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).

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