Carolyn's Scam Alert

Now even the big publishers are culpable in scamming authors. When you read this post, keep in mind that all the scams they list are also available—cheaper—from others, but they're still usually scams. I wrote The Frugal Book Promoter (http://budurl.com/FrugalBkPromo) to help authors avoid this kind of thing. Most scams are based on promotions people can do themselves or for very little money. 

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/penguin-random-house-merger-helps-author-solutions-exploit-writers/

I think that often authors get taken in because they think of themselves—or the topic of their books—as exceptional. I've seen writer friends and clients spend money on scams because they're sure the "service" will work for their books--even though they've just been told that it didn't work for many others.

 

By the way, anyone falling for paid reviews? Even Kirkus offers them and they certainly don't fool bookstore buyers, librarians, or any other knowledgeable person in the industry. They're also journalistically unethical. If you want more detail on why paid-for-reviews aren’t such a good idea check out this post on this SharingwithWriters blog:  http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/04/paid-for-reviews-should-you-buckle-down.html

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .