This month’s "Scam of the Month" is, oddly enough, the same as last month’s… that’s right, Lori Prokop’s Book Millionaire. She sent me an email and posted a comment here about what I called a get-rich-quick infomercial scam. All you really need to know about Lori is best summarized by the email address she used to write me:
Kind of says it all about who she is, her motives, and her so-called publishing company, doesn’t it? And what she doesn’t say, in her comment to my original post, tells you the rest:
Instead of bashing the show or myself, how
about using your talents to help? I’d be very happy to hear your comments or
ways you would like to participate.How about instead of rants and bashing that we work together to make this a fun
experience that really helps writers?
Why would I want to help you? Why would I want to participate, or encourage others to participate, in what is an obvious "get rich quick" scam to swindle aspiring authors out of their money? It’s a real tempting offer, Lori. I’ll help you on your show as soon as I finish my volunteer work for the American Nazi Party.
Ofcourse, she doesn’t bother to refute any of my charges, because she can’t. All she says is that her show isn’t an infomercial.
Uh-huh.
So if your show isn’t an infomercial, Lori, how about telling us which network has commissioned it? Or if it’s syndicated, what stations will be airing it and under what terms? As I said before, I believe we’ll be seeing your show, if it ever airs at all, as "Paid Programming" or on public access cable.
UPDATE: For more about Lori Prokop and her other book marketing schemes, check out this thread at Absolute Write. Here’s an excerpt from one message about her publishing company:
As far as
I can tell, their most prominent book is The World’s Best Kept Health Secret Revealed, which is
basically a collection of 50 essays extolling the wonders of chiropractic,
written by 50 different chiropractors. Here’s what makes the book special:The
book is just the first part of the innovative program that could turn thousands
of doctors into published book authors. What makes the book unique is
that every doctor of chiropractic has the opportunity become a published author.
Doctors can buy into the program for a fee, which covers professional editing of
their chapter, as well as a print run of 400 books. The books will be available
through Amazon.com and other well known book dealers. Being the author of
a book creates a tremendous amount of instant credibility. That’s why so many
"experts" are identified by the number of books they’ve written.
That is, the
chiropractor writes his own little chapter, then these guys polish it up for him
and sell him 400 copies of the book with his chapter bound into it. It’s a prop
to help establish his credibility with naive clients, whether or not he succeeds
in selling them a copy.
To get a sense of this woman’s internet footprint, just Google on "best
seller publishing" prokop. It’s all stuff like: "How To Make A Fortune
With The Inner Circle Secrets To The World of Licensing!", and "Give Me 4 Days &
I’ll Give You The Tools To A Successful Internet Moneymaking Business" / "If You
Need Extra Money Right Now Your Home Computer Could Be A Goldmine".
It looks to me like BookMillionaire is just the latest
in a long line of marketing scams involving her self-publishing
company. The only person who is going to gets-rich-quick is Lori…and
it’s going to be off of you.
I heard about the “show” today and decided to get to the bottom of this (that’s when I stumbled upon this blog). After all, as a struggling author, I know how hard it is to get those darn books to sell! I knew Book Millionaire a scam when I saw the photo of the “host.” There’s no way any major television network would let that lady be the host.
Anyway, thanks for posting all of this. What a scam it will be! Everyone wants to be published. Although … it’s too bad that there isn’t such a reality show. I think I’d be perfect for it! What person wouldn’t want to watch me sitting in front of my computer screen for hours and cursing at my editor’s email comments?
Big props to Lori Prokop and her bundles of endless cash!
damn.. commented on the OLD scam-of-the-month thread… came here thanks to a link from absolutewrite.com’s forums.
Strange how the blurb advertises that the “winner” will become a celebrity best selling author but the competition conditions states no such thing is promised at all. Nor do entrants apparently do anything such as actually write. “Do a book tour” — without a book. So the winner will become a “Bestselling” NON writer.
And of course, the executive producer, author of many get-rich-quick books is certainly a person I’d trust. After all, how could you disbelieve the author of “If You Need Extra Money Right Now Your Home Computer Could Be A Goldmine!”.
All the doctors I know make their money by seeing patients and billing for services…is that now passé?
That’s so 1990s.
Being a celebrity is so now.
I shall inform them immediately. They’ll all need haircuts.