The scamsters are restless.
A couple of evenings ago, I received a voicemail from a “Neil” who said he represents a company called ReadersMagnet. He said something boilerplate-ish about the “potential” of my book Innocents (first red flag) and suggested that his company could assist me in getting it to the attention of thousands of new readers (second red flag).
It had been a while since I was last approached by such an outfit, and I’d never heard of this one. Rather than return Neil’s call during business hours, I did a Google search for ReadersMagnet. I discovered that it’s just one more organization that strives to exploit the hopes of indie writers for a mass audience. The pitch is largely undistinguished: “publishing services” and “marketing packages,” each of which comes at a substantial price (third red flag). A number of other indies reported having had very negative experiences with them as well. So tote it up as one more predatory organization, about as likely to get an indie writer a mass audience as I am to wake up next to Angelina Jolie.
Remember the Prime Directive:
Anyone who tries to shove his hand into your pocket while assuring you that he can “help you” is up to no good. Come to think of it, that applies to governments and their minions as well, doesn’t it?
1 comment
There’s a lot of that going around. Got a cold call from “Your Online Publicist” asking to see if I was interested in my having them promote my book. Their Twitter account – made in July – has (* drumroll *) FOUR followers. Thank you. No.