Book Marketing Scam Artists Want YOU | The Song Remains the Same…Authors

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It’s really starting to get old. I feel like I’ve been fighting low-life book publicity bottom-dwelling scam artists forever. Of course, there is the infamous Mike Albee, the King of Fake, who started not one, not two, but at least three bogus book marketing agencies, bilking authors out of thousands and thousands of dollars. This guy is a gem: He stole all of the copy from the Smith Publicity website, stole our testimonials, and even said he worked for us for ten years. But I digress…or do I?

Just yesterday I was reading an article on book marketing predictions for 2015 by “Jill Bennett” of Litfire Publishing. It was a fairly interesting article, and I agreed with most of the predictions she made. In fact, I agreed a little too much. It became clear – at least to me — that dear old “Jill” had not just gotten the idea from an article I wrote about book marketing predictions for 2015, but had lifted much of it in both concept and language. The short of it: She essentially re-purposed my article, my idea, and my words – she stole my article. She did just enough to make it appear different by adding some points and re-wording my thoughts, but it was mine.

You can see for yourself and tell me what you think:

Here’s my article:

https://www.smithpublicity.com/2015/01/book-marketing-predictions-2015/

Here’s hers:

http://tech.co/7-book-marketing-predictions-2015-2015-02

 

And yes, you guessed it, it turns out that the company “Jill” says she works for is quite notorious: (http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2014/11/solicitation-alert-litfire-publishing.html)

Ms. Bennett, if you’re out there and you think I’m wrong and can prove it, I’ll apologize on this blog. Or give me a call and we’ll chat about it. I tried to call you at Litfire, and big surprise, I couldn’t get a human on the line.

So now, authors, according to the watchdogs out there, Litfire is apparently waiting for you. But something tells me The Talented Mr. Albee may be involved with this one too. I’ll certainly keep you posted.

If you’re reading this and considering hiring a book marketing firm, please, please do your due diligence. There are plenty of good, respectable firms out there, but now more than ever there are more shady characters just waiting for you.

The cliché is so very true: If what you hear sounds too good to be true, it IS too good to be true. If you get a guarantee that you’ll be a bestseller, I guarantee you will be bilked out of large sums of money with no results.

You publicity hacks and scammers…just go away. Get a real job. Leave authors alone. And oh, you questionable article writers out there – write your own stuff, will you?