[Publisher] Mirage Books

[victoriastrauss]

Mirage Books, an India-based publisher, ran a short story contest this fall. It's now sending out notifications to the 50 winners requesting personal information, including "A Scanned Copy Of Your Driving License Or Passport Or Voter's Card As Identity Proof."

IMO, sharing this info is unwise--not to mention unnecessary. There are other red flags as well. See my blog post of this morning.

- Victoria

 

[Carmy]

Thanks for the warning, Victoria. I didn't submit but I hope those who get such an email will ignore it.

 

[Old Hack]

I've just read your blog post and commented. This one seems particularly interesting... but not in a good way. Thanks, as usual, for the alert, Victoria.

 

[Old Hack]

I've now had a better look at Mirage's website and couldn't resist quoting this bit:

The bottom-line is that if you have written it, you have a right to be published and read. Period.

Not in my world you haven't.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Yes, I saw that too and shook my head. They also say they're going to change the world of books.

Sigh.

- Victoria

 

[CaoPaux]

The winners' anthology was published Feb '09, but I'm not seeing any further activity. The next contest was for scripts, with results to be announced July '09. Blog hasn't been updated since '08.