How scammers can profit from your promotion

Published on by Jean M. Cogdell

Your generosity, that’s how.

Writing a book is not for the faint of heart.

Takes hours, of blood, sweat, and tears. Lots of tears. Why oh why would someone scam off of this hard-earned work? I just don’t get it.

Just when I thought I heard everything, along comes book scammers. Really? Seems every time you give away a book, there is someone ready to profit from your freebie.

Reading this post by Carrie Rubin explains a lot.

I’ve wondered where and how some of my books were showing up as “new-used” for sale by other people. Now I know.

A Most Reluctant Princess - Amazon

Read her post and tell me what you think.

Why I’ll Never Run Another Goodreads Giveaway Again … Probably … Maybe By 

Have you given away any promotional copies of your book?

Will you consider it in the future?

Are copies of your books for sale by third parties?

What do you think about giveaways now?

I like to hear thoughts. Leave me a comment and let’s talk.

Please head over and “like” my Facebook page at Facebook at jeanswriting . Or to connect with me, click the “write me” tab. Don’t forget you can follow me on StumbleUpon,  on Twitter @jeancogdell , and Amazon.com.

Please stop by and say “hey!”  I’ll leave a light on. 

 

Related articles

23 thoughts on “How scammers can profit from your promotion”

  1. Thanks for sharing! I haven’t gone to print yet, but will this October – this gives me something to think about before offering any free printed copies! It’s not the same as eBook copies – because authors have to pay for the printed copies they give away for free – so, while this might have a very thin silver lining of helping your name reach more readers, it is certainly not under the same category of “Free Advertisement” as eBook piracy!

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Jean, I think the scammers would be doing their thing whether there were official giveaways or not. This is one of those evil things the internet has brought into our world and is here to stay. If you can promote your book without a giveaway gimmick, then do so, by all means.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. I’ve known about this for a long time. For my first book, I used to giveaway signed paperbacks during contests. I also gave some away to family and friends. I don’t do that anymore. My publisher closed in early 2016 and I got the rights back to my first published book. I went to Amazon and purchased a few of my copies that were being resold too. Get this–one was from our neighbor. My husband had begged me to give her a copy and I finally relented. There was not a crease of any kind on the book. It was practically new and this was many years later. I don’t even think it had been open. I vowed never to giveaway another paperback. I had to purchase these myself (although for a lower price) without royalties.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. This is annoying but on the other hand at least there may be more people who will get to know our work and hopefully enjoy it then buy another one of our works. I’m forever hopeful. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.