Q –
Dear Angela,
Thought you might like to see an email I received yesterday regarding my book. They even asked for the PDF! I’ve never heard of these guys before, and have never ever solicited any such project. The email came to my work email. This is a scam, isn’t it? I don’t want my book made into a movie!
Best wishes.
P.
A –
Hi Priscilla,
I read the email. It contained:
- Fluff to stoke an author’s ego
- A statement saying your book has passed the “initial screening” (Total B.S.!)
- Lots of professional sounding drivel about landing a movie deal with a studio (and it named a real studio)
- A request for your manuscript
- A request that you sign a confidentiality agreement (so you wouldn’t be able to tell people you were scammed later!)
- And more garbage…
Yes, it’s absolutely a scam. They have not screened your book. They don’t care what your book is about, nor if it’s good or very bad. They are only concerned about how many authors they can trick into paying them thousand of dollars for their services, which are complete garbage.
I can’t BELIEVE they put a confidentiality clause in the email. HA HA HA! You can tell anyone you want about this crap.
Oh, and the email address for that big-name movie studio is fake. I recommend forwarding the email to the actual studio so they’ll know their name is being used for this scam.
The guy who emailed you has a real email address (different from the movie studio). I checked out their website. They’re a publisher. They were going to try to convince you to pay them (thousands!) to republish your book. They were going to tell you that your book needed to be better, look better, etc. in order for them to present it to the studio.
In the end, authors who fall for these scams lose their original publishing contracts (these scam outfits claim exclusive rights), end up with a different (and crappy) version of their book and, of course, NO MOVIE DEAL. Those authors also end up with thousands less in their bank accounts.
Firms like this find new books on Amazon, search for the authors online, find their email addresses and/or websites, and spam them with this garbage.
I’m glad you figured out it was a scam!! Lots of authors do not. 🙁
Angela
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.
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