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Publicity Guaranteed

Topsarge

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Got this little e-mail today and checked it out. If you want to read something really interesting go to his website and read the contract. Has anyone else been lucky enough to hear from this fella?


From: "Anatoli Kurok" <[email protected]>**
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Is your book the talk of the nation?
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:36:37 +0300



Dear Raymond ,

We can place great reviews of your book in at least ten newspapers for
just
3,950!

This special introductory offer was sent to you as a response to your
profile on Writers.net. The offer is valid until August 31, 2005. The
terms
of the promotion are detailed at
http://www.publicityguaranteed.com/10.pdf.


Sincerely yours,
Anatoli Kurok
Vice President
PublicityGuaranteed.com
T: (416) 418-5942
F: 212.202.4982
[email protected]
 

three seven

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So wait a minute... First I write a review of my own book. Then I send it along with $100 to this guy in the Empire State Building, who will... um... prepare it. Then he sends my review to a bunch of newspapers, at his own expense no less, and emails me a scanned copy of each published article, just in case I need any incontrovertible evidence. And then I send him four grand.

Ok, I'm looking for the downside here... No, wait, I'm sure it'll come to me... There has to be a catch...
 

Aconite

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three seven said:
Ok, I'm looking for the downside here... No, wait, I'm sure it'll come to me... There has to be a catch...

Maybe...wait...maybe something about the postage? No, no...lemme think...uh...problem, problem, what's the problem with this setup again? Something...something monetary...wait, it'll come to me...on the tip of my tongue...almost got it...
 

JenniferGibbs

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Okay, I've gotta come to this guy's defense...

In the past, I've done quite a bit of work for another member of the PublicityGuaranteed team - Alex Konanykhin. When he wrote his book, Defiance (which I got to write a Book of the Month review for with the Washington Informer, as well as the back and flap copy, and a radio ad for the book) he used the same services that he markets - and believe me - he GOT results.

If you know your budget when you set out on this, it's very effective. You only pay for the results you want AND get.

Mind you, you can get this same service, likely MUCH more inexpensively, by bidding on PR pros on Guru.com, but all they really do is Spam a lot of potential markets. PublicityGuaranteed truly does have contacts in several major and minor publications, and they do a phenomenal job orchestrating radio and television interviews with clear, up-front estimates and costs. There are NO surprises when it comes down to cost, assuming you actually take the time to read over your agreement, and keep your release under the word limit constraints.

While they might have "technically" been spamming on here, at least they took the effort to search you guys out and find people that are genuinely interested in things like promotion and PR. Legitimate relationships have to start somewhere, and they did at least "qualify" you before contacting you.

I'll talk to them about their approaches, and perhaps have the form a new strategy.

But they really are a legitimate business...

Thanks,

Jennifer
 

WildScribe

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I'll talk to them about their approaches, and perhaps have the form a new strategy.

But they really are a legitimate business...

Sounds like you're maybe... coming to your OWN defense???
 

JenniferGibbs

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Not my defense, lol. I have nothing to do with the publicityguaranteed marketing department. I worked on Alex's personal book, not on any of there stuff (though I did, admittedly, get hired to write a press release for them indirectly...)

Alex is just a nice guy...
 

DWSTXS

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What I find strange about this, is JenniferGibbs quickly coming to their rescue from out of nowherewith a fast and flattering reply and description of this 'service' and yet JenniferGibbs is a new member with 2 posts. Sounds to me like JenniferGibbs may be a part of PublicityGuaranteed team - Alex Konanykhin.

I may be wrong, but it looks suspicious to me.

And, $4 G's for what again?
 

WildScribe

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What I find strange about this, is JenniferGibbs quickly coming to their rescue from out of nowherewith a fast and flattering reply and description of this 'service' and yet JenniferGibbs is a new member with 2 posts. Sounds to me like JenniferGibbs may be a part of PublicityGuaranteed team - Alex Konanykhin.

I may be wrong, but it looks suspicious to me.

And, $4 G's for what again?

That's what I said!
 

JenniferGibbs

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Actually, all I'm saying is that IF you decided to sign up (and you wouldn't anyway unless you had a $10,000 campaign budget) you'll get the results that are talked about.

A lot of new writers break into print by pushing the marketing angle of their manuscripts. In situations where you promise to designate a specified portion of all advances for publicity that's guaranteed, it would be worth it.

Additionally, I'm a freelance writer - I'm not on anyone's "regular" payroll.

I was just under the impression that people posting here were interested in getting both sides of a story, and since I had another perspective, I thought it might be welcomed.

I just happened to be doing a Google search on the company, and this posting showed up on the first page...
 

WildScribe

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Welcome, Jennifer... feel free to contribute anything else... you know... elsewhere on the site...
 

WildScribe

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I just want to note real quick that I would be much more welcoming, honestly, if someone didn't "happen" to be doing a google search and jump to the defense of various companies on the Bewares board ALL THE TIME... Then they jump in, fight to the death to defend this company in which they have "no professional interest" and never post anywhere else on the board.
 

JenniferGibbs

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Excuse me, but I didn't say I had "no professional interest". I admitted FROM THE GET GO that I had worked with Alex Konanykhin in the past - even going so far as to mention exactly what I worked on with him. I never ONCE denied that.

I then went on to say that after working with the company, and seeing what they've put into action, that they aren't crack-pots. I then went so far as to provide supporting, first-person experiences that I'd encountered...

I assume that if someone had worked with you in the past, and had a wonderful professional relationship, if they saw a forum or blog posting negative comments about YOU, that you'd want them to come to your rescue.

I'm not a newbie in the world of freelancing, by any means. I'm an avid worker who builds long-term relationships with my professional clients. I've climbed to the Top 25 of Guru.com's pool of over 33,000 professional freelance writers, editors and translators. I take our profession very seriously.

I'm not a part-timer either. I gave up my "day job" years ago, and I rough through business like the rest of you guys do.

The point is, if I signed a book with a major publisher, and was given a large enough advance to cover his publicity costs, (there are many more packages available than the "Special" mentioned in the suspect email), I wouldn't hesitate to invest the money in his services.

I just can't believe that so many other writers who work with clients on a long-term approach wouldn't be more quick to jump to the defense of their clients if and when they knew something that the rest of the gang didn't. I thought learning new things was a motivating reason for participating in forums to begin with.

Perhaps if people waited to begin their character assassination until after, say, the 10th post, people might be more willing to stick around for the long-haul...
 

dpaterso

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As has been mentioned here and elsewhere, Jennifer, it's hard to tell the scammers from the genuine service offers.

An oft-seen tactic is for a new member whom no one knows to suddenly leap to the defense of a person or company accused of impropriety.

Fact is, you could be anyone, claiming all kinds of qualifications and experience -- as so many scammers have done before you. So don't be too surprised if your rebuff is met with cynicism or downright disbelief. No one's looking for a fight or calling you a fraud... it's just that this type of response is overfamiliar.

Having said that, this forum isn't a courtroom -- it exists to let everyone present their experiences. Your defense of Publicity Guaranteed seems entirely reasonable.

-Derek
 

victoriastrauss

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DWSTXS and especially WildScribe, I think your responses to Jennifer were a good deal more confrontational than they needed to be. While some of the points Jennifer made could certainly be disputed--and for the record, I am dubious of this service--I don't see anything in her initial post that would cause me to immediately suspect trollery.

Sometimes it seems that we're a bit too quick to jump on new members who come to AW in response to specific threads, especially if they're offering an alternative point of view. While we do get a fair bit of troll activity, especially in this forum, we should be careful of jumping to conclusions.

Jennifer, apologies for the prickly reception. I hope you'll stick around, and check out the many other areas of Absolute Write.

- Victoria
 

Momento Mori

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Hi, Jennifer and welcome to AW.

JenniferGibbs:
I've done quite a bit of work for another member of the PublicityGuaranteed team - Alex Konanykhin. When he wrote his book, Defiance (which I got to write a Book of the Month review for with the Washington Informer, as well as the back and flap copy, and a radio ad for the book) he used the same services that he markets - and believe me - he GOT results.

With all due respect, I'm not sure that he got the results that were promised in the spam emails received by some members of the board back in 2005. Specifically, of the press coverage detailed on Alex's website, only 2 news stories post-date the book's publication of 30 September 2006 and despite the spam emails promising:

We can place great reviews of your book in at least ten newspapers

he only has 7 reviews listed on his website. If a guy who works for the PublicityGuaranteed team can't get 10 newspaper reviews (and most of the stories/reviews seem to focus on the interviews etc he did way before releasing the book, suggesting he had a platform that many other authors wouldn't have), then it's only natural that people would question whether they can get it for people paying almost 4000 dollars.

JenniferGibbs:
If you know your budget when you set out on this, it's very effective. You only pay for the results you want AND get.

But selling books isn't just a question of having a large enough marketing budget and blitzing newspapers with reviews. If an author isn't with a publisher that has distribution in place to sell books in stores, then how is anyone supposed to buy it? What worries me about spam like that is that it's the kind of thing that can really take in desperate authors who have perhaps self-published and think that outfits like Publicity Guaranteed can make their book a sales success.

JenniferGibbs:
While they might have "technically" been spamming on here, at least they took the effort to search you guys out and find people that are genuinely interested in things like promotion and PR. Legitimate relationships have to start somewhere, and they did at least "qualify" you before contacting you.

I'm not sure how you get this from the details of the spam messages that have been posted here. I certainly can't see anything in what's been posted to suggest that there is any kind of qualifying procedure to their decision to email people randomly and without invitation.

JenniferGibbs:
But they really are a legitimate business...

They may very well be a legitimate business, but whether they are good for authors is the subject that's up to question.

JenniferGibbs:
The point is, if I signed a book with a major publisher, and was given a large enough advance to cover his publicity costs, (there are many more packages available than the "Special" mentioned in the suspect email), I wouldn't hesitate to invest the money in his services.

But surely if you signed with a major publisher, you'd expect that publisher's marketing department to be organising book reviews, press releases and other associated publicity on your behalf? Authors can and do organise some publicity themselves but so far as I'm aware (and correct me if I'm wrong, people) most don't shell out significant amounts of money to do so and most work in conjunction with their publisher.

JenniferGibbs:
Perhaps if people waited to begin their character assassination until after, say, the 10th post, people might be more willing to stick around for the long-haul...

I think that many people on the board are a bit leery when old discussions like this get revived by people who have had some connection with the company/agent/whatever concerned. I hope you don't take it too personally and stick around.

MM
 

IceCreamEmpress

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Jennifer, thanks for sharing your positive experiences of working with Mr. Konanykhin. Knowing that he's a good employer for freelancers (I think that's what your experience was with him, yes? You wrote press releases to support his promotion of his own book?) is certainly useful information.

However, I'm with Momento Mori on this one: if the publicity results he got for his own book are any indication, Mr. Konanykhin isn't able to deliver anything worth $4,000.
 

DWSTXS

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I wasn't trying to be 'confrontational'. I was just voicing a healthy cyncism, something which is valued in a democratic society.

It wasn't my intention to impugn Jennifer's integrity as a person. Not at all. I was just stating some well-founded skepticism in the way her support was offered up.

Subsequently, Dpaterson has more eloquently stated such cynism without any reproach, and my suspicions on the matter have now been allayed.

As all AWers are welcomed with open arms and treated fairly in our community, perhaps I was remiss in not first welcoming Jennifer into our fold. Thus said,

Welcome to AW Jennifer. I hope that you enjoy our little community, and I sincerely hope that my rather brusque greeting earlier has not soured you on our hospitalities and/or lack thereof.

PS- please pardon my bellicosity earlier. I beseech your prompt forgiveness. Also, I regret my over-use of 50 cent words, but I swallowed an ego pill earlier, and have in the meantime, quite succumbed to the temptations of purplish prose.
 
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BewarePGI

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I actually had the misfortune of dealing with PGI. Deceitful, be careful.
They made me sign a contract totalling $10K with a set monthly budget [$5K for first 45 days, $2500 for the next 2 months] I asked since the budget was set at $5K for the first 45 days what happens if they go over budget - their sales repl replied "We eat the difference" he stated this several times UNTIL THEY WENT OVER BUDGET IN THE FIRST 30 DAYS!

Then when I wouldn't double the budget Mr. Alex Konanykhin resigned from working on the contract but expected me to pay out the contract even though he didn't honor his original commitment. He threatened to take it to the media that I was a deadbeat that didn't pay their bills. He admitted several times that his employee mad a mistake, but he still wanted more money. Don't sign anything with these people.

I guess his experience with the KGB has its perks...
 

DaveKuzminski

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So, the results for customers are not the same as those for members of the company? That's to be expected, but the question I wanted answered was not how well a member of the company fared, but what results were brought about for the paying clients. Those are the only detailed results that matter.

So, want to give some details and results for actual paying customers?
 

BewarePGI

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You have to be careful of a clause they have added into their contract which states even though your contract is up, you are still liable for placement [depending on the contract] from 1 - 3 years and this is how they get you because you think the contract is done and some random placement takes place and you end up with them taking more money out of your account - so read the fine print if you choose to do business with them.