Unsuspecting Authors Get Lead Into Scammy Marketing Schemes

 

When I was taking a class offered to UCLA instructors in ethics, my master professor (those who teach the teachers) said, "Leadership means ethics." He knew that wasn’t the dictionary's definition, but he knew it was a good start for his class.

I had taken ethics classes before—as part of my journalism minor and as part of a marketing class at USC. I didn’t really see a reason for another—this one with a focus on classroom ethics. My theory was that by the time we reach a certain stage in life, we’ve probably absorbed theories on ethics anyway. But as I began to teach new authors, I was glad to have this update because so many new authors get lead astray by what at first appear to be brilliant marketing ideas for their books. It’s a whole new field for us and we may be as starry-eyed as we are ignorant of the end results of our actions.

Authors often get lead astray because they are so focused on their passion—sharing their books with others—but when we look a bit more closely, many of these ideas smack of dishonesty at the best and are scammy at their worst. Things like, "If a library doesn’t have your book, ask your friends go into libraries and ask them to order one, you know, even if that friend has already read your book." This idea is not only unfair to the library but it deters an author from building a relationship with libraries on her own. 

Another one: "If you can afford it, buy a ton of books just before its release date so it will hit the LA Times or NY Times bestseller lists." In the early 2000s, one traditionally published author did this and got caught. The story hit national news and it was not a pretty thing to see—either for him or for the publishing industry.

Authors, like other celebrities, must lead by example. It's part of great branding and great branding is part of great marketing. This is such an important part of an author's marketing plan that I mention branding, ethics, and scams (author scams as well as scams perpetrated on authors) quite frequently in The Frugal Book Promoter.

On the other hand, marketing is part of the game. In fact, it's an essential part of the game.  As long as it's tempered by a good, strong dose of ethics, you can be a power marketer who does your writing career—and your book—proud. The reason at the lowest rung of the ladder that ethics are so important is Karma. Bad actions can come bite you in the butt. The reason at the highest run of the ladder is also Karma. You and your readers will reap the highest benefit when you do things for the highest possible reasons.

Here is a quote from The Frugal Book Promoter that I hope convinces you that ethics are important.

“I think the word "humble" is used far too often. The thing is, we should be proud of what we do. It's part of doing the right thing. Pride is the stuff that self-esteem is made of and by extension the stuff people (that includes authors) need to do good in the world. Friends may mean well when they preach modesty or being humble but they also may be exhibiting passive aggressive tendencies. In either case, it is probable that they don't understand the heart of a writer who usually only wants to share.”

It’s true. The more we "brag" (or "market") the more good we can do. The trick is, we must learn to do it right. It isn’t about us as authors or even about our books. It’s about the reader. If it’s clear to the people we target with our marketing (our future readers) that we have their interests at heart, we’ll be successful with it. They’ll be grateful. We’ll be happy we shared. Everyone benefits.

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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 .

On Bestseller Lists, Book Ratings and Ethics

A few years ago, author David A. Vise riled industry insiders when he bought thousands of his own book from Barnes&Noble.com to sign and resell on his own Web site. He said he was simply promoting the book. I was a new author and could see how he might not have understood the ethical ramifications.

David Vise didn't do anything that hasn't been done since Joseph P. Kennedy "bought" John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage a top place on The New York Times Best Sellers List. Vise didn't do anything that many authors haven't done; writers often buy their books from one of the online bookstores because they get service faster from the web booksellers than from their own publishers.

Some may say "two wrongs don't make a right."

And I'd agree.

Trouble is, what is "right?" Is The New York Times list always "fair," anyway? I've heard people (indeed, experts!) say the data-gathering for that list is skewed by the accuracy of reporting stores, the frequency of an author's events, the idea that publisher reports don't consider the number of books returned and a whole lot more.

We all know that the entire publishing industry system is one of favoritism. It ignores books because they are published on a particular kind of press The very process that publishers use for selecting titles panders to sales rather than literary quality. I think it's wonderful that under such a system so many really good books do get the attention they deserve and saddened that so many deserve better than they get. It just doesn't seem fair.  

What about book clubs that only consider books published by big publishers? Is that fair?

 

What about paid-for book reviews? Can they be trusted?

 

What about online book launches that encourage people to buy books within a certain time period to see if they can make a book a #1 bestseller?

What is fair in the book industry these days?

 

I am not defending David Vise's actions. But as a novelist and poet who is just trying to see that her book gets exposure and that she is paid royalties on books that are sold to those who read them, I constantly see ideas and offers that reek of "unethical" to me—or border on it. After some years at looking at so many manipulating the already corrupt system any way they can, here's where I've decided I must ethically draw the line:

I've decided that I can legitimately buy the books I send to reviewers and to the media directly from Amazon.com (their prices are generally lower than B&N's). This process does a couple of things for me. Amazon ships my orders faster than some of my publishers. It keeps an online record of the addresses of these important media folks for future reference. It's almost as cheap as ordering from my publisher, especially when I factor in freight. And yes, it edges Amazon's ratings in my favor, though ever so slightly. But is sure won't rig those ratings enough to shoot my books to bestsellerdom—on Amazon's list or any other.

 

I also often buy my own books from online bookstores when I send them as gifts. Again, it's a thrifty and convenient not to have to pay shipping twice on the same book. And the numbers are small. The intent isn't to rig the system.

 

If Vise bought 17,000 books and put a match to them, he was probably trying to tamper with the Best Seller list. That he bought 17,000 and resold them becomes problematic. So many things that have to do with ethics boil down to motivation. And maybe quantity. I can see why he was tempted. All of us should give our great promotion ideas a quick once over to see if they pass the ethics test. And only we can truly judge our own motives.

 

If Vise had bought 17,000 books that were then donated to libraries, the homeless, etc., would that have worked for some ethicists? Doing what he did doesn't seem fair to those authors who haven't the means to play the same game, but then--as I said before--what is fair?

 

By now most authors have gotten used to a whole lot of things that are unfair.

 

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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 . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use the little Green widget to let them know about this blog:

Scams Prey Primarily on Newbies--But Also Desperate--Authors

I am tired.

I am tired of people trying to take money from authors--particularly new, unsuspecting authors--for services that they can get for themselves or do for themselves. That's bad enough. But the ones that take money from authors for services that also enlists them in something deceitful--well, that's even worse.

There's a whole list of such services. Paid reviews. Let's face it, an author can write her own review and that review is may be just as credible as one she's paid for.

The games authors play getting to be a "bestseller" on Amazon is another. They may pay hundreds of dollars to teleseminar leaders to show them how to do it. And don't think that those seminar leaders don't realize that booksellers, editors, publishers and all the other knowledgeable people in the publishing industry are onto the game. So they're selling a technique designed to make us look like dolts at the least and like scam artists at our worst.

Then there are authors who figure if they buy up enough books from a bookstore, they'll hit the LA Times bestseller list. One author was caught red handed and his story (not his novel!) hit front pages and the six o'clock news.

And now the New York Times reports on a new "service" that will let authors buy blurbs or endorsements. Apparently they sell 10 of them for $19.95, with no guarantee that the endorsement has any credibility or for that matter that the endorser even read the book.

Many current endorsement practices are considered acceptable because they have been around so long they're part of the tradition, but most of us have a sense that even these smack of institutionalized rubbing of backs. We tend to go along with the practice because it's almost essential to getting your book read. But to pay someone who pretends to read a book and give an honest opinion adds a dimension that is just plain unacceptable. That these reviewers lead readers to think their opinions are freely given is perverse.

Furthermore, it's a scam. For a little more than half of that fee, that same author could get The Frugal book Promoter or most any other book on promotion. For less than their $19.95 they'll get a whole lot of information and also learn them how to get blurbs from fellow authors and celebrities ethically and frugally.

Of course, the endorsers they get may not have well-known names. But then the ones one gets for $19.95 won't be either.

The endorsers an author gets on her own will probably give her the most positive blurb possible or at least level with her and say that her book isn't ready for that yet or that endorser and author aren't a match. The beauty of this sort of input is that it's honest and the author didn't have to pay anything to get it.

Not only that but an author can promote without ever getting a blurb. Again, he or she can learn to do that by buying one of those books.

But mostly, authors need to do their homework. They can subscribe to newsletters like mine (see the subscription form in the left column of this blog), read blogs (see the list of writing/oriented blogs in one of the segments of this blog), and do Google searches for articles.

If an author doesn't do those things, they're more likely to get roped into scams of all kinds. Geez.

So, this comes with a plea to pass information you've learned about the dangers out there. You're writers. You speak to groups. You blog. You talk on listserves and forums. Let's try to protect one another. It isn't really the $19.95. It's the principle of the thing.

Even if we we are newbies, we don't need to be desperate. All we need to be is well informed.

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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 two how to books, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". 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 blog.