Authors, need your book published in time for the Christmas shopping season? Contact us RIGHT AWAY and get $125 off at BookLocker! Details and the discount code are RIGHT HERE. 

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THE FALL, 2025 24-HOUR SHORT STORY CONTEST WILL BE ON SATURDAY, September 20, 2025! Only 500 participants permitted so DON’T DELAY IF YOU WANT TO PLAY!!

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She spoke to them on the phone. They sounded like publishing experts! They knew all the lingo! But, one year and $20,000 later, she discovered that they had been stringing her along, and scamming money out of her.

Jennifer Westecott decided to let Brilliant Books Literary (AKA “Leap Write Literary”) publish her book, Heartbreak Falls, after talking with their “representative” on the phone. They promised to help her with EVERYTHING: formatting, editing, cover design, distribution, and marketing. Their “team” would be there for her every step of the way.

However, that’s not how things worked out.

Then, they kept upselling her on additional “services,” promising BIG returns. Those other “services” cost her thousands. They even tried to get her to pay $4K for an interview with a radio host who had previously been convicted of theft!

By the time Jennifer was alerted by a popular online scam fighting team that all of this was bogus, she was $20,000 in the hole.

Jennifer found Angela Hoy and BookLocker while in an online authors’ forum. She agreed to let us publish her book, and to sit down, and tell us her story. You will be SHOCKED at the complex and devious actions of these scammers!

Most people picture a publishing scam as paying money for a book, and never getting one. However, many scammers are going after the “long con” – doing a minor amount of work, while stringing the author along for more and more money. By the time the author figures out how much money they have wasted on undelivered promises, they have no hope of selling enough copies to make up the loss. Not even close!

Listen to this episode to learn what to look and listen for to avoid being scammed out of TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars!

ALL EPISODES OF THE WRITERSWEEKLY PODCAST!
https://writersweekly.com/podcast

GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED by a REAL American Company!

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LINKS REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE

• 11 Ways to Know If a “Publisher” or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer
• COMPLAINTS about Brilliant Books Literary / BrilliantBooksLiterary.com on the Better Business Bureau website.
• COMPLAINTS about Leap Write Literary / LeapWriteLiterary.com on the Better Business Bureau website.
• And, the companies go by many other names as well! Check this out: WARNING about The Maple Staple Bookstore / Brilliant Books Literary / Bookside Press SCAM
• Ex-TV talk host in Lima, Ric Bratton, sentenced to jail for theft
• A FAKE “Celebrity” Tried to Romance Scam Me But He Messed with the Wrong Chick!
• SocialCatfish.com’s Youtube Videos
• Xlibris Fooled Around with the Wrong Author! – by Jennifer Lincoln. I believed every word they said, and gratefully handed over my credit card. Over a year, and over $15,000.00 (yes, the decimal point is in the correct place), I found myself battling with this company…
• MORE SCATHING COMPLAINTS about Author Solutions, the owner of AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford, Westbow Press, Archway Publishing, Balboa Press, Abbott Press, and others!
• A List of Publishers and Services That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
• Kitboga.com – The professional scam busters who alerted Jennifer that she was getting scammed! Bless them!!
• TOP GLUTTONOUS PURCHASING PRACTICES BY BOOKSTORES! Why ALL Books Should be Non-Returnable!!
• NEW SCAM! “Pay us $26K and we’ll stock 3,500 copies of your book in 150 stores!”
• Get your book published in time for the Christmas shopping season!

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!