Names associated with this scam:
2/Twenty Literary Group (aka Twenty/Twenty Literary Group)
Aspire Publishing Hub
Aspire Literary Agency
Beyond Movies
Blueprint Press Internationale
Bridgebooks (parent company in the Philippines)
Chapters Media & Advertising
Fresh Pages Media and Advertising
Paper Bytes Marketing Solutions
Quantum Discovery (aka QDiscovery)
Once upon a time, there was a publishing and marketing scammer called Chapters Media and Advertising, owned by one Mark Joseph Rosario. Chapters pretended to be a US company–it even had dual business registrations in Wyoming and Florida, as well as a purported address in Nevada–but in reality, it operated out of the Philippines (much like its many brethren).
Chapters was an unusually devious little scammer. In addition to offering the usual substandard publishing services and junk marketing ripoffs, it had a sideline in impersonating literary professionals, including agent Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Agency and literary scout Clare Richardson of Maria B. Campbell Associates. I’ve written about both of these impersonation scams (as well as the issue more generally; Chapters was not the only one doing this).
I don’t know if it was my posts that did it, but Rosario apparently felt that Chapters had received too much exposure–because sometime in the past couple of months, he abandoned the old Chapters website (along with the website of an associated scam, TechBooks Media) and rebooted as a pair of new companies: Paper Bytes Marketing Solutions and Blueprint Press Internationale.
(UPDATE: Several new names have been added to the group: Quantum Discovery, Beyond Movies, and Aspire Publishing Hub. A previous Rosario company, Fresh Pages Media and Advertising, appears to be inactive.)
Here’s the “paper” trail tying Chapters to Paper Bytes; note the officer names and identical Florida “head office” addresses (that address, by the way, appears to be a vacant lot).
And here’s the trail tying Rosario to Blueprint Press, aka Blueprint Press Internationale (which purportedly is based in Oregon):
(Also see the Update toward the bottom of this post for more evidence pointing to Mark Rosario.)
To go with his brand new companies, Rosario has initiated a brand new scam: a stable of imaginary literary agents. It’s an unusually detailed endeavor, with actual websites for many of the agents (albeit not very good ones) that include photos–some stock, some stolen–as well as made-up bios and false claims about who/what they represent. All share the email address @bookliteraryagent.com, which no doubt is convenient for the interchangeable roster of Paper Bytes/Blueprint marketers who inhabit these agent personas, but also makes them easier to track and expose.
I’ll list them all below. But first, How It All Works!
Targeted writers (who, as with all the Philippines-based scams, are primarily self-pubbed or small press) receive a solicitation like this one:
Too good to be true? You bet. If the writer responds, they’re told that, while the agent is Commission Only! No Fees Ever! they will still have to tap into their bank accounts. For instance, Imaginary Agent may excitedly relay this news:
Amazing! Fantastic! Once in a lifetime! All the author has to do is provide the requested treatment. Now, they could write it themselves–although that would be awfully difficult to accomplish because, naturally, there’s a deadline. Not to worry: Imaginary Agent has a “trusted” company that can do the job.
Writers who decline to pay receive a succession of additional fake treatment requests, from Netflix, HBO, and more, with pressure to capitulate each time. One writer told me that their Imaginary Agent claimed they’d be blacklisted in the film industry if they continued to refuse.
Here’s a different solicitation, from another Imaginary Agent. Note the @bookliteraryagent.com email address:
This one is a re-publication scam. The writer is offered “licensing” so that their book can be re-published, supposedly to improve its prospects of a “mainstream” contract (even though re-publishing an already-published book so it can be published a third time makes absolutely no sense, and is not how it works in any case), plus “book returnability insurance” that’s as imaginary as the agent is. Services will be provided courtesy of a totally unrelated company, Paper Bytes, which doesn’t usually deal with lowly self-pubbed writers but is willing to make an exception, thanks to the efforts of trusty Imaginary Agent:
Alternatively, the “services” recommended come from Blueprint.
Plenty of writers who receive these emails will smell a rat: from the out-of-the-blue solicitations to the laughably rudimentary websites (see below) to the poor written English, there are a ton of scam markers here. But like the Nigerian email scammers, Mark Rosario and scammers like him just need a tiny number of potential victims to buy in in order to make a profit.
Those who do pay up will be pressured to spend more money for more bogus services; eventually, when they start asking too many questions or the scammers judge that they are tapped out, they will simply be abandoned, their emails unreturned, their phone calls blocked, and their bank accounts considerably smaller.
******
Here are the imaginary agents I’ve identified so far.
Alexander Sy
Email: alexander.sy@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: https://www.alexandersy.com/
Alexander boasts an impressive-sounding but strategically vague bio (“His success in the independent publishing industry helped him become the youngest Senior Traditional Marketing Executive, in partnership with some of the largest Traditional Houses in the world”) and a new and notable page that encourages potential victims to believe that he reps Robin Cook and Andrew Mayne, among others. His is the one photo I couldn’t confirm was stolen or a downloaded freebie–but it sure looks fake.
Lola Moira Ventura
Email: lola.ventura@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: http://moiraventura.info/
According to her bio, Lola is “a Mexican American literary book expert, author’s adviser. In 2012, she founded Ravenous Romance Books, an e-book publishing company” (this might surprise actual Ravenous Romance founder Lori Perkins). The accompanying photo has been stolen from an article about author Maaza Mengiste. Imaginary Lola wants unwary writers to be wowed by her imaginary track record, which includes James Comey and Rick Gates.
John Morris
Email: john.morris@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: http://johnmorris.agency/
“I started as a jr. literary agent at Writers House and Trident Media before I decided to venture as an independent literary agent.” Impressive! John’s I’m-too-sexy-for-my-shades photo has been borrowed from free image website Unsplash. Chuck Pahlaniuk and N.K. Jemisin might be startled to discover themselves on John’s Books page.
Mia Sanders aka Mary Sanders Lee
Email: mia.sanders@bookliteraryagent.com
Email: mary.lee@bookliteraryagents.com
Website: https://miasanders.us/ (currently has a “dangerous website” caution)
Website: http://marylee.us/ (defaults to the Mia Sanders website)
Mia/Mary claims to be “a frequent speaker at writer’s conferences and conventions from romance to kink and attends approximately 13 conferences a year.” Her photo is from Unsplash, the free image website, where it’s alt-tagged “woman in pink crew-neck shirt in closeup photography”. Mia is the only imaginary agent who doesn’t claim to have repped Big 5-published books from major authors: the covers on her Books page–which, oddly, have all been stripped of authors’ names–all come from an Author Solutions imprint or another Philippines-based scammer.
Jessica Myers
Email: jessica.myers@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: http://jessicamyers.info/
Jessica has a terrific work background! “I started as a jr. literary agent at Writers House and Trident Media before I decided to venture as an independent literary agent.” Her Book Gallery encourages writers to believe that she reps Jennifer Armentrout and Susan Sallis, among a grab bag of other authors. Like her buddy “Lola Ventura,” Jessica hasn’t bothered with free images; she has appropriated the image of Juliana Martins, a cosmetics expert.
Harry Taylor
Email: harry.taylor@bookliteraryagent.com
Website http://harrytaylor.info/
Harry is one handsome, happy dude! Just one problem: he’s been downloaded from free image site Unsplash, where his photo is alt-tagged “smiling man standing between brown concrete buildings at daytime”. Harry too “cut his teeth in publishing” at a prestigious agency–Writers House–and according to his Books page, he reps Chuck Palahniuk, putting him in direct competition with his imaginary colleague John Morris, who claims to rep the very same book by that author. I guess it gets boring copying book cover images to paste into your imaginary agents’ websites.
Busy as he is with all that high-level agenting, Harry does double duty at Blueprint Press:
Lloyd Perkins
Email: lloyd.perkins@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: http://www.lloydperkins.info/
I’m getting a 403 notice today when I try to access Lloyd’s website, which was extant a couple of weeks ago when I began researching this post. You can still see a cached version, though, and here’s Lloyd’s About page, where he claims to have “worked with” real writers such as Lisa Jewell and A.S.A. Harrison, whose books supposedly are “now being considered by one of the Top 5 traditional publishers in the US”. Except…oh dear…looks like those books were actually published years ago.
As with two of his imaginary brethren, Lloyd’s photo is stolen: it’s been purloined from a business photographer’s website.
Chris Archer
Email: chris.archer@bookliteraryagent.com
Website: Chris is one of several members of the Imaginary Agent squad who doesn’t have a website, but he uses the same email address and solicitation style as the rest.
Bryan Archer
Email: bryan.archer@bookliteraryagent.com
Bryan is Chris’s (imaginary) twin brother. He uses the same signature block (just with “Bryan” instead of “Chris”), and also has no website–but, no slouch at the impersonation game, has concocted an elaborate, four-page, laughably fake resume that he provides to authors who are savvy enough to ask about his bona fides. Here’s page 1 (you can see the whole thing here):
Johnny Saints
Email: johnny.saints@bookliteraryagent.com
Like his buddies Chris and Bryan, Johnny has no website, but his 7-page resume is equally fake, from boasts of professional success to claims of famous clients (surprise, Kazuo Ishiguro and Ernest Cline: meet your REAL agent!) His photo looks a bit more convincing than some of the others, but no doubt it’s stolen too.
Casey Howard
Email: casey.howard@bookliteraryagent.com
Casey is another Imaginary Agent who doesn’t have a fake website, but his email solicitations are identical to those of his imaginary brethren (see this comment below).
Ralph Cane
Email: ralph.cane@bookliteraryagent.com
Another one with the telltale email address but no fake website.
Wade Rogers
wade.rogers@bookliteraryagent.com
Same email address and solicitations, but no fake website.
Chris Atkins
chris.atkins@bookliteraryagent.com
Same as above.
Dani Diggle
dani.diggle@bookliteraryagent.com
Ava Fonda
ava.fonda@bookliteraryagent.com
Ryan Burns
ryan.burns@bookliteraryagent.com
Mary Lee
mary.lee@bookliteraryagent.com
I’m going to stop now, or this post will never end. The names keep multiplying, and Rosario appears to have abandoned the fake website gambit for most of the newer ones.
UPDATE: I’m kicking myself for dropping the ball, but the one thing I didn’t do in researching this post was to check the domain registration info for the fake agent websites (partly because I had so much other evidence of fakery, but also because scammers are good about anonymizing). If I had, I would have discovered that all but one of them look like this:
Amazingly, Mark Rosario has been careless enough to allow his name (not to mention his Cebu address) to appear on these registrations (see the first image in this post). Oops.
Thanks to the anonymous commenter who drew my attention to this.
******
How to protect yourself?
1. Know how things work in the publishing world. Real literary agents don’t sell services to potential clients, or refer them to companies that do. Real agents don’t commonly contact writers out of the blue. The warnings at the Writer Beware website can help you recognize non-standard or predatory practices.
2. Proceed from a point of skepticism. An unsolicited contact from a literary agent isn’t automatically suspect–as commenters have pointed out on a number of my other posts, it does sometimes happen. But it is not common. With the volume of scams currently in operation, out-of-the-blue contacts are far more likely to be illegitimate than on the level. Caution is always in order–especially if it sounds too good to be true.
3. Mistrust–and verify. Do a websearch…and do it BEFORE you respond. A real agent, with real sales, will have at least some web presence; be suspicious if you find nothing, or almost nothing (strategically, Paper Bytes’ imaginary agents have common names or names that are similar to celebrities’, making them harder to research). Vet the agent’s website: my recent blog post unmasking a fake agency provides some tips for that. If the agent claims to rep authors or books, or to have worked at a particular agency or publisher, see if you can verify whether this is true (often you can find out who agents an author with a simple websearch, or by visiting the author’s website).
4. Use your common sense. Out of the blue, too good to be true? Extra-careful research is in order. Also…anyone can make an occasional typo. But agents selling rights in English-language markets are capable of speaking and writing grammatical English. No reputable agent would send out language-challenged emails like the ones above.
5. Contact me at Writer Beware. Always a good default. I may have heard something, or received complaints. If I have, I’ll let you know.
UPDATE 4/12/21: Five days ago (as of this writing), Mark Rosario resuscitated Chapters Media & Advertising with a new domain name (chaptersmediaad.net) and a new website. The address: that vacant lot in Defuniak Springs, Florida.
UPDATE 8/8/21: Rosario has launched a new scam name: Quantum Discovery. Here’s its website. It was incorporated in April 2021 in California.
Scammers like Rosario often do business in the Philippines under names different from their US operations. In Rosario’s case, it’s Bridgebooks, which describes itself as an advertising and marketing firm, and serves as the umbrella for Chapters Media, Paper Bytes, Blueprint Press, and now Quantum Discovery.
Here’s Mark in 2019, in his previous job at publishing scammer Innocentrix, demonstrating how publishing/marketing scams proliferate and give birth to new ones. Scammer Shawn Serdena is another Innocentrix graduate.
UPDATE 3/3/22: A new name has been added to this scam network: Beyond Movies, which bills itself as a “film agency” whose staff of “creative, hardworking, and dedicated movie production consultants and publishing professionals” all just happen to have alternate existences on stock photo websites.
UPDATE 3/24/22: This blog post about one writer’s experience with Quantum Discovery illustrates how the scam works: the writer is solicited by someone claiming to be a literary agent, signs up for representation, is then persuaded to spend money on some sort of service (in this case, a website), and then is solicited for more services that cost even more money (in this case, a fake film producer claiming to want to make a movie of the book). Writer beware, indeed!
UPDATE 7/5/22: Blueprint Press Internationale has this urgent bulletin: it is not a crook! Let me know if you’re convinced.
UPDATE 3/7/23: Quantum Discovery is also NOT A SCAM! And they’ll never get tired of saying it! LOL
UPDATE 4/2/23: More new names: Aspire Publishing Hub, aka Aspire Literary Agency. In the tradition of the late unlamented Chapters Media & Advertising, it has its own roster of imaginary literary agents.
UPDATE 3/20/24: I’ve documented yet another name to add to the scam complex: 20/Twenty Literary Group, aka Twenty/Twenty Literary Group. It has a satellite operation called The Readers Retreat, which generates fake book orders so that 20/Twenty can sell a “book returnability program” (a completely fake scam “service”) for thousands of dollars.
Haha! Fantastic blog. I help people self-publish on Amazon, and one problem I have is that most writers expect me to promise they’ll get immediate sales. Well, that’s not the real world. Anyway, I just got a call from an lady who has self-published eight books with my help – she owns the rights to all, of course. She has very low sales, so she was surprised to get a call from a guy named Louis O’Brien from Quantum Discovery who wanted to her to sign a deal with him, promising no cost to her. But she called me instead. I looked online and low and behold, looked what popped up! Ha ha! Gotta laugh. Thank you for this blog. I was able to read to her some of these posts to dispel any inclination she may have had to sign something silly. She also told me his voice was “thin and light and maybe foreign,” and he was sometimes hard to understand.
I was contacted by Ellie Atwel of Aspire Publishing Hub. After much conversation and quite a few suspicious indicators, I found your website doing an online search and discovered Aspire on the list of scammers. I made the decision to not do business with her.
I was also approached by her. Why did you decide not to sign? It looks a bit fishy and her accent is from the Philippines.
Jeff B
Hi Ms. Strauss,
Look what I just found.
https://authorpublishingguide.com/quantum-discovery-an-actual-literary-agency/
I can see that this website’s creation date is
Name: AUTHORPUBLISHINGGUIDE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2725195638_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registry Expiration: 2024-09-14 04:37:24 UTC
Updated: 2023-08-16 08:14:36 UTC
Created: 2022-09-14 04:37:24 UTC
This website says that Quantum Discovery is not a scam. HAHAHAHA! You might want to update your list.
Hilarious–thanks for sharing. It’s nice to know the scammers read my blog!
Hello Victoria Strauss.
My compliments to your -saviour- website regarding all those SCAMS which inundate us mostly unknown authors. I’ve published 6 books over the years & receive at least 2 or three such SCAMS per week. Whether it be marketing, reproduction (whatever for? since my novels have already been published) movie or TV series offers, or buying the rights to -my book-. Most of them don’t even mention which book they refer to, but demand high costs from me to process the ‘offer’.
Being cautious, I always google those fraudsters & am amazed to what length they go to impress me. Some have not much info or websites…but my research always pays off…those phonecalls & e-mails are SCAMS.
The latest e-mail (for the third time) QUANTUM DISCOVERY, but a differnt Rep’s name. – Myles Cortez.
The other one – Aaron Edmonds, Producer of Robin Hood (2018), Power Rangers (2017), La La Land (2016) & many more.
LIONGATE – Motion Picture Development & Production…wanting to buy my book right for Movie & TV series.
Lots of info & discriptions on their website. Is it for real or a SCAM???
I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO ADD THIS NAME to your list of SCAMMERS, if it isn’t there already.
Best regards, ROSE.
Quantum Discovery is on my list–I’ve gotten many, many reports of its solicitations.
The Lionsgate email is an impersonation scam; if you respond you’ll eventually be told you have to buy something, and referred to a company that’s the real source of the emails. Right now, one of the most prolific impersonation scammers is Page Turner Press and Media, which uses a variety of business names: https://writerbeware.blog/2021/07/02/alert-scammers-impersonating-major-motion-picture-studios/
My 92 year old father self-published a wonderful book about his 60+ year love affair with my mother. He was approached this week by a Chris Cortez from Limelight Pages and Media offering to represent him on a commission fee basis in outreach to major publishing houses. She claimed his book was discovered by a “book scout” named Mark Stout who endorsed it for her representation. She sent a contract for his signature that is legally deficient and highly ambiguous. Fortunately we found Limelight on your scammer list before he signed and returned the contract. There is no evidence on line of either Cortez or Stout. There is a special place in Hell reserved for these people who prey on authors who dream of financial success.
You can add 20/20 Literary Group to this list of “agencies” to be wary of. I got a call from 206-292-8038. As usual, it was a person with a foreign accent, in this case a young lady. Same spiel: “our agents think you might be of interest to us,” or something like that. I didn’t waste my time or hers. I told her they knew nothing about my book, what it’s about or even if it’s good. I told the young lady that she should be ashamed for preying on the vulnerable and gullible and that she should get a real job not spend the rest of her life as a scammer. She actually stayed on the line. I have heard that some of these scam callers are more-or-less forced into this sort of work. Maybe, maybe not. Just to see what would happen, I called the number back later and, as expected, it went immediately into voicemail. At the end of initial dead air some guy simply grunted and then I could leave a message if I chose to. Obviously not a legitimate business phone number, nor the number of the young lady that called initially. Writer beware of 20/20 Literary Group.
For some reason, I have been getting an awful lot of these types of calls over the last two years or so. It’s really odd, my book was written 13 or more years ago and only appeared electronically on various web sites. It wasn’t formally published, I just put it out there myself. It went nowhere, or course. I can’t figure out how these scammers found my book and my contact information after all this time. If you don’t know the exact title, by book never comes up in searches at all.
What happens if you have read this a little too late? I got scammed by Quantum Discovery, I was once self-published but that got nowhere, then a while ago I received an email about my book and how they were a traditional publishing company. I’ve been wanting that opportunity for such a long time, it’s so hard as a person with a disability and the most idealistic job is a writing.
It’s not just something I admire to do, but something I am capable of doing more than other careers. Let’s not forget I loved writing since I was a little girl. But from where I live, dreaming big isn’t meant to be, especially if you’re in middle class or lower… the typical careers parents expect you to have is a pharmacist, nurse, doctor, lawyer, secretary at the hospital, or a teacher. If you don’t then you just make your family feel disgraced.
But that’s not me!!! I want to be an author and create stories for others to read.
Anyways, I paid the down payment of $250-300, and I’m paying for rebranding ($1500) even though I own the rights. I didn’t think I have to. I questioned things so many times, the bit of knowledge I had of real traditional companies, but they always knew how to make me feel… hopeful and hungrier for my project to get done.
Now that it’s finalized, I’m just wondering if it will end up on AMAZON and Barnes and Noble (I found other books that made it on both but I’m unsure if those are scams), and if so…would it be recognized at all????
This was completely my fault; I thought about my dream, my family, and my supportive fiancé. I just hoped soooo bad that it was all real. Plus, I thought I did enough research on them…. guess I fed on faith more.
SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY BOOK??
Will I gain any quarterly royalties???
Will I be able to work with a different company in the future and continue its trilogy???
I can’t say for sure what will happen for you, but scammers that sell re-publishing or “re-branding” packages do usually publish the book and make it available on Amazon and other retailers–mainly so that the author can then be pressured to spend more money on additional services, or targeted for fake publishing offers or other forms of more serious fraud. However, the scams often stop paying royalties and providing sales reports after the first couple of times–I’m getting a lot of complaints about this. And they do nothing meaningful in the way of marketing and PR support–the marketing/PR services they sell, in addition to being hugely overpriced, are largely worthless for book promotion.
If you paid by credit card, you may be able to dispute the charges and get your money back. That would be one way of getting out of the agreement with Quantum. Regardless, I’d urge you not to give them any more money, no matter how hard they press you or what they promise it’s for. Especially watch out for supposed offers from traditional publishers and/or film companies: these will be scams.
I posted some comments above, but here is a more complete version of my recent experience with Quantum Discovery:
I had two lengthy conversations over as many days with a gentleman who identified himself as Chris Anderson. He spoke with a light foreign accent, which I thought at first was Hispanic, but I’m not really sure. The first call from Chris came out of the blue. He said that his literary scouts identified me as someone they would be interested in working with. He did not know anything about the book I wrote about 13 years ago, not the title, not the subject. I had received a call similar to Chris’s a number of months ago from a woman also claiming to be a literary agent. I have absolutely no idea how these people found me. My book was never formally published. I put it out there in electronic format on multiple sites, but it went nowhere.
Suspecting this call from Chris would involve money, I told him up front that if I had to spend a single penny before selling a book, there was no point in wasting his time. He assured me that his company would not get paid until I do, and that they would only get paid a single time, while all royalties would go to me. I pressed Chris on the money thing a number of times, but the answers were always vague. It was not until the end of the second call on the second day that I got him to admit that I would have to pay money to get my book “publisher ready.”
The strangest thing about his pitch to me was that in order for him, in turn, to pitch my book to major publishing houses was that it had to be, in my interpretation of his comments, published first. Getting him to explain this was like pulling teeth. He said my book needed to already exist in three formats, hard cover, soft cover and, presumably, electronic, but I didn’t hear him actually say the latter. This struck me as bizzarre. At times, when I would press him on details, a hint of irritation would come through.
Another thing that I found a bit off was just how quickly they were willing to get me to sign on without even knowing if I was a hack or actually a good author. Hints of movie rights even enterred the conversation. What wannabe author doesn’t fantasize about their book being turned into a major motion picture?
I did not realize that this call came from Quantum Discovery until I did an internet search on the number Chris’s call came in on (619-782-7451). That search led me to a blog post on Writer Beware. I actually did not get his name or company on the first call. I must have missed it, or he never said it. Seeing that the number was associated with a scam, I decided to go ahead and call back and see if Chris was going to follow through with the proposal he said he would send at the end of our first call as it had not arrived even into the following day. My initial inclination was to just let the whole thing drop, but I decided to see how far this would go and possibly confirm my suspicions. My call went into the voicemail of a Kate Montgomery, not a Chris Anderson, and the email address she gave was “something”@qdiscovery.com. I did not leave a message, but missed-call alerts must have shown up as Chris called me back. That was the beginning of our second long conversation.
Chris came off as a very likable person. I was never rude to him or called him out as a scammer. In some ways I feel bad writing about Chris, in other ways I am disgusted that such a “nice” guy is actually and cynically taking advantage of peoples’ hopes and dreams.
If a scam by definition is illegal, than maybe what Quantum Discovery is doing is not, technically, a scam. At best, it is a vanity press masquerading as a literary agency. At worst, if not illegal, it is an unethical and immoral operation. Writer beware indeed!
I received a phone call from this company today. It’s very strange how they came across my information in the first place. I have written a book, but it is not even copy written yet and I have not reached out to publishers. The number that called me was from New Jersey, 619 782 7451.
I received a call from (619) 782-7451 as well. I did not get the name of the caller or of the company. The caller did have a Hispanic accent. I also wondered how they discovered me. I wrote a little book 13 years ago that never got published. Out of the blue, I’ve received a number of these type of calls recently.
The guy I spoke to at the number above said he was going to send a proposal. After finding that this number was associated with a scam, I tried calling back to see if he was going to follow through with sending a proposal. Instead, it went into the voicemail of a woman named Kate Montgomery, I believe, and her email address was at qdiscovery.org. Presumably that’s Quantum Discovery, so it’s all part of this scam.
Yes, that’s Quantum Discovery. “Kate Montgomery” (most of the American-sounding names the sales reps use are aliases) is a name that’s been reported to me as part of the scam.
Aside from the obvious potential of losing a lot of money, a sad part of these scams is the false hope that they give people, even for a brief time. This guy honestly had me going, but I always had my doubts.
They have a very good grasp of authors’ psychology.
Thank you for taking the time to apprise others of this. Quantum Discovery was trying to pull in my 75 year-old father-in-law. The name of the agent is “Stacy Rose,” and he got a call today from “Ed Miller” with a callback number of 619-738-1704 (but he’s often busy so may not answer, lol, so better to work through Stacy Rose). Ed has 38 other scripts he’s reviewing, but my father-in-law’s script really stuck out and is at the top of the list. Just needs to work with Stacy Rose to get his script all ready. Then in the call with Stacy Rose he was told he needed to hire people to help do the things to get this all ready.
Incredible.
Hope your father-in-law was able to see the scam. Publishing and fake agency scammers love to target elderly people; I often hear from relatives whose parents or grandparents have been ripped off for enormous amounts of money.
Marjorvic García Vidal was my “agent” who ended up not delivering ANY BOOK. I paid LOTS OF MONEY TO HER (you have no idea how much). I just experienced the worst year and a half of my life. She used to call with URGENT requests on weekends, at christmas or when I was moving. She treated me like shit and threatened me all the time with losing all my money if I did not pay what she asked for. Please be very careful because I was not.
I was contacted today by Kaye Porter and she listed her info as kayeq@qdiscovery.org and phone number as 619-782-7793. She said she represented Quantum Discovery. I asked where she received my information (she called on my cell and had my email address). She said that I had been endorsed by a scout for a literary agent, etc. Etc. I told I’d send her my book, but have no intention of actually doing so. I haven’t shopped agents in years so I was pretty amazed that I’d be contacted. Googled and came across this page. Hope this helps someone else avoid being swindled.
Thanks,
C. Santana
Rebecca Faust is now contacting me on behalf of Quantum Discover (rebecca@qdiscovery.org) – 916-954-1688. Tried to get me to give $900 (down from $1200 or so) for redistribution rights to the book. When I asked why, it was “to make sure that your book is viewable online for all 3 formats (kindle, paperback, and hardback). Along with that I also have to make sure that your book will meet all the standards and preferences set by the clients.” I said I owned the copyright, and she responded “the copyright is surely under your name because you’re the author of that, that’s your intellectual rights which can never be changed or sold. I am referring to the distribution rights, printing rights and the publishing rights which we are trying to sell to the clients…” Lot of the same stuff discussed here, and done by Tate and others through the years.
Thank you for this site!! I was on the verge of paying $900 to get my self published book “re-done” so the agent could shop it to traditional publishers! I wasn’t feeling tight so I started to Google and try to find more info.
I found you!
So the fake agents name is
Ryan Reeves… sound familiar? It should he was a hockey player!!
Said he represented BLUEPRINT PRESS INTERNATIONALE
Email: ryan.reeves@bookliteraryagent.com
He sent a bio page with a picture. The picture and the voice on the phone did not match!!
Here’s one email:
Hello Ahnaise,
Thank you for giving me the chance to speak with you today. I am a Literary Agent and I pitch directly to traditional publishers, film production companies, and clients across the globe who will give us huge amounts of deals. All successful authors who got picked up were being represented by Literary Agents like me. That is why I’d like to take the honor in managing your work and achieve my goal which is to get my cut once I get you a contract.
As I have told you I initiated sending query letters to multiple traditional publishing companies and film production companies and already got positive feedback, there’s just some minor publishing concerns we need to address.
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING CONCERNS
* Transfer the subsidiary rights under your author’s name
* Competitive New Book Price
* Authors Portfolio
* Sales Sheet/Book Sales Report
I am representing Blueprint Press Internationale and we offer relicensing services to fix these publishing lapses.
I have attached my portfolio and Literary Agent Agreement in this email.
I also want to let you know that getting a book deal takes time. Based on experience, the shortest time I landed a book deal was almost a year, given that my author has all the things they required and the author has all the distribution and licenses under the authors’ name, not with a self-publisher. Getting a deal if you’re a self-published author makes it harder and I need to know the rough estimate of all the books you’ve sold personally and your self-publisher.
Once the deal and contract signing date are finalized. I will let you know right away so you can decide whether you would like to sign it in person or through email. We will also discuss the negotiation processes together with our lawyer.
Let me know how you would like to move forward. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
Warm regards,
Ryan Reeves I Literary Agent
***** It burns me up that people are out here scamming!!! I am barely making it with three small kids to provide for! Thank you so much for the info!! It saved me $900!!!!
Thanks for sharing that! Would you email me whatever “Ryan” sent you, including his fake bio? I’m still collecting documentation on this scam. Thanks again. My email is beware@sfwa.org
Just got off the phone with:
Mark Sanchez | Film Literary Agent
P: (619) 287-6754
E: mark@qdiscovery.org
W: http://www.quantumdiscovery.net
Sounded a little scammy so did a web search and bingo….. Quantumdescovery.net seems to be on your list of scammers.
Thanks for the research…you saved me at the very minimum the time I would have wasted!
I almost got scammed by someone from Quantum Discovery a few minutes ago. Fortunately I found your site. Unfortunately, I immediately marked it unsubscribe and as a result all I have to share with you is this notice address: unsubscribe
Jo Garceau
1:12 PM (1 hour ago)
to 314bg2fo7u1x1jsxrajaften3gezatot-u
This message was automatically generated by Gmail.
and this detail: 314bg2fo7u1x1jsxrajaften3gezatot-u
Contact details
314bg2fo7u1x1jsxrajaften3gezatot-u@e.sharkninja.com
Recent interactions
The agent name included Kelly but whether that is a first or last name, I'm unsure. It was a woman's name.
I just almost got scammed by Dani Diggle, like Anonymous above. Smelled bad from the get-go, calling out of the blue, then follow up emails in quick succession offering a badly written, incomplete CV and lo and behold – a contract to sign! All this for a book of mine that haas been out or circulation for 2 years. No web presence at all for this fake agent. Very glad I unmasked her in time, thanks to all on this website for reporting other similar scams.
Just was hit by Ava Fonda wanting me to pay Blueprint Press Internationale for reliscensing
I received a call and email from a literary agent Dani Diggle with email address dani.diggle@bookliteraryagent.com When I googled her name nothing comes up. But when I googled her company bookliteraryagent.com your website came up and I guess I found her colleagues. Looks like they scam people for a living. Shame on these people.
Thank you writerbeware for this blog. If it wasn't for this, I would have been scammed by now. Any other companies I need to watch out for?
Sam, scam, scam; Geez, I'm beginning to wish that I'd never written and published my book!
There's clearly quite a plethora of dispeicable morons out there in the author- scamming world. For a couple of years now, I've been reciveing at least two scams a week. Offers of opportunities to make millions from applying my literary skills to T.V.series and Films, and many quite amazing money making marketing offers from Major Book Sellers (remember to always use capital letters throughout your submissions) such that it's clear that my work is truly exceptional!! I'm clearing some shelves in my study for the arrival of the inevitable Oscars! My writing style is of star quality; it's a given that I'll soon be a household name around the globe and very, very wealthy.
This intrusive nonsense has become a scamming pandemimic! So,I've taken, with some delight, to relpying to the peristant ones with my own style of critque of their attrocious grammar, correcting their gobble de gook and spelling mistakes and rearranging their sentence sructure and sending it back to them with advice on; How To Write a Scam Letter'. The offers in my in-box are dropping. I'm beginning to miss receiving them! For anyone reading this whose past responses have been 'fighting fire with fire' I sugest that tactic only begets further and more malicious scam attempts. My belittling them, on the other hand, seems to have more effectively detered further attempts to scam me.
Steve Wood.
Please don’t enable them to be better scammers by correcting their wording.
Catching up on Writer Beware and actually laughed out loud at that four page resume written in Comic Sans. They're shameless! Thank you for keeping authors abreast of these scams.
Anonymous 4/09,
Would you please contact me (beware@sfwa.org) and forward your entire correspondence (plus any other materials sent to you) from "Casey"? Thanks so much, and thanks for your comment.
Thanks for you site. Below is experience. I also was sent a text message suggesting I pay $899 to Paper Bytes and $999 to Blue print to obtain a ISBN. I found Bowker in my research regarding ISBN. The "agent" pretended not to know about them. One more call and they stopped calling. Thanks again. I edited my last name.
Casey Howard
Mar 19, 2021, 3:15 PM
to me
Hi Charles,
This is Casey Howard and I represent books to various traditional and mainstream publishers, movie film directors, and producers across the globe.
As a literary agent, I do not ask for any upfront fees, I only get my cut when I get a negotiation contract. I get about 10-15% for contracts within the country and 25-30% for international deals. I'd like to discuss with you more so I can gauge whether we share the same plans and goals for your books.
My ultimate goal is to get my commission and get you a deal that is why I'd like to make sure you have all the things traditional publishers and film directors are looking for so we won't waste both of our time getting turned down from time to time.
I also want to know if you are still working on any current projects.
Let me know your best time and phone number for us to talk.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards.
Casey Howard
Independent Literary Agent
541-809-1338 | casey.howard@bookliteraryagent.com
Charles
Apr 1, 2021, 2:47 PM (8 days ago)
Yes, I am interested. I sent an e-mail to Westbow Press regarding publishing rights this afternoon. May hear from them tomorrow.
Casey Howard
Apr 1, 2021, 3:17 PM (8 days ago)
to me
Great! I will wait to hear from you. Now, You may or may not cancel your book with Xlibris. You are under a non-exclusive contract so you can withdraw your project anytime. I would, however, recommend that you withdraw the contract with them to avoid any confusion and issues once the book will be acquired by mainstream publishers.
In order for me to proceed with validly representing your book to major publishers and filmmakers, I need you to get the publishing rights back under your name. I just want to reiterate that without the Publishing Rights, we'll be getting tons of rejection letters. This requirement will also allow you to have full control over your book pricing and you will get 100% royalty. Most importantly publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. Authors need to hire a literary agent to represent them. Without a literary agent, they will not hear from anybody.
Cancelling your contract with Xlibris will nullify the ISBN. That means, in order for you to substantiate the publishing rights, you need to re-register it under your name. That way, I can validly proceed in representing your book to traditional publishers.
Bypassing re-registration of the publishing rights will disqualify us to major publishers.
I need you to do that as soon as possible because we could possibly earn between $150,000-$200,000 for the Publishing and Book rights. That's why I need you to work on it as soon as you can.
We will need to hire a licensing agency to help you with this. Not unless you already have one in mind? if not, I can contact a few licensing agencies within my network and send you the quotations tomorrow. How's that sound?
Best regards,
Casey Howard
Independent Literary Agent
541-809-1338 | casey.howard@bookliteraryagent.com
Charles
Apr 2, 2021, 12:29 PM (7 days ago)
to Casey
I sent the cancellation notice form the Westbow. They will take up to 39 days. The book that Xlibris list is an older edition than the Westbow. I don't understand what you are saying about the ISBN number.
Charles
I have just been scammed by John Morris. I am glad I found this since I was feeling skeptical yet I still sent $ to them. I feel like an idiot and seeing if the bank will refund me and file as a fraud.
Unknown 3/22,
Would you please pass my contact info on to your client? beware@sfwa.org . I'd like to hear from them and, hopefully, see the correspondence, contracts, etc. from the scammers. All information shared with Writer Beware is held in confidence. Thanks!
A similar impersonation story just shared with me by a writing client(I'm a freelance medical ghostwriter) for a friend:
Louise is a psychotherapist in the eating disorder field who just wrote her first book and self-published with Balboa Press. Here’s what she says happened next:
"I was approached by Mandy Vickers [in 2019 she was listed as a publishing consultant at Balboa; in this case, it might be her or possibly someone impersonating her] of Tranquility Press to have my book republished with them. Included in the package I was offered was a product which included further content editing to be pitched to the big five publishing companies. I was told that the editor Mary Gaule of HarperCollins had already read my book and she was very interested in it and most likely would want me to publish with them. I did check out the HarperCollins website and Mary Gaule in fact is on it with her picture along with other editors for HarperCollins.
Mandy Vickers assured me, “HarperCollins was extremely interested.”
I was all set to pay Tranquility Press when I received a call from Mandy stating she was not going to stay with Tranquility Press, she was very disappointed with them and that I could get my money back because it was within seven days. I knew this was in my contract. She called to say that she had direct contact with Mary Gaule and they wanted my book and we did not have to go through what was originally stated. She said she was now the agent, Mary was the editor.
A few hours later Mary called me and stated HarperCollins did want my book but that they needed to do a full content evaluation editing that would be somewhat of a cost. They were offering me a $40,000 contract for three years with 50% royalties and they would do all the marketing. I said yes. The price would be $7,500 and, in my foolish perhaps grandiose thinking I couldn’t believe that they wanted me— I’m such a new author, but I went with it.
The next day I found out this was all a scam. I spoke to HarperCollins. Their security department told me that they had been victims of this and Mary Gaule’s name has been dragged through this whole process when in fact she is a wonderful honest editor for HarperCollins. Their security personnel informed me that this is part of a large international crime fraud. The people I was dealing with were from the Philippines but they are from other countries including Canada as well.
That morning I also received a call from the head of Tranquility Press. He did not know that I already made this purchase but informed me that Mandy Vickers and two other people were let go that morning due to fraudulent interactions. This information came a few hours too late for me.
I had to contact the police here, have a report made, and a number would be generated to the FBI. I had to begin to contact the two credit card companies I used for the $7500. Due to the amount, I decided to split the fee. To make a long story short, half of it has been returned through American Express. The other half which is through Bank of America has been put in as a claim. They will be contacting the FBI. I have given them all the information including this Mandy Vickers telephone number.
Mandy has had the nerve to contact me two times to insist that the impersonator who I spoke to was the real Mary Gaule and she was honest, professional etc.
Regarding the original money with Tranquility Press, they assure me that they have approved the refund of two of the three packages I purchased.
Here's an example:
https://dispersertracks.com/2019/11/14/fun-with-scams/
Victoria, thank you for all the effort and "street smarts" you pour into exposing these scams. I've never been approached by any of these sociopaths, but I suppose it's only a matter of time.
You mention one tip-off that — to me — just screams "scam." That's the piss-poor writing coming from these "literary agents." To cite but one example, the letter from "Alexander Sy" fairly drips with awkward syntax, defective grammar, bizarre punctuation, and weird capitalization. You encounter that long before you hear the first argument for sending them money; it's often evident in the very first sentence. Mia Sanders, meanwhile, just loves loves LOVES run-on sentences.
Disperser, up above, says that when something like this happens to him, he plans to waste as much of the scammer's time as possible. Good idea! There are a few folks on the intertubes (particularly over at YouTube) who've raised screwing with the minds of scam-artists into a full-blown art form.
Anonymous 3/13,
Thank you for checking! Looking up the fake agent domains is the one thing I didn't do–mainly because these scams are pretty good about anonymizing domain registration. But not in this case I guess–definitely a whoopsie for Mark Rosario, since his name is also on the Chapters Media business registration.
Disperser,
If you've self-published, you can pretty much count on being solicited at some point. Have at it!
Having already resigned to anonymity, I'm comforted in the knowledge no one is going to approach me with any offers. But, in the unlikely event they do, I plan to have a little fun with them and waste as much of their time as I can.
. . . of course, if they're a real agent, I'll just blame Writers Beware for making me cynical about agents in general.
I kid, of course. Thank you for the information and continued vigilance.
Looking up the domains for the "agents," one has a "REDACTED FOR PRIVACY" entry, one belongs to wix.com and the others all list the Registrant Organization as Mark Joseph Rosario in the Philippines. Why am I not surprised?
I also like how the twitter account lists the location as "New York, NY 1000" with a 4 digit zip code.