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Pay-to-Play Alert: Europe Books / Europa Edizioni / Vertigo Publishing House / Gruppo Albatros Il Filo

Header image: Europe Books logo

Over the past few weeks, I've gotten a number of questions about a publisher called Europe Books (EB). It's part of a complex of "brands" under the umbrella of Gruppo Editoriale Europa, including Europa Edizioni (Italy), Europa Ediciones (Spain), and Europa Buch (Germany)*

EB's motto: "Our Books Travel the World."

We live in a time of great political and social changes, of liquid boundaries and cultural contaminations. This context makes it inevitable that literatures rapidly lose their national connotation and gain a more extended European trait.
Over the past 15 years, we have established our leadership by reaching a wider audience which is not confined to the Italian borders. We opened branch offices in the main European capitals. Both our bestselling writers and emerging authors are published simultaneously in Italy, Spain, Germany and, from now on, in England as well. France and the United States are our next goals.

Dissecting a Scam: Fact & Fiction Entertainment and Literary Agency

In the past week, I've gotten two questions about solicitations from a literary agency called Fact & Fiction.* As I've mentioned many times on this blog, it is rare for agents to cold-call writers...but that's not to say it absolutely never happens.

Here's the solicitation.

Unlike other solicitations I've been writing about lately, this one is actually somewhat credible--at least if you don't look too closely. It mentions the writer's work (I've redacted their book title, along with their name). It provides a rationale for reaching out that's not blindingly bogus on its face. Aside from the one typo, there are no glaring English-language errors. It doesn't ask for money.

A New “Beware”: Scammers Impersonating Reputable Literary Agents

I've written about this new "beware" twice already (you can see those posts here and here), but it appears to be a growing problem, so I want to put out a more focused warning.

Scammers--the same Philippines-based Author Solutions copycats that I've featured numerous times in this blog (also see the long, long list in the sidebar)--are impersonating reputable literary agents and agencies in order to bamboozle writers into buying worthless "services." Here are the misused names I've documented so far; the scam companies they work for are in parentheses:

- Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency (TechBooks Media, aka Chapters Media and Distribution)