Unfortunately, there is an increasing number of scammers out there targeting authors with false claims and promises, and some even pretending to be someone they are not. So, how can you tell the difference between a scam and a legitimate opportunity for your book?
In this session, ALC President Keith Ogorek gives you sure-fire ways to immediately recognize a scammer by the claims and promises they make, the job titles they use, and whom they say they represent. In addition, he explains how the publishing industry and Hollywood companies actually work so you can tell if the person contacting you is offering a legitimate opportunity or just trying to scam you.
Here is the handout referenced in the session:ALC-Publishing Scams Handout 2024.pdfAbout the Presenter:
As the President of the Author Learning Center and an industry thought leader, Keith has helped drive a number of significant innovations in the self-publishing industry and is featured in the book, 'Innovation--How Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World'. He has helped launch and operate supported self-publishing imprints for traditional publishers and Fuzeframe, which identifies and options self-published books for development in Hollywood. Keith has authored four books and is working on a fifth, and has written a number of helpful white papers including ‘The POEM Method of Book Marketing’, the '4 Paths to Publishing' and 'Three Phases of an Effective Book Marketing Campaign'. You will also find him speaking at leading industry events such as Singapore Writer’s Festival, The Havana Book Fair, GenreLA, and California Creative Writers Conference, just to name a few. In addition, he is a regular webinar presenter for The Author Learning Center.
I blindly trusted Archway Publishing which forced me to sign up for this for one free month. I have been unsuccessful at finding any way to cancel. I have also learned that Archway is not a good company. They are overpriced and provide zero of the services they promise with that high price and I had to involve my lawyer, my credit card company, the State Attorney General, and BBB. I expected more from a publisher that claims to be a division of Simon and Schuster. The fact that I can not easily delete any of my intelectual property from this or close my account makes me think ALC is a scam as well. How funny you are here educating against publishing scams while you are complicit in one.
I am not sure about your Archway experience but I know they have published thousands of authors who have been very satisfied. But hopefully your issues are resolved. As for the ALC I will make sure you are canceled but we have lots of members who have found it to be very helpful. https://www.authorlearningcenter.com/pages/p/alc-testimonials
ok, these reviews you link to are nothing like the ones on trustpilot, BBB, or Google and a quick google search will give several testimonies and viewpoiints which do not support what you or these reviews are saying. I was not given a choice about signing up for ALC, nor did I authorize my cc information with you all. I will be reporting this one to my credit card company as well since there is no clear way to cancel the subscription you alll are participating in predatory practices. If you read about true experiences with Archway you will see. I am so grateful I did not give them all of my intelectual property, I am also grateful that American Express did their research and also concluded they misled me. Once my payments were received I did not get any of the concierge services promised and that was when I began researching. I was so dumb to think that because they claim to be part of Simon and Schuster I could blindly trust them. this is a predatory company that does not provide the services they claim you are paying for and there are things like pricing control that are not typically part of self-publsihing. it's all very ugly and you are a part of it. It's not at all okay and everyone should be wary.