Strange Scam Fools Booksellers
A recent article by Publisher’s Weekly has uncovered a strange scam involving a self-published book, a man using a fake name, and unsuspecting booksellers around the country. The man, using the name Michael Evers, would call up booksellers to order the book The Shortcut: 20 Stories to Get You from Here to There, givinga fake phone and credit card number. The bookseller would then order the book from Ingram, but when it came time to charge Mr. Evers’ credit card, they discovered the card was a fake – after they already received copies of the title. This left the bookseller with unwanted copies of a book that is non-returnable.
If this scam isn’t bad enough, read this excerpt from the Publisher’s Weekly article:
The book is a short story collection edited by Danna Curran. It features 20 short stories—most of them public domain tales from classic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Charlotte Bronte, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens and Bram Stoker. Sprinkled in this mix is a few current novice authors hoping to attract attention by being in such good company.
I don’t know whether the author’s intentionally did this, or it was the work of the publisher, Author Identity Press, but this is about as low as a writer can go. Placing yourself next to such classic writers is a pretty slimy thing to do. First, contemporary fiction and the fiction that Hawthorne and Poe were writing are very different. Second, these are classic writers for a reason (ie. they are really, really good writers). And finally, I’m guessing that if this is the only way a writer thinks they can get noticed, then their writing probably isn’t all that good to begin with. So placing it next to classic texts will only make their own bad writing stand out like a soar thumb (pardon the cliche`).
My point is that your writing should be able to stand on its own. I’ve never bought a book of classic literature and found the works of Stephen King or Jonathan Franzen (for example) peppered in with the classic writers. No. Their work stands alone.
You can read the entire Publisher’s Weekly article here:
Non-returnable Book Scam Widens
Oh yeah, and I also checked out the website of Author Identity Press, the company behind the book that is being used in the scam. At first glance, they sound kind of shady. They say they publish short story anthologies and proudly advertise 10% royalties! But, they then mention that the 10% royalty is split among several writers, so you basically little or nothing.
Here’s a link to the Author Identity Press website. I’m linking to a page in their "News Release" section because it touts that the book in question in this story has reached "bestseller status." But if you click on the link, it takes you to an Amazon.com page that has been removed. Hmm, something smells fishy!
Until we know more about who was behind the scam, I’d stay away from this publisher. You (as a writer) are better off staying unpublished than associated with a press that allegedly uses unethical means to sell books.
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