I received the following email from an author:
Ang,
I don’t know if you want me wasting your time with this stuff, but I had another “wonderful” offer today.
I can order a batch of my book, let’s say 25. Then send them to this company and they will put them into their “bricks and mortar” bookstore. When they sell out, I will get a check for the entire amount of the sale.
So far, so good…if you were born yesterday.
I said, “How are you going to make any money?” He replied, “Oh, you pay us $500 for the service every 6 months.”
I hung up!
This is the third scam tried on me lately and the strange thing is it’s always my first book, published by Xlibris in 2003.
Go figure.
Kind regards,
Bob
I don’t know if Xlibris is selling their authors’ contact information to marketers or not. What I do know is that many of those so-called marketers find new books on Amazon, and then go on a Google hunt to find the contact info. for each author.
Sadly, some authors will fall for this type of scam. Why in the WORLD would any author pay $500 for THAT?
Let’s do the math, shall we? These are, of course, rough estimates:
Cost of 25 books: $250 (the author’s discount)
Shipping to the author: $35.00
Shipping from the author to the bookstore: $35.00
Fee to scam company: $500
Total cost to author: $820.00
The bookstore, of course, will NOT sell all pf those copies. But, let’s assume they do.
Payment sent back to author using the book’s list price: $350.00
THE AUTHOR IS OUT $470.00.
Please please please, dear readers, do NOT fall for these types of scams. You should never, ever PAY people to read YOUR book! Focus your attention on direct marketing to your customers online. Trying to sell to bookstores (especially scam ones like this!) is a complete waste of time.
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
Follow Angela: twitter | facebook | linkedin
Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
Learn more here: https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.
A twist on the swindle is the promise by some bookstores to consider ordering more books in the future without additional “stocking fees.” All you have to do is convince enough of your friends to purchase your book from them. Of course, this means that only do you lose money, but you also spend your time promoting the bookstore instead of promoting your book.
Sadly too many are both desperate and also stupid as well as too naive.
‘Are Authors ReallyThis Desperate for Eyeballs’
Interesting story. Welcome to the scam world!. My first publishing company went out of business without telling the authors or musicians. After a couple of years, I got a letter from a friend about Tate Publishing Enterprise that they were arrested on criminal events. This company was still accepting money from its authors and musicians. I did some private investigation on my side, and the father and son were involved in criminal events. After the trials, they got 20 years in prison, paying back other companies, and the authors and musicians. It has been 3-4 years, I have not received a cent. But, that state gave them a second chance to pay back the people and put them on probation for 20 years to get a job but not opening any publishing company. Soon after that, I have been receiving calls from different companies to republish my first book. The call was the same as yours. I blocked the calls and reported to the General Attorney to the State. I also called the name of the publishing company that they were using. They did not give my name out or sell any of my books to any other publishing company and the telephone number was not theirs. This gives other publishing companies to set of an investigation on their side. Usually, publishing companies use email and not telephone calls for safety reasons.