Another day, another "service" that is interested in extracting money from writers' wallets. The excellent Writer Beware newsletter points to a new one: LitFire Press.
They have been cold-calling (or cold-emailing) writers, claiming to have heard about or even read some of their writing and identifying them as being perfect for their publishing packages...which, of course, come with a hefty price tag.
They claim "hundreds of published titles"...but there seems to be no trace of most of them. Wouldn't it make sense to offer a list? There are only seven...and a few of those were published by imprints of Author Solutions, a company notorious for hard-sell tactics and many complaints.
Another possible danger signal: several of the "consultants" working for LitFire previously were employed by Author Solutions.
Here's a sample sentence from a letter received by one of the authors they targeted:
"We would like to have to know if there is anything that we can possible help you with when it comes to book distribution and marketing."
The rest of the letter is on the same level.
A letter from a different LitFire "Senior Marketing and Publishing Consultant" included paragraphs lifted directly from the marketing materials of two legitimate marketers and consultants.
The alarm bells should be ringing loudly by now. I'm not saying they're doing anything illegal, but all the signals are there that you would do well to explore all other options first.
If LitFire would care to send me a list of the hundreds of titles they've published, and to explain why the materials they send to writers are so full of basic errors, and why their Senior Marketing Consultant thinks it's OK to plagiarize other people's marketing materials, I'll be happy to post their response.
