THIS HAPPENED TO ME
The Anatomy of a Publishing Scam
He said they wanted to publish my book . . . he lied
Nothing this big had happened to me before and I was finding it difficult to believe.
It was all started with an innocent phone call from a man who identified himself as a book agent named Marcus Alvarez. He said he had been contacted by a book scout who wished to publish my book, Understanding the Power Not Yet: Accepting the Challenges of New Beginnings. Since self-publishing it on Amazon, it had been well received, and I was optimistic that maybe this guy was for real.
Red Flag #1: Seldom does an agent or publisher call the writer unprompted.
I am not naive but a writer is a dreamer so I moved forward with hope. I explained to him my fear of scammers and would not invest any money with him but was interested in his proposal if it was legitimate. Then I started asking questions and he answered with plausible responses.
Q: Why would the publisher not contact me directly?
A: Publishers do not like to work directly with first time authors. They prefer to work through agents.
