Angela's Desk

COMPLAINTS about Your Online Publicist / YourOnlinePublicist.com / (YOP)

August 17, 2023

COMPLAINTS about Your Online Publicist / YourOnlinePublicist.com / (YOP)
Print Friendly

I received the following message this week:

Subject: “Your Online Publicist”

I have received several phone calls from this company (YOP), wanting to market my book. Do you know anything about this company?

This was my response:

Lots of people write in asking me if I’ve heard of a specific company that has been calling or emailing them. Authors are usually contacted by phone. How do they find your phone number? Easy! These companies can get on Amazon, see new releases, Google the author, and find their contact information online.

I googled this: “Your Online Publicist” scam

and

“Your Online Publicist” complaint

and

“Your Online Publicist” complaints

Below are links that popped up, along with short snippets of comments posted by authors:

TrustPilot

“It is RIDICULOUS how many times a day this company calls my personal cell phone number. I have asked MULTIPLE times to STOP the phone calls, but you call me from different numbers so that I cannot block.”

“Just got lied to by two people about several different things! I was told that a senior member read my book, yet she could not answer a simple question.”

“Not only is it downright harassment, it creates great suspicion as to the quality of their services.”

“I took a look at their website. It’s full of unprofessional typos and would make any author associated with them look bad. Avoid, avoid, avoid.”

“Even if this company offered best product ever (which they don’t) I wouldn’t do business with them because of the harassing and disrespectful sales tactics.”

“I had YOP republish my book and all went well in step one. Then step two (Which I don’t remember hearing about in the beginning) can run you anywhere from $2000-$6000.”

“I then explained that I would report them to the FTC for every unwanted call I receive. ‘Joe’ had nothing else to say – I imagine his pre-written script did not cover that scenario. He then hung up on me.”

YOP responded to that complaint on the website (notice the horrible grammar!): Rest be assured that the action has been taken against the responsible team lead and it is being made sure that you do not receive any call from our end in future.

Then, the author updated her complaint with this:

“EDIT: YOP’s reply to this review is a lie. Just tonight I got yet another spam call from them.”

Better Business Bureau

F RATING

“Your relentless calls are enough to make people NEVER want to work with you – EVER. STOP CALLING ME.”

“You’ve called me close to a hundred times over months from multiple numbers, getting around my attempts to block you…”

“why is this person calling my mother’s phone number claiming to be ‘my agent regarding my authorship’ ?? please leave my mother alone”

“It’s been months. I just want them to stop harassing me.”

Under several complaints, the company posted responses…with grammatical, capitalization, and other errors.

Yelp.com

“This company is harassing authors on their private numbers.”

“Each time someone from the company calls me, I have MOST earnestly requested that my name be taken off the call list, as I have no intention of EVER using the company’s services. When I get this far, the person hangs up on me.”

Shouldn’t this company be using their resources to provide publicity services to promote their authors’ books?? After all, that’s what their name implies! AUTHOR BEWARE!

RELATED



HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

Angela is not only the publisher of WritersWeekly.com. She is President & CEO of BookLocker.com,
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.

ASK ANGELA!





Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

AngelaPortrait72dpismall_400x400

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)


See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.


ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy


BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks


ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750


ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/


Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/



Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE



7.625 STRATEGIES IN EVERY BEST-SELLER - Revised and Expanded Edition


At this moment, thousands of would-be authors are slaving away on their keyboards, dreaming of literary success. But their efforts won’t count for much. Of all those manuscripts, trade book editors will sign up only a slim fraction.

And of those titles--ones that that editors paid thousands of dollars to contract, print and publicize--an unhealthy percentage never sell enough copies to earn back their advances. Two years later, most will be out of print!

Acquisition Editor Tam Mossman shares seven essentials every book needs to stay in print, and sell!



Read more here:


https://writersweekly.com/books/5635.html