Writers, Beware!

     Just a quick emission, this time of greatest interest to other writers who read Liberty’s Torch. The explosion of independent writers who publish and market their own tales has been matched by a rise in scams aimed at such writers. The majority of scamsters wait for you to go to them...but there’s one that’s rather active that comes to you.

     Representatives of that scam have now called me three times. I seldom answer my phone during the day, so on each occasion the caller has left a message. Yesterday I exercised my Google-Fu on their callback phone number and found this description:

     A few weeks ago, I began hearing from writers who'd been solicited, out of the blue, by a company called LitFire Publishing. In some cases by phone, in others by email, a LitFire "consultant" claimed to have received or seen information about the writers' books (or even to have read them), and wanted to offer a wonderful marketing opportunity--for, of course, a four-figure fee.

     Here's how LitFire describes itself and its services (also see the screenshot at the bottom of this post):

     Founded in 2008, LitFire allows authors to skip the hassles of traditional publishing. The company started out as a publisher of digital books. With hundreds of published titles and more than 50 publishing partners, we have learned how to succeed and soar in the eBook market. In 2014, LitFire expanded its horizon by offering self-publishing. Today, we offer all the services you would expect from a traditional publishing house – from editorial to design to promotion. Our goal is to help independent authors and self-publishers bring their book production and marketing goals to fruition.

     In other words, LitFire is one of those outfits that offers publishing packages, but makes much of its profit from hawking adjunct services such as marketing.

     Don’t be fooled, indie colleagues. This outfit will not help you to sell your books. It wants your money; that’s all. So if someone calls to inquire about one of your books and leaves a message on your machine asking that you call 1-800-511-9787 (usually extension 8125 or 8135), ignore the come-on. Delete the message without returning the call.

     If you return the call, the person on the other end will say flattering things about your book’s sales potential – in their hands, of course – and will try to lead you into speaking of what you’ve done to market it. The voice will be pleasant; the pitch for their services will be subtle and seductive. Never will be heard a discouraging word. But the end of the pitch will involve you sending them a check for a large amount of money, certainly far too large for most of us scribblers to throw off the back of a lettuce truck.

     Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is. This is never more important than when you’re confronted by someone who wants to trade you a bunch of unenforceable promises for a bunch of your hard-earned money. Verbum sat sapienti.