Unwanted Solicitations

Not long after releasing the first book in my Ascension Legacy series back in 2020 I started receiving unsolicited sales pitches from random groups. Some groups wanted to “republish” my books. Some wanted to help me turn my books into a movie. Others offered marketing campaigns in the form of a pay-to-play interview on a podcast (in other words I pay someone to for them to interview me on their show almost like me buying commercial space). And even some that wanted to sell me shelf space in obscure stores or in non-existent booths at real book fairs.

After the first few phone calls and emails, I started documenting all of my interactions with these groups. With the exception of Layla Brooks @ Brilliant Books Literary, I did not find anything to suggest that these groups could deliver on anything trying to be sold to me. To say I became jaded would be accurate. The first few solicitations were met with hope and optimism but that quickly changed. Today, I automatically assume any sales solicitation that appears in my inbox is little more than junk. 

If you’re curious to see the full list and details of each solicitation, click here.

Another email popped into my mailbox on 9/22/23 from Bob Dillon at Author Queries. We’ve exchanged a few emails to date. I’m not seriously considering using the service but I am curious to see what Bob is willing to answer and how far down this rabbit hole he’s willing to go with me. I’m betting he gives up before too much longer because the effort won’t be worth the pay, especially since the depth of my questions should clue him in to my unwillingness to be a victim or make a bad investment.

But after exchanging emails with Bob, I started thinking about all of the contacts I’ve had. I pulled up my list and counted just the number of companies represented by the multitude to emails and phone calls. The number was staggering considering  my books have only been on the market for 36 total months and the first contact didn’t come until after the first book had been out for a few months.

24 total companies.

If I only had 1 contact per company (which I don’t), that’s 1 phone call or email every 6.5 weeks. That might not seem significant but consider that some of these companies have contacted me nearly 12 times in that 36 month period.

In fact, there are 64 unique contacts listed on my page. That’s 1 contact every 2.4 weeks. That means that on average I get 2 unsolicited sales contacts every month. And that’s just the contacts that I catalogued. There were some that were voicemails that consisted of very poor call quality making it impossible for me to understand who they were, who they said they represented, or anything else of value. I could make out the name of my book in some of them but the speaker always had a very thick accent and butchered the pronunciation of the book’s title. 

Some research on most of these groups yielded some common and disturbing information. I’ve learned not to use the word “scam” to describe these groups, largely because I’ve not been scammed by them, but I do commonly find where others refer to many of these groups as such. Scam or not, the lack of positive feedback or online presence does not instill a lot of faith in me that they can deliver what is being sold at a minimum. 

I keep hoping that these groups will stop and go away but I know that’s not the reality. But the one thing that does give me a chuckle is the fact that the people continue to send me these dead-end emails and pitiful excuses for marketing without knowing who they’re reaching out to. A simple Google search would reveal my website and Facebook page where I make no secret about these interactions, my documented histories with these groups, and the level of research I do on each and every one of them. I’m one of the last people they want to send this stuff to, especially if they aren’t legit.