Hello to all of you beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe. I have an important post and figure that my author nerds would appreciate this!

Stratton Press Is a Scam!

As some of you know, I have been an author for a little while now and have been publishing under Light Switch Press for a bit but I am looking elsewhere to re-publish Love Found in Cinders. Which this brings to my experience now.

Apparently, one day before my U. Mass crisis happened, a publishing company contacts me and it happens to be someone from Stratton Press. They told me that someone at the company gotten a hold of my book, Love Found in Cinders and loved it. I was surprised and glad for it but didn’t notice anything wrong. Time did go on without them getting in contact with me which I didn’t notice it being a red flag. What really started as red flags happened to be questions about my personal life for the most part. As in, my eye condition, do I believe in the paranormal (which I believe it does exist but at the same time can be justified in ways with how ghost hunting groups can ruin it) and even my political background, which it can be something where it can show how well my book can sell except this is a fiction book that is in the fantasy genre. We did focus on the book itself and my sequel but what was also a red flag was the repeated questions about when will the second book, Rose Thorns of Love be finished? I did explain I just started the book and not sure what will the ending entail until I let the story grow.

As a writer myself, a story must grow as the writer keeps it going. I have written Love Found in Cinders as a guy meets girl situation with some magical hijinks as well. Who wouldn’t want to read that? I noticed more red flags and thought back to the calls as well and Friday was no exception and glad Tobi saw through it by asking what does it pertain to the book? Even the guy talking to me couldn’t get George Floyd’s name out and I had to say it kind of made me think. And of course, as a blogger here I had to do what’s best for my protection since I’ve been scammed before by a so-called employee at a work at home situation. I lost my bank account and I did not want to lose my book that I re-did the story for and I like it and now looking at a different publisher.

Anyways, I did look around earlier today and found some things on Stratton that I was surprised and that was there were more complaints than good experiences and some of them dealt with money not being refunded when cancelling contracts. I also saw that people didn’t get their royalties and now thinking to one call this week where they were celebrating someone’s Netflix deal and I have a feeling that’s something that could be fake. I also read someone’s experience that was recent where they were called by someone at Stratton and went through a similar call like mine and was surprised that they were able to get around it. I did block the number as I read this post too which made me think this is the last straw! Even RJ told me to pull the plug since I told him about the stuff with Better Business Bureau and glad, he used it to relate to something.

Leverage did do an episode where they had an episode where Geri Ryan’s character dove headfirst into the fashion industry where it was selling her the dream. So, basically what the guys at Stratton were doing was basically the same thing and I was glad I did not fall for it. I almost did but glad it did not end up having me not being able to pay my bills this month and save for a convention in August. Like I said I was scammed years ago and promised myself not to fall for it and glad I didn’t. I did admit I did buy a book from their published authors and read the first few chapters and I felt that the characters were a bit wooden. I read better, that’s my opinion!

What Are My Tips? The blog Writer Beware has a good blog post on the different publishers that are scammers in the writing world. They even mention Stratton Press as one of them.

And of course, if you get one of these calls, like any good writer who is looking into their source material, even me for this blog I’ve been running for many years, JamieB@outskirtspress.com,RESEARCH THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING! That has been the number one rule about everything even in scams themselves people. Without researching, we will not be able to get the information we need to make the right decisions. Also, make sure you block the number that called you. I did that and now will be seeing how it goes from here.

And one more thing too, investigate publishing companies, even the self-publishing ones, that are top rated that people have worked with. You will be able to investigate their reviews and see who they have as consultants that tend to be authors as well.

Am I Okay?  I will be. It is a little disappointing to know that Stratton is a scamming company and glad to walk away from and saving myself in the process. Yes, I may not be able to work with them but it doesn’t make me investigate others as well. I may go back to Light Switch and see about putting in my better manuscript except I will investigate newer options. I will have to put Rose Thorns of Love on pause for the moment until I find someone new to work with.

Writer Beware®: The Blog: January 2018 (accrispin.blogspot.com)That is, it for this post. I am leaving a link to Writer Beware for all of you to look at so you guys won’t be falling into a scam if you want to be a writer yourself. Don’t worry that post on Ranger Stop Atlanta will be next!