IMPORTANT! If you are considering hiring a “publisher” you’ve found online (or someone who reached out to you – spam or telemarketing), ASK ANGELA to check them out before you send them a penny! She is heading up our research project and she can spot the scammers in less than 5 minutes using the same methods she utilizes while researching the more than 900 overseas fraudsters that are now on our spreadsheet.

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Angela Hoy (the Publisher of WritersWeekly.com) and I met in August of last year.  We shared a common interest. We were Facebook Predator Hunters, but for very different reasons…

Our meeting was virtual. We have not met in person though we frequently text and call each other. We share a common cause. We both desire to eradicate “publishing” scams that have inundated Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn (among others!). These predatory miscreants have wreaked havoc on a formidable cottage industry (print on demand, a.k.a. POD) that was so popular it caused a Division of Bertelsmann, a worldwide media behemoth, to close the second largest paperback manufacturing plant in the United States. Somehow, Bertelsmann missed harbingers of the proliferation of POD technology. But, predators on Facebook, predominantly from Pakistan, India, and the Philippines, did not.

I have no skin in this game. I merely want to exact retribution for my colleague’s losses, incurred as an elderly victim of Facebook predator fraud (twice). I also want to personally see my self-proclaimed “Senior Consultant” (Oliver) from scam company Publishing Mojo go to prison.

Most importantly, there are several concentrated cartels (one of which is operating in broad daylight) that need to be held to account, just as Page Turner Press & Media LLC was taken down on the island of Cebu, Philippines, after harvesting an estimated $44 million in a fraudulent and pervasive publishing scam that spanned at least 9 years.

Angela’s compelling drive, in my estimation, is her legacy, unbridled temerity, and the 26 years that she and her team have committed to nurturing and developing aspiring authors. Angela’s company, BookLocker.com, has helped thousands to realize their dream of publishing a book – minus the fleecing and degradation incurred by victims of unscrupulous Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn predators. Just as the Kip Moore country ballad recites, “There’s Somethin’  ‘Bout a Truck” – there’s something About a Book.

George Orwell once remarked, “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”  This quote is emblazoned on the rear of a colleague’s first novel, Blackballed.  After 13 months of writing, countless rounds of editing, cover development, tears, marketing, searching for a legitimate and reliable publisher, and my experience battling with a Pakistani Predator, and enduring a Filipino scammer – I get it!

Angela asked me to research why people fall prey to scammers – even the open and most obvious ones. I’m at a loss to comprehend this personality trait that seems to be inherent in the human corpus of aspiring authors. We melt. Our internal radar, the reticular activating system, which is designed to protect us, gets jammed.

Authors get so excited at the prospect of having their book published that caution gets thrown to the wind. Otherwise circumspect and conservative individuals become recklessly impetuous. Let’s be honest. We all believe (or hope!) that “my book” will become the next New York Times Best Seller. Some of us want our book to become a world renowned, blockbuster screenplay. Reality is nowhere to be found. We become inebriated and obsessed with the elusive limelight. I suppose it is akin to the intoxicating aroma of a new vehicle. Predatory POD publishers certainly embrace the tactics of a fervent car salesman! There is no shortage of ego-smoothing with those guys!

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS IS CRITICAL

What I am about to share is not the view of a pessimist, nor is it meant to stifle or dissuade aspiring authors. It’s just the facts to keep us in check before we make book inebriation-induced mistakes on our publishing journey.

The odds of being published through traditional channels are quite low. Only 1-2% of manuscripts reviewed are accepted for publication by traditional publishers. More than half a million book manuscripts are submitted to traditional publishers for consideration each year.

Recently, a gentleman reached out to Angela Hoy for counsel. (Excellent move, by the way. Reach out to any disinterested party for a reality check before sending anyone money!)  A man claiming to be Thomas Keneally, the author of Schindler’s List, had joined the gentleman’s Substack Blog. As I would have done, this gentleman proffered his unpublished book to that “celebrity” in hopes that a highly successful and venerated author would connect him with his literary agent. Completely understandable.

Things went South from there. The (fake) celebrity author had shared the aspiring author’s contact information with his fellow scammers. Book promotion and marketing creeps started reaching out to the Substack Blogger. He shared, “I started down the path with them. They were going to do a little book video ($250). Then, the marketing research part would begin and that would cost $1,500 to $2,000. After that, they would run ads on Bookbub, Tiktok, etc., which I would have to pay for out of my pocket, costing $300 to $500 per month, till the book took off.

“When I last heard from PS Eonix, they said that we had to start today, or the price of the book video would go up tomorrow. Then, they sent me their info for Skrill, a money transfer site, and the email for the transaction ID for them was babatundesunday1988@gmail.com, which raised the hairs on the back of my head.”

His internal alarm bells, and not his ego, were what sent the Substack Blogger to Angela Hoy for advice. Sagely, Angela admonished, “I would go screaming away from that outfit. Their website is ‘temporary,’ and parked at a different URL’s domain.”

Interestingly, one of the contacts from the predator was named “Paul Simon.” It is not uncommon for foreigners, not understanding American names, to use celebrity names, or use names incorrectly, like giving their fake “happy” customers two American first names, and not first and last names – i.e. John Paul, Eric Jason, Lisa Mary, etc.

Angela noted that they employed telltale signs of publishing predators. Hats off to the Substack Blogger for following his gut, and asking for advice from an expert on publishing and writing scams. (Angela’s advice is always free, by the way!) Sadly, way too many potential victims don’t. My colleague bit on a Philippine marketing scam after he was fleeced for $5,235.00 by a predator called Publishing Mojo. If you haven’t read that article yet, you don’t want to miss it!

REALITY CHECK

I am not categorically dismissing the prospect of being picked up by a traditional powerhouse publisher. Nor am I permanently closing the door on a movie deal or screenplay. (REAL deals like that won’t cost you a penny!) It certainly can happen but don’t allow your judgment to become clouded to such an extent that you make irreparable missteps in your venerable quest, and end up in the poor house. Angela and I have seen far too many educated, established authors fall prey to online scams because their judgment was clouded by their unrealistic expectations, as opposed to taking careful, measured steps with the assistance of experienced, disinterested counsel (not necessarily a lawyer). We all need a reality checker!

Notwithstanding the venerated publishing houses snubbing their nose at my novel, and Hollywood avoiding me like a plague, I place publishing a novel as one of my most memorable achievements in life.  An exhausting labor of love, Tantamount to holding a newborn baby. I felt it, and all other authors have, too.

RELATED

• FACEBOOK’S FRAUD FIASCO: How Facebook is Profiting From Scam Publishers Targeting YOU on Its Platform – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• Do NOT Complain to People Who Have Honestly Exposed Your Illegal Activities Online – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• How to Tell if That So-Called “Publisher” is REALLY Located in the U.S.! By James M. Walsh, Esq.
• FRAUD ALERT: Why 5-Star Reviews on Trustpilot Can NOT Be Trusted – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• A List of Publishers and Services That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
• DON’T MISS THIS ONE! Publishing Mojo Claims THEIR REPUTATION WAS HARMED, But Then Stops Responding After MORE Allegations Surface!!
• BEWARE! Is A So-Called “Publisher” Asking YOU to Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement? – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Ingram Spark / IngramSpark.com – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Iconic Book Publishers PLUS How Foreign “Publishers” Are Extorting Money from U.S. Authors!
• COMPLAINTS about Publishing Mojo / PublishingMojo.com – by James M. Walsh, Esq.

JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

James’ thriller, Maximum Impact, written with co-author Leo Murray, was published by Abuzz Press.

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!

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