscription to Virtual vocations to get in touch with this company adds insult to injury, os should I say injury to insult?

Last year, I applied to Amnet and received four tests: a multiple choice test on the Chicago Manual of Style, a 10-question test on grammar and usage, a fiction test, and a nonfiction test of about 5 pages each. There were numerous errors and internal inconsistencies in the texts, and the Chicago style test required a cirtation to the section of the manual. I spent about 5 hours carefully editing the passages and confirming my decisions.

A few weeks later I received a brief e-mail informing me that my work was inadequate with no further explanation--no scores, no feedback. I was shocked, as I am an experienced editor and I know my work was high quality.

A few weeks ago, I responded to a freelance opportunity and received a similar packagew of tests, but with different passages and a disclaimer stating that these were not client projects. I put an equal amount of care in my work and am hoping for positive results, or at least some feedback if I am not selected.

I will keep you posted. 

 Check out the Better Business Bureau website. Gives them big fat "F.". Hmmmmm. . . .

I have been doing freelance editing for Amnet Systems for about a year, and I have had a good experience with the company. I edit fiction and nonfiction books that are being self-published by their authors. 

I live in the U.S. and I communicate by email with two or three pleasant women at Amnet who are thoroughly professional. They are obviously native English speakers. Amnet's mailing address is in Illinois.

The company pays about $2 per page for copyediting, which is quite low, but editing for them has been a good way for me to gain experience after becoming certified as a copyeditor.

I'm currently in possession of a set of Amnet tests, which number four, not two as cited in several responses. One is a five-question test on CMS style, and another is a short usage and punctuation test. There are also two sample texts to be edited, one fiction and one nonfiction. The whole thing amounts to about fifteen pages double-spaced, and I'm mystified as to the owner's claim that the test package takes four to six hours to complete. If I took that long to edit so little, I'd have no clients!

So far, I've been unimpressed by my Amnet experience. The company is conducting a massive hiring campaign, from what I've seen around the internet, but that doesn't excuse the lack of response I received when I asked for help in submitting the tests. I was also dismayed to see that the instructions to the tests contained errors; that's not a good sign. Finally, upon looking at the two sample texts, I realized within seconds that these clearly were not tests written by Amnet. I've created several editing tests, having hired the freelancers at various in-house jobs, and these just didn't seem right. I turned to an internet search.

One of the passages is from a piece of fan fiction that can be found at http://m.fanfiction.net/s/2982045/1. The two versions are not identical. The test contains more errors, but I found many errors in the version posted to that website as well, so I doubt anyone (competent) has edited it.

I stress that I'm not using this as evidence to back the original complaint. But just how this fanfic ended up the basis for an Amnet test, I cannot say. I know only that I devised every bit of my own tests when I administered them, creating them specifically to find the kinds of editors I needed on my staff.

The other test looked to me to have been written in another century, and in fact it was. I found it at Project Gutenberg. It's from a 1901 book called Thought-Forms, by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. It's pseudoscience written in the style of the Victorians. How this could possibly be germane to nonfiction editing of more than a hundred years later is beyond me.

In short, my actual experience thus far with auditioning for Amnet little matches the claims made in the employee comment or in the carefully crafted response of the owner. Perhaps someone will post an explanation to convince me otherwise, but at present I'm disinclined to finish these tests.

I can see why this company rejected your work. Here is your complaint, with the corrected spelling in parentheses.

"Freelance editors are adviced (advised) not to do business with Amnet-Systems (there is no hyphen in the company's name). Under the pretence (pretense) of offering an employment contract, Amnet requires their candidates to complete a series of long 'tests,' which are actually submissions from their clients. Once the canadidate (candidate) has completed the 'tests,' Amnet rejects the candidate's work on the grounds of inadequacy, then returns the documents to the client for a fee without having payed (paid) the editor."

If that is how you write, it is no wonder that this company rejected your work. If I were the one to grade your tests, I'd have rejected your work after the first sentence. It is clear to me that you do not have sufficient mastery of the English language to be a writer or editor.

For those of interested in the truth, Amnet is a credible company. While it is true that you must "pass" a few routine editing tests to edit for their company, it is not an unreasonable amount of work and is in many ways indicative of the type of work you will see from them.

I also know that the tests Amnet sends out to potential freelance editors are not "actually submissions from their clients," which is just absurd. There are standard fiction and nonfiction tests (approximately 5 pages each) that are sent out to anyone interested in editing for the company. This is to ensure quality control: there are a lot of people out there who think they are qualified, even though their work does not support their claim.

I have worked for Amnet as a freelance editor for approximately a year and have known many of the people who work there for many years.  I continue to do business with them and would recommend them to other freelance editors.

I have been a freelance editor for Amnet Systems for the past several months; in my experience, Amnet is a trustworthy company. The editorial project managers I have contact with are experienced professionals who have an understanding of the publishing industry and its standards.

Being a good copy editor involves having the ability to successfully apply a certain set of knowledge and skills. Therefore, it seems reasonable that a company such as Amnet would be interested in assessing the editorial skill level of applicants.

I hope that anyone reading this thread will keep these things in mind in their consideration of the original complaint.

I'd like to reiterate what Ted Young has already made clear---Amnet Systems is a legitimate editing company. I have been working for them for almost a year, since May of 2011. In that time, I have performed numerous edits and editorial analyses for the company and have been paid promptly and regularly for my work.

In addition to the full edits I've performed, I have been responsible for grading many of these freelancer tests the individual refers to. I can assure you that there are only two portions to the test: a fiction piece, and a nonfiction piece, each approximately five pages long, double spaced. I have assessed test takers on these same two tests hundreds of times now and have issued many pass/fail results. There is no "series" of tests administered---just two, sent together to prospective freelancers. The process used to assess and grade the tests is fair and unbiased.

Before becoming a stay-at-home mother and freelancer, I worked in house with many of the current Amnet employees. I know them to be real and honest people.

Best of luck to any prospective freelancers! Amnet is a fantastic company to work for.

Amnet Systems strongly disagrees with the false assertions of this individual. Amnet never would use live work assignments from our publisher clients for purposes of freelancer application testing. To do so would be unethical and completely outside the acceptable practices at Amnet. We administer a standard set of two tests to freelance applicants, developed to identify individuals with the necessary editorial expertise. While we do not pay applicants to apply and take our applicant test, neither have we ever suggested otherwise; this is an industry standard practice. We devote significant resources to testing and recruitment of competent freelance editors.

To address another falsehood this individual asserted as fact: We do not string applicants along on an ongoing series of tests: rather, at the time of application, we offer suitable applicants two related tests to complete. The first test gauges ability to edit fiction material, and a second test gauges ability to edit nonfiction works. A typical applicant often requires from four to six hours to complete the testing.

Far more applicants believe they possess the requisite competence in copy editing than actually proves to be the case: in truth, about 1 in 20 applicants demonstrate the necessary skill set to pass testing. This applicant success rate is also quite common across the publishing industry.

Those who pass our rigorous testing process will tell you that Amnet treats our freelancers with great respect, pays for actual live work, and does so per a reliable schedule. The pay rate for live work assignments is always clearly communicated to editors before work begins. We place great value upon developing our freelance editorial team, and afford them training and additional growth opportunities in a number of areas wherever appropriate. Amnet strives to create a collaborative, healthily competitive and productive work environment, and our culture promotes integrity, courtesy and fairness towards all individuals, teams, associates and stakeholders of our company. These practices carry through to our recruitment, testing, and training initiatives as well.

As for this specific individual and his false claims, consider the source. Take into consideration the number of spelling errors alone in his brief post and ask yourself if this is an individual with the requisite set of editorial skills. Would such an individual likely succeed at a test of copy editing based on this post? We will leave this to you to decide.

Ultimately, the decision of whom to work for rests with the individual. We encourage interested skilled freelance editors to connect with our team at usapplications@amnet-systems.com with questions anytime. We are confident those who choose to work with Amnet will find us among the best companies in the publishing industry.

Sincerely,
Ted Young
U.S. General Manager
Amnet Systems, LLC