I have some great news to share with my loyal readers! Well, maybe it’s not so great. You see I received this offer the other day informing me that my Book, I Albert Peabody: Confessions of a Serial Killer was interested in acquiring 8000 copies and distributing them throughout the bookstores around United Kingdom.
I could see the dollar signs dancing merrily in my head as I responded to this email that I assumed was from a reputable source: the general manager or buyer him or herself that I was extremely interested in signing an encouraging offer.
Yesterday morning I received the call from said manager calling from London. His voice though sounded distinctly American. I’m sure there are Americans abroad who work in Europe, so I didn’t pay that a never mind.
The offer was straight forward enough: 8,000 copies and I would receive a ten-dollar royalty per book minus ten percent from my literary agent. I was ready to sign the deal when he put up this caveat.
He explained this to me very straight forward that there were unscrupulous people out there who would tell this bookstore that the work was theirs and unless I put up an insurance of $17,000 up front, the deal was a no go.
I know about scammers and how they rope one in to get a fast buck off their marks. To me it smells, tastes and looks very much like that. I’ve received phone calls back from him this morning apparently wanting to know what my decision is. I guess he apparently assumes I’m not very smart or extremely gullible—besides the obvious fact that I don’t have anywhere near that kind of money just laying around.
I often wonder if people like that are that desperate to try to tarnish my credibility by doing something like this. I have no idea what to expect next. I do know this agent is as useless as wings on a pig if she was this naïve to agree to do this knowing this individual for what he was. In her defense, she didn’t mention this $17,000 retainer or whatever it is. So, I’m guessing he thought this up by himself without her knowledge.
The bonus to this is I’m not out $17,000 to a con artist.
Jerry Schellhammer 