Tag: reading

Don’t Fall for NYC Silent Book Club Scam

October 5th, 2025

Hey, we’ve got a lot of stuff in the works such as an interview about Christmas in Pandemonium and different formats. Today I’d like to post a warning, not an ad, however.

Silent Book Clubs are local organizations that encourage people to read more and often feature local authors. However, they rarely feature authors from other parts of the world or country and never ask for a fee. This is important to know because someone has been impersonating the head of the NYC Silent Book Club and asking people for fees to be featured as part of their “weekly discussion.” This is a scam, as the Silent Book Club does not accept fees in return for spotlighting authors. You can read about it here:
https://silentbook.club/pages/caution-scammers-are-impersonating-silent-book-club
I nearly fell for this scam, which is embarrassing as I should know better at this point, but the internet is like a dangerous back alley behind the Mos Eisley Cantina where someone’s trying to sell you drugs. If you have to be there, watch yourself. Thankfully, my publisher, I Ain’t Your Marionette Press, caught this before I made the mistake of sending these band of thieves $300 to reserve a “spot” that doesn’t exist.

This guy is using the picture and name of the actual head of the NYC Silent Book Club (“Thomas”). The picture is available on the web and could easily have been swiped. They first made contact with me on Twitter. I’ve reported them to Twitter, as they are a scam. Hopefully, Elon and the keystone cops catch up to these people.

This just goes to a point I’ve made before. Paid promotion is a scam. Authors shouldn’t need to pay someone to promote their book. They need to help promote each other’s books. Like Kent Wayne, whose book, A Door into Evermore, I recently reviewed on Amazon and Goodreads. It’s a great young adult fantasy novel, I highly recommend. You may have heard of his blog, DirtySciFiBuddha. That’s how to promote a book. Don’t give any money to people on the internet you’ve never met.
Paid Promotion is a Scam

April 27th, 2025

Hello, everyone, this week I’d like to address an issue that I’ve had to deal a lot with: paid promotion. Specifically, how it is a scam. Yes, paid promotion is a scam. I would hate to dismiss anyone like that, but the fact of the matter is that no one has ever presented me with any evidence that it works. That’s why I don’t use it. Furthermore, I’ve come into contact with one person after another on Twitter pretending to be a famous author who contacts me, trying to sell me on paid promotion. I seriously doubt that Suzanne Collins or Julia Quinn is really concerned about my lack of sales.

I’m not the only author who thinks so. I’ve brought another famous author to tell you about it. Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m honored to introduce all of you to the author of the Lord of the Rings: J.R.R. Tolkien! Dr. Tolkien, thank you for joining me.

Tolkien: Thank you for having me here, Jack.

Me: Explain how that happened. Some people might be under the impression that you’ve been dead for fifty years.

Tolkien: That’s what I want them to think, but as my favorite fan, you know better.

Me: Oh, thank you, I had no idea. Did you have a special message for my readers?

Tolkien: Yes, paid promotion is fraudulent. If paid promotion actually produced real results, they would be advertising those real results. They wouldn’t pretend to be famous authors if they had a real product to sell you. People with real substance don’t have to lie.

Me: Really?

Tolkien: Yeah, I mean, look at me. Even after the Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings still got rejected by like twelves publishers before Allen & Unwin decided to take it on. I had to make a few compromises like breaking it into three books and not publishing the Silmarillion with it, but I got my vision out. I didn’t need to pretend to be someone I wasn’t to publish my work because it had real substance.

Me: That’s great.

Tolkien: Yes. You don’t need a fake endorsement from a fraudulent author either, Jack. I’ve read both Beer Run books. Good enough to order physical copies. I’ve also read your manuscript for Christmas in Pandemonium. Pulitzer-worthy.

Me: Thank you, that means a lot to me.

Tolkien: Don’t mention it.

As you can see folks, if someone is falsely claiming to be some famous author to sell you something, you shouldn’t trust them. Also, buy Beer Run and Christmas in Pandemonium. They come endorsed by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’m also trading reviews with Arthur Conan Doyle so keep an eye on that. Here’s a link for Beer Run: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLSVRZN5
Christmas in Pandemonium at Easter

April 20th, 2025

Happy Easter everyone, and Happy Passover to those Jewish readers I have. I wonder if I have any Jewish readers, or Christian readers, or any readers. Supposedly, I have some, according to these statistics WordPress sends me every month. I take this opportunity to remind the world that I have a novel coming out in Mid-September: “Christmas in Pandemonium.” That’s why we’re talking Christmas at Easter.

To give a brief recap, “Christmas in Pandemonium” is a novel that takes place in Pandemonium, South Carolina, a town founded in 1620, before the foundation of South Carolina as a colony. While Plymouth was founded by Pilgrims and Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers, Pandemonium was founded by Satan-worshipping witches. They are ferried to the New World by the Strangers, a group of disreputable pirates turned religious fanatics after they witness the Witches commit an act of human sacrifice aboard their ship, the Charon. The two sides learn to work together after being threatened by a local Indian Tribe, and they go one to found Pandemonium. Throw in some African slaves and an obscure sect of Jewish werewolves in the 1890s, and you’ve got Pandemonium, a community that has existed for 400 years.

The story begins at Christmas in the present day. The Witches have become the most lackadaisical Satanists in human history, replacing the sacrifice of a human being with the crushing of a bug. The Strangers have sold their church to prosperity gospel preacher Miles Simon. When Simons finds the Strangers have a vampire named Theo in their basement that can hypnotize people. Simon proposes to Theo that he hypnotize Simon’s congregation into giving him more money, offering to split the profits. Theo turns him down, leading Simon to resurrect Scratch, Theo’s vampiric rival. Scratch is a theocratic vampire, who kills men, women, and children, believing God wants him to do this. Scratch quickly dispatches Simon, and now Theo, along with his fellow Pandemonians, have to bring him down. The book is about 92,000 words.

“Christmas in Pandemonium” was supposed to come out last Christmas, but it is now set to come out in mid-September due to delays caused by the Canadian mail carriers strike. That’s why we’re talking about Christmas at Easter. I invite you to mark your calendars.

Tag: reading

Don’t Fall for NYC Silent Book Club Scam

Paid Promotion is a Scam

Christmas in Pandemonium at Easter