Q –

Angela,

I just received a voicemail from a representative from Barnes & Noble, stating that they would like to place my book in their physical bookstore.

I have not yet returned their call. Is this to be trusted?

Thank you for your help. I’m so thankful for you all!

V.P.

---

A –

It’s an increasingly common problem and I commend you for being wary. First of all, Barnes and Noble NEVER calls authors about their books. If they want copies, they will order directly from the distributor or publisher.

The person who called you is a scammer working overseas (NOT at Barnes and Noble) who was then going to tell you that you first needed to republish your book through them (while still pretending to be Barnes and Noble). They were then going to make you prepay for hundreds or thousands of copies before they could “distribute those to the Barnes and Noble stores.” But, they were going to promise you that you’ll get reimbursed for those copies in a short while.

The fact is, they were never going to print and ship any books to Barnes and Noble. They were going to wipe you out financially, and then disappear.

REMEMBER: NEVER, EVER DO BUSINESS WITH SPAMMERS OR TELEMARKETERS!

RELATED

• EXTREME AUTHOR ALERT – PART II: 19 Signs You’re About to Get Scammed By a Foreign “Book Publisher”
• EXTREME AUTHOR ALERT – PART I: This International Scam is Fooling THOUSANDS of Authors Across the Globe!
• COMPLAINTS about Iconic Book Publishers PLUS How Foreign “Publishers” Are Extorting Money from U.S. Authors!
• COMPLAINTS about Covenant Books AND Christian Faith Publishing
• If You Are Called By Spotlight Network TV / Spotlight TV / Logan Crawford, HANG UP!

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

Q –

I spoke with several people at Carlson Publications and they made me an offer for publishing several of my books. Six books for $1200. I am being asked to pay $200 up front and one after another after that.

Other than their web site, https://carlsonpublications.com, I can’t seem to find information on them and my family is skeptical because they were pushing so hard.

Have you any information on Carlson? Seems like it might be too good of an offer!

Thank you very much.

---

A –

The “people” you are talking to at Carlson Publications / carlsonpublications.com are very likely telemarketers located overseas. Many of the things I found below I’ve also found when investigating other overseas companies as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if the telemarketers are all working for the same company, under a variety of different company names.

1. Let’s start with the fact that their website states, “Join our community of 1,000,000+ authors.” HA HA HA HA HA!!!! Do authors really fall for that stuff??? Amazon.com has ZERO books published by the name Carlson Publications on their website!

2. They aren’t on bbb.org at all. That’s a huge red flag.

3. There are four 5-star reviews about them on trustpilot…all dated 9/12/24. That is another red flag. There’s no way those reviews are real.

Two of them call the company by the wrong name (Carlson Publication – missing the “s” at the end). That’s another sign those are fake positive reviews, and likely posted by people who aren’t native English speakers.

4. The biggest red flag. Their domain registrar has this address:
Mailing Address: Kalkofnsvegur 2, Reykjavik, Capital Region, 101, IS

That’s Iceland.

Interestingly enough, that’s the exact same address we recently featured for a company under a different name. I suspect Carlson Publications may be the same company, and that they are operating under a variety of names. See:
COMPLAINTS about Iconic Book Publishers PLUS How Foreign “Publishers” Are Extorting Money from U.S. Authors!

5. According to ScamAdvisor.com:

Negative highlights

• The website’s owner is hiding his identity on WHOIS using a paid service
• This website does not have many visitors
  We found many low rated websites on the same server
• Several spammers and scammers use the same registrar
• We determined this very young site has a very high number of reviews
• This website has only been registered recently.
• This website appears to be using a hosting provider with a dubious reputation.

6. According to ScamMinder.com, their trust score is only 11 out of 100.

7. Their website wasn’t created until 7/30/24. Never, EVER trust a so-called publisher that hasn’t been in business for many years. (BookLocker.com has been in business for more than 25 years, is located in the U.S., and, according to bbb.org, has an EXCELLENT reputation.)

8. Here are other red flags from their website, which are common mistakes made by scammers:

A. There are several covers on their homepage that are missing the names of the authors.

B. One cover has no author name or title at all:

C. This book has no author, one title, but two covers:

D. Some covers on their website are for actual books on the market…but the real covers are completely different. Publishing Mojo was recently caught stealing covers from actual books, and pretending they created them by posting those covers on their website.

9. The map on their homepage shows they are using a virtual office space – Premier Workspaces. That’s another tactic used by scammers to make it appear they are located in the U.S.

10. The testimonials on their site have very generic author names but no book titles. FAKE!!!

I seriously doubt this company is located in the U.S. They are NOT going to publish your books for $200 each. They’re going to take your money, and then upsell, upsell, upsell. You may never get your book and they may just string you along for months, asking for more and more money.

I would definitely avoid this company at all costs.

RELATED

• How to Tell if That So-Called “Publisher” is REALLY Located in the U.S.! By James M. Walsh, Esq.
• Publishing Mojo Is Furious That I Exposed Their Scam! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Publishing Mojo / PublishingMojo.com – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Covenant Books AND Christian Faith Publishing
• MORE SCATHING COMPLAINTS about Author Solutions, the owner of AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford, Westbow Press, Archway Publishing, Balboa Press, Abbott Press, and others!
• COMPLAINTS about ProfessionalsGhostwriting.com
• COMPLAINTS about PageTurner Press and Media / pageturner.us

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

Q –

Hi Angela,

I hate Facebook. I used to get on it but I found myself getting pulled into arguments so I quit. I don’t have an account with Twitter, or whatever it’s called now, or anything else. I do watch YouTube once in awhile but I know that’s not really social media.

I know that social media is important for promoting a book but I just don’t want to do it myself. What are my options? Is anyone offering a service where they post directly to social media for the author? And, how much does something like that cost?

---

A –

Clayton Jones is a not only a professional online marketer, but he’s also a professional editor (it’s extremely important that authors’ posts/ads are error-free!) AND an English professor. We have received nothing but rave reviews about Clayton!

I pulled the text below from THIS PAGE.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN

Q –

More than 40 years ago, I self published a book. The company I published it with and I parted ways more than 35 years ago when I refused to pay anything to continue with them.

My question is related solely to recent events. In the past year, I have heard from more than 10 different agents, movie producers, and publishers all claiming that market events have made this book suddenly very marketable. To my knowledge, all copies of this book (which I believe needs to be rewritten) have been taken off the market and no copies of it are available to anyone.

What is going on? How are they finding a book that even I cannot locate anywhere? What do these individuals want from me? No one has asked for any money from me and they have not asked for my signature on any documents.

A –

The scammers are getting pretty desperate if they’re pursuing an author who wrote a book 40 years ago! They never ask for money on the first communication. They’ll sell you on promised fame and fortune…and then they’ll start insisting that you pay them money to move forward. (Lots of it!) And, they’ll further lie to you, telling you that you’ll earn that money back in the future.

Whenever you received spam (or a phone call) from someone claiming they’ve read your book (or that someone at their company has) and that they love it, it’s a scam. No, they don’t own a copy of your book and they’ve never seen it. They found you online, obtained your contact info., and started harassing you.

REPEAT: Never, ever do business with a company that spams or cold-calls authors (telemarketing).

RELATED

• How to Tell if That So-Called “Publisher” is REALLY Located in the U.S.! – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• Beware of Spammers That Call Your Current Publisher a “Liar”
• Scammers Trying to Trick Publishers Into Handing Over Their Authors’ Production Files, Royalty Info., and much more!!
• One VERY Easy Way to Know If You’re Talking to a Scammer
• A Scammer is Impersonating Macmillan Publishers
• Alina Adams Exposes Book Marketing Scammer in Fantastic Fashion! – In The News
• Alina Adams Exposes Book Marketing Scammer – PART 2!!! – In The News

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!

Q –

Hi Angela,

I know you don’t know me but I’m wondering if you will read my manuscript and tell me what you think about it?

Doug S.

A –

I wish I had time to sit back and read all manuscripts sent my way, in their entirety, all day long. Unfortunately, I do not. However, I do refer authors to an excellent and talented professional who does offer editorial evaluation services. Clayton Jones a professor of English at the University of Tennessee and authors RAVE about him. 🙂

---

What I didn’t send to the author, but very much wanted to: If I had a nickel for every time an author asked me to give them an editorial evaluation (that’s basically what this is) for free, I’d be a wealthy woman! It is extremely rude to ask a professional to work for you for nothing.

RELATED

RANT! You Better Darned Well THINK Before You DEMAND I Work for YOU for FREE!

You Want ME to Write for FREE?! Ha Ha Ha!!! By Angela Hoy

“WHY WON’T YOU PUBLISH MY BOOK FOR FREE?” – A Behind the Scenes Look at a Publisher’s Expense

Another Day, Another Cheapskate “Publisher” Looking for Free Labor

Think Twice Before Giving Away Your Entire Book Online For Free

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

 

Q –

Good day, Angela –

How would you, and BookLocker’s attorneys, like to proceed with this inquiry?

R.S.

—– Forwarded Message —–
Sent: Tuesday, July 9, 2024 at 10:41:31 AM CDT
Subject: Collaboration Opportunity for Screen Adaptation of Your Book

I hope this message finds you well. My name is (removed), and I am a film executive with a specialization in commercials and films. I previously worked at (removed) for several years before its closure. Despite the studio’s shutdown, my passion and faith in the film industry remain unwavering.

Currently, I am an independent filmmaker looking to collaborate with like-minded individuals who share the same enthusiasm for storytelling. Last week, I came across your book, (title removed), and was deeply impressed by its potential. After some research, I asked my team to gather your contact details so that I could reach out to you directly.

I am writing to explore the possibility of partnering with you on a screen adaptation of your book. With your compelling content and my expertise as a writer and executive, I believe we have a strong chance of creating something remarkable.

If you are interested, I would be delighted to discuss the details further. We can also negotiate your compensation and royalties to ensure that this collaboration is mutually beneficial.

Please let me know your thoughts at your earliest convenience. I am looking forward to the possibility of working together.

---

A –

You don’t need our attorneys. 🙂 We don’t take rights from authors. You own ALL rights to your book and files (I think we are the only publisher remaining in the industry that still doesn’t take rights from authors in some form or another) and you can work any independent deal you want.

HOWEVER, I am glad you contacted me! This is very likely a scam. There are tons of scammers spamming authors like this now. as well as using telemarketing tactics. It’s highly likely this spammer has never read your book at all.

Scammers make you think that your book will be a movie at no cost to you….but those scammers then hit the author up for tens of thousands, or more later, while dangling the “movie deal” in front of them. Of course, the movie deal doesn’t happen.

I checked and the sender’s email is a URL that isn’t even a working website.

Please see:

How Today’s Most Common Publishing Scam Works, Step by Step By Neall Ryon

Your Book As a Movie? Watch Out for Snake Oil Salesmen!

“A marketing company says my book was ‘endorsed’ by movie producers but they want $5K! Is this too good to be true?”

No, CBS Studios Did NOT Just Offer You a Movie Deal for Your Book!

A Fake Literary Agent + a Fake Movie Studio = Another Scam Targeting Authors

SCAM ALERT: No, Netflix did NOT just email you about turning your book into a movie!

Angela

DON’T FORGET! THIS SATURDAY IS THE SUMMER, 2024 24-HOUR SHORT STORY CONTEST! It’s tons of fun so don’t delay if you want to play!! 🙂

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

Q –

My book, a young adult fantasy, is listed on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It was self-published by 1st Books (now AuthorHouse) in October 2020. While at one time I marketed it a little, sent it to newspapers for review, it was part of a book club, and it is on Good Reads, I stopped following up. Since that time, I have received over 20 requests from marketers, some very persistent, to represent the book. Frankly, I have never known what to do with it.

On Friday, I received a call from Steve, then David – (979-232-2398). They knew the name of my book and what it was about (I think). They have a decent website with writers who aren’t bad. www.worldwidepublicists.com. For whatever the reason, I did speak to them and considered going with their services. Then my family and I did further research into them (I told them I receive your newsletter, about scamming and such) and found the whole thing fishy. I wrote to Worldwide this morning and rejected their offer to promote my book (David, David Smith by the way, both of these guys are “Smith” – I don’t think so). I might be contacted still by David on Friday, although I asked him not to call.

I am writing to you, Angela, because I trust you and respect your industry knowledge. I suppose I don’t want to take my book down from the sites because … well … it’s there. I reread it yesterday, and frankly, it holds up and I believe it to be good. By the way, I did contact AuthorHouse about two years ago, and received no satisfaction (nor any royalty checks if there are any or have ever been).

I suppose I am exhausted and/or beaten down by this process. As you can see from my website, I am far from a newbie writer.

Can you look into Worldwide Publicists just for my piece of mind (and others, since it seems that they are a start-up). Is there anything that I can/should do with my book? At the moment I am at a standstill, as the magazines I contributed to for years have gone under (Dig, Renaissance and the like).

Thank you, Angela, for any advice you can give to me.

Ellen S.

---

A –

Any so-called “publicist” who uses spam or telemarketing should be avoided at ALL costs. If they are using those methods to promote their own services, imagine what they might to do the reputations of you and your book. And, only desperate marketers use spam and telemarketing, which speaks volumes.

The Internet is FLOODED with these types of characters right now.

For your book, I recommend 90+ Days of Promoting Your Book Online PLUS 55 Dos and Don’ts of Book Selling. Anyone who wants a free copy of the latter can CONTACT ME. 🙂

If you are looking for a legitimate book publicist, CLICK HERE.

RELATED

• BACK ON OUR SOAPBOX! REPEAT AFTER US: “Real Publicists and Literary Agents Do NOT Spam Authors!” by Angela Hoy and Brian Whiddon
• COMPLAINTS about Your Online Publicist / YourOnlinePublicist.com / (YOP)
• “An online book publicist won’t stop calling me! How can I REALLY make them stop?”
• A publicist called me about ‘republishing’ my book. What’s up with that?!”
• “A marketing company says my book was ‘endorsed’ by movie producers but they want $5K! Is this too good to be true?”

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

 

Q –

Hi Angela,

My discontinued book is for sale on Ebay for many times the price I listed it for on Amazon. It cannot be a used copy as I know everyone who has bought one. Shouldn’t I be entitled to a royalty at least?

– CS

---

A –

The people selling those copies on Ebay don’t actually have physical copies of the books. Any firm with an Ingram account (that’s the distributor) can pick up Ingram’s feed, and start selling their books. Ingram sends that automated feed to retailers. It’s the same automated feed that third party sellers on Amazon receive.

Unfortunately, many of these small resellers don’t bother to update their listings when a book becomes unavailable.

You can try ordering a copy from that ebay seller. I suspect they will later contact you to say they can’t obtain a copy.

RELATED

• “How can I stop Amazon’s resellers from listing my book at such a high price?”
• Has Amazon Given Your Book’s “Buy Button” to a Third-party Seller?
• “Amazon has my book priced waaaay too low (or high)! What gives?!”
• “Why do Amazon’s resellers have my book priced too high/too low?”
• Why Ingram (the Distributor) Won’t Tell Authors and Publishers Who Purchased Their Books

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan by Angela Hoy and Richard Hoy

Promoting your book online should be considered at least a part-time job. Highly successful authors spend more time promoting a book than they do writing it - a lot more.

We know what you're thinking. You're an author, not a marketer. Not to worry! We have more than a decade of successful online book selling experience under our belts and we're going to teach you how to promote your book effectively online...and almost all of our techniques are FREE!

Online book promotion is not only simple but, if you have a step-by-step, day-to-day marketing plan (this book!), it can also be a very artistic endeavor, which makes it fun for creative folks like you!

Yes, online book promoting can be EASY and FUN! Let us show you how, from Day 1 through Day 90...and beyond!

Q –

I am in the process of having my first non-fiction book printed…to be sold at a retail price to people around the USA and possibly in Europe and Asia.

My total net costs, including printing, envelopes and media mail is $22.00 per book. My intentions are to sell the book at a retail price of $45.00 or $49.00 to include shipping.

What tax implications am I looking at if I sell the book in my state of Arizona? And, if I sell books to other states?

Do I need a sales tax license?

---

A –

I am not a CPA and this is not tax advice. For specific tax questions, please contact your CPA.

That said…

If you are selling directly to your readers, there are some tax implications, depending on each state.

You will need to collect and remit sales tax in your own state for books shipped to that state.

Other states have thresholds where sellers are required to collect and remit sales tax for items sent to that state. Many of those thresholds are quite high.

This site has great information for each state.

If you don’t want to do all of that yourself, you can have your book published through a company like BookLocker and they will handle it for you.

RELATED

• Simple, Year-long Organization is the Key to Stress-free Tax Filing for Freelancers – by Mike Michelsen
• Tax Breaks for Freelance Writers! by Julian Block
• Tax Tips For Freelance Writers By William Pepe
• “Am I supposed to collect sales tax when selling my books directly to readers in my state AND others?”
• “I can’t remember my tax number and my publisher won’t give it to me! What can I do?”

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!

Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles

I often receive emails from our authors who are approached by scammers after their books have been published. Almost all of them are outright scammers, as you can see at THIS LINK.

However, every once in awhile, they stoop to a new low. Before I share the email I received, you need to understand that companies that are “Accredited” by the Better Business Bureau PAID for that “accreditation.” It means NOTHING to be accredited by the BBB other than the fact that the company in question paid for that word to be posted on their page on the bbb.org website. A company can have an F Rating on bbb.org, and still be “accredited.”

As I have shared for years, we refuse to participate in that nonsense. We have an A+ rating on bbb.org and AMAZING reviews have been posted there from our authors!

Here is the email I received:

There is a writer on Facebook who wants to help publish my book. I told him I was satisfied with your company. He called back and advised me that the BBB no longer accredited you. He called me back, and I told him there were no issues with BBB and your company, and that you have an A+ rating. He said, and I quote, “You know she is lying.” I responded, “Making that statement says a lot about you.”

If you are being contacted by these scammers after your book is published, know that zero percent of them can help you. They are wanting you to pay them thousands to do what’s already been done – getting your book published.

The ones offering marketing services are even worse! If they have to resort to spam and telemarketing to market their own marketing services, that means they are TERRIBLE!

Finally, if you are contacted by a spammer or telemarketer in the manner our author was above, where the scammer spews lies that are easily proven wrong, let your publisher know about it! I’m sure their attorneys will be very eager to contact the scammer, as ours were.

The only way to stop these scammers is to hit them in the pocketbook by:

1. NOT sending them any money at all

2. Making them incur legal fees when they commit libel, slander, or defamation

RELATED

• Why are companies with so many complaints still ‘accredited’ by the Better Business Bureau?”
• Does YOUR Publisher Know How to Avoid This Royalty Theft Scam?
• ATTN: Publishers Who Are Going Out of Business. You May Be Able to Avoid Possible Civil Litigation and Criminal Charges!
• Here’s an Example of How We Protect Our Readers from Scams
• COMPLAINTS about Your Online Publicist / YourOnlinePublicist.com / (YOP)
• Author Contacts Me, Avoids Getting Scammed
• Another Author Gets Rooked By A Scammer

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!