Q –

Angela:

The name of the site: genrelibrarysolutions.com

After our book was first published, I received a solicitation via phone from this entity, offering to generate one million “targeted” emails to people “known” to like the genre that is our book is in. That was in June of 2024.

After I wired $1,000 to a Delaware Bank, I received a phone call from a woman who identified herself as Marie Brown. According to Brown, the email saturation of one million “targeted” emails would commence within 90 days. She has been playing duck and cover with me since then. I have all of her text messages and I have learned that Genre Library Solutions is not listed as a licensed business in the State of New York, according to the Department of State. GLS lists an address on Lexington Avenue in New York, but that is a virtual address, according to the realty management company. Mail sent there is forwarded to another address which I have not yet uncovered.

On its website, GLS lists a 315 area code (upstate NY). The identical 315 area code number is also listed to a company called Ascend, which, according to a Google search, is in the Philippines. I have screen shots in my phone to back up these claims. The GLS site also lists a Delaware address. It is listed as a corporation in that state, but a search revealed that GLS uses a “registered agent” in Las Vegas. It dead-ends from there.

My gut told me that such an offering for only $1,000 was likely a scam. But my co-author and I, even though we thought our book was a good product, had no marketing plan, so to speak. I rolled the dice only to find out that my gut was right. This is a sad commentary on a man who for 22 years worked as an investigative reporter and never got burned.

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A –

I researched them. They offer book publishing services as well.

Their Delaware address appears to be virtual office space. That means a company can pay to have an address there (but they’re not physically located there). The virtual office service provider is Davinci Virtual Office.

Same with their New York address. Alliance Virtual Offices.

Their website is only one year old (created 12/13/23).

On facebook, under page transparency, it says this:
Pwedeng magkaroong ng maraming admin ang Page na ito. Maaari silang magkaroon ng pahintulot para mag-post ng content, comment o magpadala ng mga message bilang Page.

According to Google Translate, that is Filipino. So, your research finding that related company in the Philippines appears to be correct.

I found English in that space on Facebook with another link.

Sadly, email campaigns are a waste of money (even if the company isn’t lying to its customers). Even if you did get a campaign for your $1K, I doubt many, if any, copies would sell. Nobody should pay for spam, which is what most of these companies do. Those emails end up in junk folders.

Never, ever wire money to a company. If you pay by credit card, you can issue a chargeback later. You’ll never get the cash back that you wired.

They have a “refund policy” on their website. I suspect this is to give comfort to prospective customers. However, I doubt they issue refunds at all.

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