The Joys of Publishing

Every month I try to write to my lovely readers. This month's theme was totally shocking to me and probably to them. My latest book A Tipsy Man Goes Naked - Love Tales and Recipes has slowly been gaining reviews; excellent, 5 star reviews. And I had hoped to let my subscribers know that I had just completed some book kits for Book Clubs and had begun advertising them on Facebook, Bebee and other social media sites; but instead, this is what I had to say to them...

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"Unfortunately, all my plans for this newsletter have come to nought because the book publisher has delivered a curve ball and I've found myself with another pebble on the road to Author-hood! 

This week I found out I have been scammed by Capstone Marketing Services - New York, (who were both the publishers and marketers of my book) and while I have a few paperback books available on Amazon, my e-book has been removed from all distributors sometime last week, as the scammers try to cover their tracks before being caught. (They have also removed their website from the Internet!) This "publisher" was offering a marketing package with the book. I was to get an internet promotion and radio interview that would be showcased in various book podcast shows. It sounded like a reasonable deal.

I did as much due diligence and research as I could before I signed up and there was no negative press at the time to make me suspect the offer I was being made. In the early stages of creating the book, all my emails were answered promptly, and they followed requests through.

It was only after my book launched that I started to notice a slowing down of the service. Getting them to set a date for the marketing was slow, although they took my Instagram account and posted content that I provided for them. I watched closely their posts because I wanted to see what they did that would make them have more impact than my own, but I saw very little difference. The report they promised me of their campaign results never eventuated and they delayed my request for an interview time. Sales reports were due this month and of course have not been furnished. Finally, I contacted their other office in San Francisco via their email system. 24 hours later I received an email saying my consultant had left the company because her son was unwell, and I would be contacted shortly. The email was supposedly from her boss, called John with no last name, business title, email address (different from the previous consultant) and no phone number.

By now, bells were really starting to ring out, but how to find out more?
I checked online again and guess what? The news wasn't good! In fact, it was confirming my fears as I read of other writers who had made complaints in the USA. 
I checked online to get the link for my e-book and it was missing. I tried for 2 days at different times of the day to see if it was available, but the answer was no, it has completely vanished.
I remembered that an Australian company printed the paperbacks (Yes that's right I'm from Down Under) and I rang them to see if they knew more.... and yes they did. 
Capstone had arranged for the printing by saying they were an imprint of the Ingram Group of Companies. When the local printer sent their invoice to Ingram they were advised Ingram was not responsible for Capstone and  I was told Ingram are pursuing legal action against Capstone.

So where does that leave me?

• No royalties paid.

• No e-book available to review. 

• No sales of the e-book or paperback in its current form.

• Cut my losses and start again.

• Get a new cover done, ASIN/ISBN and e-book conversion costs

• Get a new interior book design, book cover, and self-publishing costs for the paperback

• Re-launch the e-book and paperback again.

• Send out requests to all those who have done reviews to reload to the new book.

• Let other readers know my story so they can know how clever these scams are.

This book had a very long gestation period, over 20 years from the first story to the published book. If this had happened to me at any time during that period, I doubt I would have fought back. I would probably have given up and said I'm not meant to be a writer and put my creative energies into something else. 
BUT... I'm unwilling to do that. In fact, it's made me want to publish more and prove that I am a successfully published author, no matter the setbacks.
So please be patient with me as I regroup and republish A Tipsy Man Goes Naked - Love Tales and Recipes and let me keep coming into your Inbox with the latest information on what I'm writing and where I'm up to.

Always, wishing you a delicious read...
Melody "

Onward and upward, as they say!

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2019 Melody R. Green | All rights reserved.