EDITOR’S NOTE: Prime Publishing Press / primepublishingpress.com and Prime Publishing Labs / primepublishinglabs.com are the same company, and have identical websites. They are on the Better Business Bureau’s SCAM TRACKER.

And, according to Google: “Prime Publishing Press carries a history of severe consumer complaints, including scam reports on the BBB Scam Tracker. Many authors report upfront fee-harvesting and deceptive promises regarding high profits, book placement, or royalties.”

The company told the author’s attorney that they are a DBA (Doing Business As) Global Ink House / globalinkhouse.com out of “Columbus, Ohio.” The address they put online is a house. That company is also committing many of the violations on this list:

11 Ways to Know If a “Publisher” or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer – (You’ll probably only need to check #1 to prove it!)

There seems to be an increasing number of scam operations in the publishing industry. New authors must do due diligence to find honest publishers.

My experience with Prime Publishing Press (PPP) and its alleged parent company, Global Ink House (GIH), had many of the scam tricks that authors should note in their search for legitimate publishers.

The tricks are listed below so authors have a clear picture of what a fraudulent company can do to them.

1. According to some officials of PPP, they are a DBA (Doing Business As) of their parent (GIH).
2. PPP officials claim that Betty J. Rodrigues is the owner of GIH registered in Ohio and the founder of PPP. But the official owner of GIH is Romine A. Betty.
3. According to another PPP official, the parent company is Cambridge Publishing House (CPH). Benjamin Rosenburg claims to be the Vice President of PPP, but has an email address at Cambridge, which he claims is the parent company of PPP. When asked to send a picture of their physical New York City facility, he sent a picture of a building nowhere close to the physical address on the PPP’s website.
4. PPP’s physical address is supposedly the Nordstrom Building at 251 W. 58^th Street, but they refuse to give the floor or suite numbers. The alleged address for Cambridge is the same as the New York Hilton.
5. All officials claim that PPP and Cambridge are registered in New York City. But neither are registered in either the city or the state.
6. Ethan Gallagher, alleged president of PPP, has no contact information, and certified letters to him at the PPP address were returned undeliverable. PPP claims that their director is Ariel John, but they also do not disclose his phone number.
7. PPP drew me in with very inexpensive publishing – about $500. They read my manuscript, praised it, and claimed it could sell upwards of 40,000 copies.
8. They then presented me with a contract that claimed PPP would pay me $20,000 after a term of 120 to 150 days, even if no books are sold. All I had to do was agree to print 2,000 copies of the book upfront for $3 a piece, or $6,000. Before they presented me with a contract, they claimed to have a commitment from book distributors to sell the book to various bookstores. With this commitment, they claimed to be assured of the sales and that PPP had reserved shelf space in selected bookstores.
9. PPP then presented me with a bogus listing on the Amazon top 100 bestsellers list, but when Amazon posted my sales, I had only earned a paltry $13 dollars.
10. The company never proved that the books I paid for were actually printed. But at the end of the contract term, they claimed the sales had been made. PPP then insisted I pay a capital gains tax of $3,500 to the company (not to the IRS) prior to receiving funds owed to me under contract. This provision was never stated in the contract, and violates IRS regulations.
11. Rodrigues and Messrs. John, Reed and Betty refused to comment on this article, suggesting that GIH management condones their DBA’s financial system.

I had four contracts with this company totaling $80,000. I paid over $30,000 to PPP and did not receive a penny promised to me under contract.

To get the money they owe, I would have to pay them another $14,000 in capital gains first, with no assurances that the money would ever reach the IRS and PPP would claim they never received my tax money and thus would still never pay me.

Please authors do your due diligence…and beware.

RELATED

• This scammer was already on our list: A List of Publishers and Services That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
• 11 Ways to Know If a “Publisher” or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer (You’ll probably only need to check #1 to prove it!) By Angela Hoy, Publisher
• ANOTHER SCAM! “Barnes & Noble called and they want to place my book in their bookstores!”
• DON’T GET TRICKED! When Publishers Lure Authors in With DECEPTIVE Royalty Verbiage
• How I Was Scammed Out of $13K by “8 People” Using Gmail Email Addresses By M.M. Lorenzo