Non-writers have no idea what those of us who try to write books have to put up with.

Not a week goes by that I don’t receive a phone call from someone with a very heavy accept (and I don’t mean Southern) claiming to represent a production company. Every call – and I have received hundreds of them – claim that a company wants to make a movie out of one of my books.

Sounds like an author’s dream phone call, right?

There’s a catch. Every single one of them wants to make a movie out of my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Does that still sound good?

Not exactly. In case you didn’t know, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, by Janet Morrison, is a book of vintage postcards.

Just imagine: A full-length feature film showing vintage postcards!

The latest scams

I was contacted several weeks ago by “Robbie who claimed to be representing the “Stimulating Book Club” in Washington, DC. Robbie said they were interested in reading Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus County History, Book 1 and even referenced several of the topics I wrote about in the book.

Keep in mind that this is a book of local history articles about Harrisburg, North Carolina, some 325 miles south of our nation’s capital.

The whole thing sounded fishy to me, but I kept reading the email. “Fishy” turned into “You’ve got to be kidding!” when I got to the part that said I only had to pay them $200 to read my book!

Then, this week “Olivia Scarlett” with “The Vermont Book Club” contacted me. (I know Vermont is a small state, but really?)

Believe it or not, The Vermont Book Club wants to read … wait for it… Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus County History, Book 1. Just like “Robbie” of Washington, DC fame, “Olivia Scarlett” also referenced some details from my book – details anyone could lift from the book description on Amazon.

What were the odds?

Granted, I have touted my book of local history as perhaps being of interest to people outside of Cabarrus County, North Carolina; however, for book clubs 325 to 750 miles away to suddenly show an interest in it just a couple of weeks apart, using almost identical wording?

I was born at night, but I wasn’t born last night!

The icing on the cake came when Olivia Scarlett of The Vermont Book Club emailed me again on Friday with a “clarification” for purposes of “transparency”. She wanted to clarify that the $150 her book club charges an author is only a “logistics and promotional fee, which helps cover event organization, marketing, reader outreach, and related expenses. We understand if it’s not the right fit for everyone, but we wanted to be transparent about what the fee is used for.”

Funny… In her earlier email, Olivia Scarlett didn’t mention needing any money.

The gig is up, y’all.

When you contact me as one book club wanting $200, but then contact me as a different book club to clarify what you need the $150 for… you have committed a serious scamming error.

I belong to a book club. At our June meeting, I plan to propose that we have a fundraiser: Require authors to pay us $200 or we won’t read their book. I guess we’ll need to elect a treasurer and open a bank account. Things could get complicated.

Janet

Never take your right to read for granted.

You even have the right to read Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus County History, Book 1 – no matter where you live! After all, as I closed Saturday’s blog post about a D-Day veteran from Harrisburg, “All history is local, but no history is just local.”