A Word of Warning

I received a message on my cell phone from a company called Book Whirl, wanting to talk to me about my book. The message didn’t say which book. I only found out who was calling by doing a reverse phone lookup, followed by some Internet research. This company purports to offer book marketing services, though their Website is so full of bad writing that it’s hard to believe that they could be the least bit effective.

And reliable? Consider that their first contact with me was made as a cold call to a number that is on the federal Do Not Call List. I think they got my phone number through the whois entry for the family publishing Website; it's the only place I can think of where they could have obtained it. This is a very aggressive tactic, and not indicative of a reputable company. It’s hard to believe that a marketing service that does not respect Do Not Call has a legal “opt-in” list of email addresses, though they claim to have just that.

Not that I can afford to pay for book marketing services, but if you hear from the folks at Book Whirls, I’d say “no, thank you.”

And then tell them not to call you back.