Today I got an unsolicited call from a “business consultant” at “Stellar Literary California” offering me a literary agent and self-publishing services. His pitch quickly disintegrated without much prodding. My favorite part was when he tried to convince me that he was calling from California….and not the Philippines or somewhere like it.
I did say one thing in the conversation that wasn’t true…not that this putz would know the difference: you don’t get 100% of the royalties if you publish through KPD. What I should have said is that there is no upfront charge for formating, interior design, or a basic cover. (Sorry my disheveled appearance and the crumbs on my face… I was writing & munching popcorn when I got this call and rushed to return it).
You can learn more about “Stellar Literary” at Writer Beware
I repeatedly get calls from services or “independent literary agents” offering to promote my books or, recently, followed up by a Skype call from a guy saying he is with “Simon and Schuster Books” and offering to acquire one of my books (with a BIG advance). Not only is that not the publishing firm’s actual name, and the books they offer to promote are old or professional books that are extremely unlikely to have a new mass audience (for example one was a best-selling trade book on self-hypnosis that went through 10 printings and a second edition back in the 80s… another is a manual on qualitative research methods) but these callers all have very strong foreign accents and sometimes are obviously calling from a phone room. I guess they hope to play on authors’ egos…
The scammers are inventive and persistent. Some companies in Asia have representatives with strong accents who introduce themselves with names such as “Mike”. I lived in Manila for a year and a half as a child and actually learned Tagalong; I had some fun on a few phone solicitations.
You’re hilarious!! You must keep your family totally entertained!!
Wow. Their FB page looks impressive but when I looked for the books they had supposedly published, none of them existed. BBB made me even more sad. It’s just so wrong!
Yes. They have called me several times, along with other similar scam services. It is very annoying, and doing research, I note that none of them exist, and then I found this page. I also get calls stating that Hollywood is interested in making my book into a movie!