Scamming Professional Authors
Today I spoke with an author, a whistleblower who published a book about his fight against massive health care fraud.
He excitedly reported, “I got a call from Bloomfield Production saying they want to turn my book into a made-for-TV movie. They’ll auction it between Netflix and several others, and they’re talking about me making some real serious money.”
Like other creative types, authors are a hopeful lot. And with 4,000,000 books published in the US annually, they’re an awfully tempting target for bad actors.
Sadly, the offer was total BS.
Regular readers know I despise scammers. Whether they’re pitching phony boards of directors, needlessly re-registering website domains or hawking invention marketing services, I find these leeches to be despicable.
They prey upon dreams of fortune or the distraction of overworked executives and deserve to be exposed. I feel a responsibility to helping bring them down.
Hollywood culture also has a deservedly bad reputation. Authors are typically paid with a percentage of net profits, though my client was told he’d be paid from gross profits.
That’s a critical difference. In 1990, humorist Art Buchwald sued Paramount Pictures for stealing his script idea for “Coming to America.” Buchwald was to be paid from net profits…only fancy bookkeeping tricks guaranteed no profits.
Buchwald won the lawsuit and damages, but the practice continues to this day.
Happily, I discovered https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive, listing bloomfieldproduction.com and several dozen other creeps with scams geared towards writers.
Here’s the thing: over the past three years I’ve been working with a team, helping authors in every genre to write, edit, publish and market their books. As I’ve discovered, even smart and talented people can fall for phony sales pitches…so I’m pleased to help try and stamp this one out.
Besides, let’s face it: writing a captivating and interesting book is challenging enough. Then there’s editing, proofreading, maybe finding an agent and publisher, or perhaps self-publishing.
And even after making it through that gauntlet, you still need to do much of your own marketing and sales efforts.
So it’s no wonder some folks are looking for an easy way through this somewhat trying experience.
However, just as there’s no easy way to write your story, there’s no shortcut for getting it onto television or made into a movie. Just hard work, commitment and constant vigilance against barracudas who will otherwise feast on your fantasies.
And while I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, I figure it’s better you should hear it from a friend.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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Get help with your writing at www.writeawaybooks.com.