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Best Seller Publishing / Book Millionaire (Lori Prokop)

KitKatTGM

Tonight, I received a writing agreement from Best Seller Publishing, Inc., located in Bruce, WI. Best Seller Publishing is owned by Lori Prokop. Is anyone familiar with this company? I want to know before I do anything with the contract. Thank you.
 

Stephenie Hovland

Re: Best Seller Publishing

I don't know the company, but I know Bruce. It's a very small town in the northern woods of WI. My in-laws are from there. Very quaint. I would imagine (but really don't know!) that it's a very small company.

Okay - I just googled the company. I don't see anything saying it's in Bruce. They all say New York. And, they all promote slick marketing workshops.

Sorry, I'm no help, am I?
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Best Seller Publishing

Are any books they published on the shelves of your local bookstore?
 

vstrauss

Re: Best Seller Publishing

This doesn't sound like a publishing company at all, but one of those marketing enterprises where people who are supposedly experts incite those who want to become rich/famous/successful to pay for their workshops/publications/audiotapes.

See here: www.publicityhound.com/pu...income.htm

- Victoria
 

HapiSofi

Re: Best Seller Publishing

What Victoria Said. Best Seller is the publishing equivalent of "Make Money Fast."

As far as I can tell, their most prominent book is The World's Best Kept Health Secret Revealed, which is basically a collection of 50 essays extolling the wonders of chiropractic, written by 50 different chiropractors. Here's what makes the book special:
The book is just the first part of the innovative program that could turn thousands of doctors into published book authors. ...

What makes the book unique is that every doctor of chiropractic has the opportunity become a published author. Doctors can buy into the program for a fee, which covers professional editing of their chapter, as well as a print run of 400 books. The books will be available through Amazon.com and other well known book dealers.

Being the author of a book creates a tremendous amount of instant credibility. That's why so many "experts" are identified by the number of books they've written. "Books can establish their authors as experts, create an increased demand for a company's products and services, solidify customer loyalty, and distinguish the authors from the competition," said book publisher Pola Firestone in an article for the Kansas City Star.
That is, the chiropractor writes his own little chapter, then these guys polish it up for him and sell him 400 copies of the book with his chapter bound into it. It's a prop to help establish his credibility with naive clients, whether or not he succeeds in selling them a copy.

Isn't that cute? Lori Prokop's name is all over the project. It looks like she's the organizer. The only contact number on the page is hers.

Speaking of Make Money Fast, Ms. Prokop's associate Willie Crawford of Crawford Marketing Consultants trots out every cliche you've ever seen used in MMF spam letters:
My friends and I would like to share with you how to finally begin making really incredible money online. We just finished recording the amazingly empowering Internet Marketing Power Workshop and I know that the information in the video and audio tapes from the event can make a real difference in your online efforts. The tapes will FINALLY show you step-by-step how to make major profits.

We show and explain exactly how we accomplish some incredible feats and in the process generate millions of dollars! ...

We literally tell you how we run our day to day businesses and make incredible profits.

We demonstrate that you can do it too, and share with you those little things most online marketers completely miss. Those little things are what make the difference between earning $50,000 a year and earning $300,000 or even several million dollars a year.

Many people will never achieve that level of success simply because they can't believe that it can be done. When you see and hear people describe actually doing it, that changes what you know that you CAN DO TOO!
It reeks of scammer. And Lori Prokop is one of the featured speakers.

To get a sense of this woman's internet footprint, just Google on "best seller publishing" prokop. It's all stuff like: "How To Make A Fortune With The Inner Circle Secrets To The World of Licensing!", and "Give Me 4 Days & I'll Give You The Tools To A Successful Internet Moneymaking Business" / "If You Need Extra Money Right Now Your Home Computer Could Be A Goldmine". That latter one links to a subpage about Lori Prokop, with a photo and everything. It says:
You'll learn Lori Prokop's Product Development system so you can create multiple streams of income by replicating this product development system over-and-over again (you'll be shocked to learn how quickly and easily this system can produce products you can sell for thousands of dollars). ... Lori is host and the lady behind the Best Seller Publishing events.
You can also find a lot of information about Lori Prokop at ... you gotta see this URL ... www.marketers-hall-of-fame.com/7-sheer-genius/lori-prokop.html. Almost all the books mentioned there are about how to make big money in marketing. That's one of the basic scams: Let us sell you our infallible system for making big money by selling things to other people.

In short, Lori Prokop might as well have a giant neon sign over her head that says SNAKE OIL SALESMAN. Do not go near her. Consider not going near anyone who's associated with her in any way. Except for KitKat, of course.
 

DaveKuzminski

Re: Best Seller Publishing

I think Prokop is a pseudonym as there appears to be one line where it's mentioned in that website that she claimes to be a professional police officer. Now, why does that not surprise me?
 

KitKatTGM

Re: Best Seller Publishing

Thanks for all of the great advice. But this job has nothing to do with any get-rich-quick scheme. I think I will take it, because it's a ghostwriting job and I have nothing really to lose.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Best Seller Publishing

A word of advice from an old work-for-hire writer, if you please?

Make sure the check clears before you start writing. Absolutely do not give them anything until after they've paid you.
 

HapiSofi

Re: Best Seller Publishing

KitKat, don't be a fool. These are professional con artists. You have more to lose than you realize.
 

CaoPaux

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Agreed. Here's where "Lori Prokop" has come up before.

<old link snipped>

Yucky.
 
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Moondancer

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You have a desire to become published and to live the incredible lifestyle of a
rich, famous author, or...

Umm... What's that? From what I've seen and read, authors' lifestyles are as varied as the type of stories they write.
 

DeadlyAccurate

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Moondancer said:
Umm... What's that? From what I've seen and read, authors' lifestyles are as varied as the type of stories they write.

Obviously that would mean they would play lots of computer games in the evenings, watch movies, and fit in some time to exercise. That's what I'd do if I were a rich and famous author; that's what I'd do now. Can't imagine that changing just 'cause I had money. So I volunteer my lifestyle as the one to emulate.
 

Julian Black

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You have a desire to become published and to live the incredible lifestyle of a
rich, famous author, or...
Hey, I'm not even published and I'm living the incredible lifestyle of a rich, famous author. My butt is in my chair and I'm writing. I'll betcha Stephen King's butt was in his chair and he was writing today, too...
 

Elincoln

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Not on my Station

I checked around the major stations. CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, UPN do NOT show this as part of their agenda ANYWHERE. Where's the name of the Production Company? Who's directing this? As a matter of fact, who's the big name authors their talking about?

This definitely smells...

-Elaine
 

mommie4a

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www.bookmillionaire.com

I'm not sure if this belongs here or in Sharing Leads so please feel free to move it if necessary.

I read about this Apprentice/Survivor/Absolute Idol contest to get published through Tim Bete's newsletter for humor writers. It will be a reality show that follows writers trying to promo and market their books. Application process starts online at www.bookmillionaire.com. I'd love to know if anyone has heard of the folks putting it on (Lori Prokep I think is the name on the emails I got). I'm not interested in it, but I'm sure there are many folks who might be.

Good luck. Jenna - do you know anything about this project?
 

Richard

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It's come up before - capsule synopsis: "Sigh". You don't need a book, you don't need an idea for a book, you don't need to want to have an idea for a book - just the desire to sell someone else's books for a couple of weeks, and possibly win what looks very much like a vanity publishing deal.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10672
 
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Lauri B

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Dan Poynter's newsletter was also promoting this stupid "contest." I think they must have just spammed all the writing and publishing newsletters.
 

mommie4a

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Yeah - I guess I'm disappointed to see folks I've respected - or who at least seem to be putting out usually useful and fair information - put out less worthy promos. Oh well - you know, if it works for some folks...? I dunno....
 

soloset

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I've been reading over the PA thread on this.

How sad. How unbearably, wretchedly, horribly sad. :(

"Life is a gamble and all about chance for us older folks anyway, As we get older we realize that."

I've read dozens of books on con artists, and the mindset in that thread is exactly the sort of mindset that costs your grandmom her life savings when some slick guy calls to offer fly-by-night stocks or vinyl siding or any number of scams.

And in most cases, grandmom never gets her life savings back, she just gives up and passes away, and the crook gets a slap on the wrist.

It's so frustratingly heartbreaking I want to cry. Or kick somebody. Bother.
 

MsRasputina

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I used a dummy email address and signed up to get updates and access to their blog.

I'm shocked -- shocked, I tell you! -- that aside from a generic "Thanks for signing up!" autorespond message, I've heard nothing yet.