[Promotion] adVenture Galleries / Venture Galleries

Dr. Pepper Hound · Apr 11, 2017

Apologies if I've got this in the wrong area, but wasn't sure where to put this.

Has anyone heard anything about Venture Galleries? They set up to help promote authors, even started a new PR program and took payments ranging from $97 on up to close to $1k (if I recall correctly) for PR work on authors behalf.

I gave it a shot at the $97 to see if it would help my two books. But here's the e-mail that was mass-mailed today:

Hi adVenture Galleries Author,

As you know, we’ve been in beta testing since December for the adVenture Galleries for authors. It’s with a very heavy heart (and tears) that Caleb and I have come to the conclusion that we are closing Venture Galleries down.

There are many factors and tasks that helped assist you all in sales, but the majority of labor and time has been unsuccessful and therefore, we’ve come down to the difficult decision of closing. We’ve spent hundreds of hours on you and the other beta members and the market is just not in a place to sustain this project.

The beta testing with you all has been a wonderful experience and I am truly blessed to have met you and hope we can collaborate on projects in the future.

The Venture Galleries website will begin transforming into a personal author website for Caleb & Linda Pirtle around the end of April.

Please let me know if you have any questions and thank you for your participation!

Cheryl Letsch, Publicist
Venture Galleries

******

So far, no response to my question regarding any returns - even a partial pro-rated return - of payments, given that they only did about 4 months of the 12 months we supposedly paid for.

I actually saw some sales that I thought could be attributed to some of what they did, so I'm not feeling cheated. But I am disappointed that they decided not to fulfill their end of the agreement.

Any thoughts?

Dr. Pepper Hound · Apr 11, 2017

Update: They answered finally. The answer is No. No refunds. This should be fun.

Between my agent and PR person, I'm thinking I'll just self-publish from now on...

cornflake · Apr 11, 2017

Take them to small claims. Even if it's for a small amount, make them show up or get a judgement against them. The number of these unqualified idjits who start publishing companies or publishing-adjacent companies and end up doing nothing but promoting their own crap while taking money and/or time from other people....

L.C. Blackwell · Apr 15, 2017

File a complaint with your State Attorney General. These things can add up, and if at some point the mass of complaints moves the AG to take action, yours will add weight to the scale.

Writer Beware offers some suggestions on legal recourse here:

http://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/legal/

Also, I recommend you contact Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware, here:

http://www.victoriastrauss.com/contact/

and give her the details you've posted, plus a copy of your contract, etc. She tracks these things and uses them to alert authors to scams and unethical practices.

ctripp · Apr 16, 2017

love how they have stressed "Beta Testing" 3 times, in other words "as you ALL know, this was an experiment that just didn't work out". I'm sure you and others who paid did not realize this. But they must feel it lets them off the hook. But beta doesn't involve the testers paying anything.
You can't get into big money on suing and they know that, they know no one will do more then complain. It's a shame but people like this do these things all the time and get away with it unfortunately. At least it wasn't the most expensive lesson

You mentioned your agent, is there a financial problem there too?

L.C. Blackwell · Apr 16, 2017

The agent is a contract issue, more particularly a termination clause, discussed in a previous thread. As regards to getting money out of this dodgy publicist, small claims would probably be the most viable route, but it might be more trouble than it's worth to collect.

Re, getting away with it. They may, or they may not. Sooner or later, someone who repeatedly pursues this sort of business practice can build up enough complaints that a state's AG may decide to take action. When that happens, the consequences are a little less amusing and usually not so cheap.

frimble3 · Apr 16, 2017

If you do register a complaint about the company, try to get the names of the principals into it, in hopes that if they start up some similar operation, Googling their names will bring this up.

[Promotion] adVenture Galleries / Venture Galleries

Dr. Pepper Hound

Dr. Pepper Hound

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

L.C. Blackwell

Keeper of Fort Blanket

ctripp

Christine Tripp

L.C. Blackwell

Keeper of Fort Blanket

frimble3

Heckuva good sport