Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency

victoriastrauss

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A new agency name/website for Fletcher: http://www.strategicbookagency.com/index.html

Gemser, the publisher mentioned on the site, is a real company, a book publisher/packager based in Spain: http://www.mercedesros.com/home.html . Much of the content on the Strategic Book Agency website has been copied from Gemser's website. Fletcher/Strategic was at this year's BEA, and so was Gemser--I'm guessing this is the result of a contact made there.

- Victoria
 

CaoPaux

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Dear publishers, would you like to offer novelties in your catalogue without investing in new and costly publishing projects?

Allow us to help you with an attractive list of books supplied in very competitive conditions. They are high quality books designed for the international marketplace and you can gain access to them through co-editions or granting-rights agreements.

You can choose between a wide range of children's books covering all subjects and ages: crafts, fiction, non-fiction, games, religion and so on.
They make it sound like a PLR deal. Ick.
 

C. K. Casner

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Ugh! They are making contacts across the pond and still haven't updated their Royalty report page.
 

AC Crispin

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Too bad someone fluent in Spanish can't get in touch with this Spanish publisher and explain to them about how the Florida Attorney General's Office is investigating and suing Robert Fletcher and all his companies for defrauding writers.

-Ann C. Crispin
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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An interesting tidbit; on the Strategic marketing page on fb they were updating the first two days of the Beijing Book Fair, were quiet for the next few days and now their excuse as to why they hadn't updated is because China blocked fb.
 

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In the main Strategic thread, someone just posted their email about their huge success in Beijing. Success, success, success, a.k.a. authors' dollars in Strategic's pocket--but of course no mention of any actual rights sales.

- Victoria
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Yeah, it's all crafty wording. I could see how it would make authors think their books were successful.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Sorry about the double post, but something I saw on a Strategic author's fb page made me wonder something.

This author was at the Beijing book fair (and had to pay his way, naturally) and posted a picture of himself with 'the owner of Strategic Publishing'. Now I don't know what Fletcher looks like, but if that was indeed him in the picture it got me thinking with the whole lawsuit the AG has against him, is Fletcher even allowed to leave the country? Getting the attention of the AG is no small thing I'm sure, and if there is as big a mountain of evidence against Fletcher as I'm sure there is, I bet it'd be tempting to flee in order to escape having to deal with losing a court case. I'd imagine the AG wouldn't want him leaving and not coming back.

Maybe this is something I should email the AG about? It still blows my mind Fletcher is still operating even with this lawsuit, like it doesn't exist.
 

victoriastrauss

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It's a civil lawsuit, not a criminal case, so it doesn't involve travel restrictions or anything of that nature. Plus, the AG can only sue for actions in Florida or against Florida residents--so Fletcher would not have to go anywhere near as far as China to escape any strictures that might be imposed on him if he lost.

- Victoria
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Ah okay. Just seemed...odd, that he'd go. But then again no one in China is aware they were talking with a scammer, so I guess there was no worry. I shudder to think how much those authors shelled out to be there though. Is that typical of real publishers? Do they invite their authors to be at book fairs?
 

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Yes, publishers do invite authors to be at book fairs (usually their top sellers, or new writers they're looking to give a big launch to)--but they comp them into the show and don't require them to pay a fee to participate.

- Victoria
 

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Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency has a new website: http://sbpra.com/

Note the image of the stack of books that appears on the front page, including titles by Michael Crichton, Stephen King, and President Obama. How many unwary writers will conclude that they are SBPRA's clients?

- Victoria
 

WriterMomto3

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Oh! And another one: "SBG employs about 150 people that live and work virtually." How do you live virtually? Is he talking about his aliases??
 

James D. Macdonald

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And, apparently they are located in New York, NewYork.

No, they aren't.

That's merely the first of their many outrageous lies.

They're located in Boca Raton, Florida (which is what give the Florida Attorney General jurisdiction to sue them for false and misleading business practices).

All they have in New York, NY, is a mail-forwarding service.
 

WriterMomto3

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I just thought it funny (not really) that they misspelled NewYork. You'd think they would have their editors check out their website.

I've also noticed they use the Durham, CT address on their copyright pages in their books. At least that's what Amazon.com shows.
 

Moni

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I guess the good news for me is that I ask a TON of questions....I have a phone call in to "Mark" (no last name & it sounds like he says Lois on his VM, but can't be really sure) I've already asked two questions of his VM, so I may not even get anything out of this.

I got my email touting how wonderful everything seemed and good news! They're referring me to a "sister company" Strategic....blah blah blah....of course me being the curious impatient soul that I am I looked at the web page & had WAY too many questions pop up at once. Of course that was a HUGE waving red flag so I got onto google (LOVE researching with them!!!) found your threads here. Haven't been sent anything which is good news & I'm loathe to even sully my work enough to send it to them.

Thank you guys for being here! I would have been a very broken woman had I not found you. To think that they're preying upon people's dreams like that!! Sheesh! It even says it in the link listed above! Makes me want to projectile vomit in their general direction! Humph! Some people have no souls whatsoever!