Like Other Members Of Clone Club
I don’t believe there’s much dispute that the countless “imprints” under the Author Solutions umbrella are among the most negatively regarded of all writer-services companies. Unfortunately, whatever difference AS’s contraction has generated has been loaded by a slew of imitators. Why not, when hoodwinking writers is really as easy as setting up a website and opening an account with Ingram?
Like AS, the clones rely on misleading hype, hard-sell sales strategies, and a lucrative catalog of junk marketing services. Even if writers actually have the services they’ve paid for (and judging by the problems I’ve gotten, there’s no guarantee of that), they are receiving stiffed. These are not businesses operating in good trust, but greedy opportunists wanting to profit from authors’ inexperience, ignorance, and food cravings for recognition.
They are exploitative, dishonest, and predatory. On the top, the clones don’t look that different from other, definitely not disreputable author services companies offering posting packages and marketing add-ons. However, they share a distinctive cluster of characteristics that can help they are discovered by you. 1. Solicitation. Like the Author Solutions imprints, the clones are big on out-of-the-blue telephone email messages and phone calls asking their services.
Often they’ll claim your reserve has been recommended to them or found out by one of their book scouts. The phone solicitors frequently have international accents (most are located in the Philippines). The e-mail lawyers use a repeating group of job titles: book scout, literary agent, Senior Marketing & Publishing Consultant (, or Senior Publishing …