I’ve been really busy taking care of our BookLocker authors, our kiddo (the one remaining at home), our garden, and my husband lately. It’s been pretty busy. So, I missed the jaw dropping stories about Scribe Media! The company was previously called Book in a Box.

Once I was alerted, I started reading and I could NOT STOP! I sent the link (see below) to my employees, and told them to fire up the microwave popcorn. It is THAT LONG and THAT BAD!!

According to the Reddit posts, the employees frequently questioned management about the state of the company. Their paychecks were late on occasion (always a HUGE red flag!). And, except for a remaining skeleton crew, they were all fired via a Zoom meeting, and told their insurance would expire at midnight that night. Allegedly, even their freelancers were left in the lurch, with one being owed $17K.

Note to the wise freelancer: Never, EVER let a company get that far in arrears with your payments!!

The skeleton crew was kept to allegedly finish the books they’re currently working on. But, are they really still working on books?

One author on the Reddit thread claims Scribe Media withdrew $4800 from his bank account in May, but are now telling him things are on hold for a few weeks while a new buyer takes over. Who in the world would buy a company in that much financial trouble?! I’m not buying the “new buyer” story!!

And, be wary of companies that want to withdraw money from your bank account instead of accepting a credit card. If that author had used a credit card, he could issue a chargeback, and get his money back.

Are you ready? HERE IT IS!

The Real Scoop on the Scribe Media Layoffs

AND, THERE’S MORE!

In THIS ARTICLE, posted to LinkedIn by JeVon McCormick (a.k.a. JT McCormick), the majority shareholder and (now former) CEO, he partially blames the death of his mother for his poor decisions. I don’t doubt his mother died but I have a very hard time believing that the cause of the company’s downfall was that one thing.

Pop another bag of popcorn and read the comments underneath his ridiculous post.

Worse, as of today, the Scribe Media website is still in operation. What?!?! Are they still accepting payments from unwary authors? And, this might give you a good idea as to why they went out of business. These are not one-time publishing fees. They are PER MONTH!

CLICK HERE to get your book published for only $975! And, that’s a ONE-TIME payment!!

If some of their authors (and potential employees) had done a little research about Scribe Media, they might have seen these poor reviews on:

Indeed.com

The Wikipedia page about Scribe Media’s founder, Tucker Max.

He was voted “most egotistical” in high school, and the topics of his own books are, in my opinion, unsavory…to say the least.

Also: “In January 2012, Max claimed he was leaving behind the lifestyle he had described in his books and that he had been in psychotherapy.[37] In February 2012 a publicity campaign for his book Hilarity Ensues led to his account with the company Sponsored Tweets being banned for ‘ethics violations’.[38]”

Be sure to read the Controversies section on that Wiki page.

OUCH! “JT McCormick hosts exorbitant events where he blatantly manipulates his audience and sells them a dream.”

SelfPublishing.com gave Scribe Media only 3 stars before Scribe went belly-up.

And, it appears Scribe Media has already been hit with a class-action lawsuit.

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