Caught a Scammer in the Act
Just to alert everyone, I caught one of the scammers (or maybe even the same one) in the act of their theft. Today on Facebook, a narrator shared “my” audiobook with me on my timeline. I notified the narrator that this scammer did not have my permission to make my book into an audiobook.
I feel really sorry for these narrators. I assume they don’t ask for money upfront since the scammers keep going to them in order to make these audiobooks. Scammers aren’t inclined to pay for anything. All they do is steal. And in this case, they are stealing my book AND stealing these narrators’ talent and time. This is not fair to me or the narrators.
You have to watch out for these thieves. They’re in abundance. I’ve have ebooks stolen and/or plagiarized. I’ve had a paperback stolen. Now they are convincing narrators to make audiobooks.
To set the record straight so there are no misunderstandings: I am NOT making audiobooks. I already explained why in a lengthy rant, so I won’t do it again. You can read that post here. After I wrote that post, a narrator contacted me and a scammer must have read my blog post because the scammer actually told this narrator, “I decided to make audiobooks to stop people from stealing my books.”
Nope. No, I did not decide to make audiobooks.
A quick not to narrators (if any are reading this): If I ever decide to make audiobooks, I will pay upfront for your services. I would never ask you to do anything for free. I value people’s time. I would not do a royalty-split because there would be no guarantees that the audiobook would sell. I want to make sure everyone who works for me (editor, cover artist, etc) gets paid. I don’t believe in asking for anyone to do something for free. I will offer something in return.
Back to the post…
Up to now, the narrators caught onto the scammer before the audiobook was created, but in this case, this scammer got away with it from two different narrators. I don’t know if it’s the same scammer who contacted the other five narrators about making my books into audio. This could be a group of them for all I know.
So, assuming that this scammer(s) is reading my blog post right now, I contacted ACX about this, and I let the narrators know they have been duped. You have stolen my hard work, and you have stolen from the time and talent of narrators who are trying to make an honest living. I realize you don’t care. I know this means nothing to you. For all I know, you’re laughing and thinking this whole thing is cute. But my message to you is this: there is a God in Heaven, and He will judge between you and me, and since you are in the wrong, He will deal with you. As the Bible says, He will avenge my case (and the narrators’ case) on my behalf. I’m leaving this at His feet. He has heard my prayer, and He will take care of things for me. You might get away with this for a while, but a day of reckoning will come, and you’ll be held accountable for your actions.
Regarding the scam, this is what the scammer(s) has been able to get away with so far:
The person (people) are going by the publishing name “Leon Publishing,” and this here is the page on Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchProvider=Leon+Publishing&ref=a_pd_A-Most_c1_publisher&pf_rd_p=52918805-f7fc-40f4-a76b-cf1c79f7d10a&pf_rd_r=AFGD7C0REVEVXP40MQHC
The person (people) also make a fake profile of me here: https://www.audible.com/author/Ruth-Ann-Nordin/B002BM2VVQ?ref=a_search_c3_lAuthor_1_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=G4RKZA50D41RSDT7XKD9
Now to ACX, what is wrong with you? I notified you two weeks ago that I am not making audiobooks, and you still let these books go up? Is there no way you can vet the people coming to your site? Why is it that I have told you what is happening AND a narrator also alerted you to this, BUT you haven’t done anything to keep watch over this?
I bet a lot authors are getting scammed, but they just don’t know it. I bet a lot of narrators are getting scammed, but they also don’t know it. This can’t just be happening to me. It’s impossible to think that I am so incredibly special in this whole entire world that I am the only author who got picked for this nonsense. So for authors and narrators, be careful out there. There’s a lot of slime dripping all over the place.
