Newly published (and veteran!) authors are often bombarded with unsolicited offers for promotion and marketing of their works. As with unsolicited offers to publish your book, beware!
When you publish your first book you'll get all sorts of advice from everyone, you need a website, social media, you need to be active on those social media platforms and have a following, invest in ads, you need to attend conferences and events, you need this and that and so much more. It can become overwhelming and cause some to look for a quick shortcut to sales, to look for an expert to assist them in traversing the marketing path. You must beware because there are scammers out there who will take advantage of those who don't do their research first.
Many of these scammers will tell you they can't reveal their client's information up front when you ask what other authors have used their services and how successful their marketing campaign was. Others will offer up author testimonials, they'll even use well known author's names and create fake social media accounts to show that their services work. They'll often ask for money up front and hand over a sketchy contract that may not even name the company you're signing with. Once they get the cash, often all of their accounts will disappear. They'll skip off into the sunset and rebrand then start all over again targeting unsuspecting authors. Sometimes they'll reassure you that you'll be paying through PayPal or Venmo so you can dispute the transaction and get your money back, sounds good, right? Not if they delete the account the moment they get your cash.
They will often promise you the world. An article in the New York Times, exposure in major markets, guaranteed sales in the thousands, and all sorts of things that sound really good to an author. But again, buyer beware, just because they promise it, it doesn't mean they can follow through and you don't want to hand over your hard-earned cash for no return.
Always do your research. Google the company name and add things like "is a scam", "is legit", or any other descriptors that might show they're not on the up and up. Often, when you do this you'll find other authors who have complained about the company or the entities behind it. Many of these scammers will rebrand themselves, give their 'company' a new name, but they will use the same tactics to try and fool authors and many times use the same well-known author's names to scam people, so word does get around. Anyone can build a simple website and make social media accounts, just because they have these things it doesn't mean they're legit. If they become dodgy about answering questions and their contract's language is sketchy then it's better to walk away. If you have a lawyer who can look things over, do it. If not, do as much research as you can on your own.
Ask yourself this question, if the company is so successful with their marketing strategies, why are they trolling for customers on social media? If they can't even successfully market their own company and get their name out there to attract customers, how great will they be at marketing your books?
It's a lot of work to get your name out there and have your work known. Join author groups, meet other authors and network. You'll often learn more about marketing from other authors than any marketing 'gurus' out there.
Be safe out there, my fellow authors.
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