AEG PUBLISHING
Here is the link to their website, where you can find details and address. in the following messages received from them you can find names and telephone numbers, if that is useful to anyone.
I am an unpublished writer and obviously came upon AEG PUBLISHING and they agreed on publishing me against fees.
All of that is listed below.
i have found out by anther website that a published writer has worked with them and complain: see below
Strategic Book Publishing AEG Publishing Group
Posted: 2009-08-25 by
Bob Williamson
Fraud
Complaint Rating:
Company information:
Greenhouse Neutral Foundation
130 Naranga Place
Australia
Phone: 61 8 9295 6035
greenhouseneutralfoundation.org
I have a publishing contract with the AEG Publishing group that was arranged by Writer Literary Agency. The book ZER Greenhouse Emissions - The Day the Light Went Out - Our Future World was published in October 2008 and I purchase from them 300 copies to be shipped to me as the author here in Australia. They indicated in the contract that until there were 300 copies (not including the copies I purchased) there would be no royalties payable. The sales reports indicate that only 24 copies have to date been purchased. Although this seem unusual as all the work I have been doing to sell them I did not question these figures. I paid them funds to represent me at the New York book fair in May also US$250. I then subsequently paid a furthe $395 to have them produce an e-book of the title. They forward a free PDF copy to me and the royalties were to be 50% of all e-books sold. I have been working every hour I can to sell the book and direct buyers to the web address for the book at the publisher
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/ZEROGreenhouseEmissions.html and know many have reported to me that they have purchased - My royalties have not show up on the statement via royalties page. Today I did a seach to be horified to see that the whole of the operation from Writers Literary to the AEG publishing Group is a scam. This could cause the demise of our not-forprofite environmental education foundation .
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Back to my message:
AEG PUBLISHING website:
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com/
(the thing that strikes me is that they said in previous emails that they published thousands of writers, yet, it's flashing in yellow on their own page that they just published their 700th...
not a good start after reading previous threads....
Emails received copied here so that if you receive exactly the same then you can rest assure it is scam...
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FIRST EMAIL:
We are sending you this email because we want you to see our commitment to
the authors we have published. We do everything we can to market our
authors and their books!
We sincerely want to publish your book
and market it in the US and around the world.
Join us now and be ready for the London Bookshow.
We hope that your writing career is proceeding successfully, and that you
will choose us for any of your publishing needs.
*******
We offer finance plans and allow you to 'pay as you go'.
We know that you want to get your book published so you can start making
money with it. We are happy to take a long term view with you. This also
allows us to prove ourselves to you, one step at a time.
One of the deals we are MOST PROUD OF, IS A DEAL TO SELL OUR AUTHORS' BOOKS
IN CHINA.
Here is a page from our partner's catalog when they go to the Beijing Book
Show this year.
http://www.strategicbookgroup.com/StrategicBookGroup-China1.JPG
At the world's largest book event, Book Expo USA, New York - Strategic &
Eloquent Publishing exhibited their authors' work to an enthusiastic crowd
and great success. To see pictures of our participation in the the event,
please visit
http://s639.photobucket.com/albums/uu112/aegpublishinggroup/?albumview=grid
We had a dozen authors perform book signings and we are happy to say that
none of the authors went home with any left over books! Deals were made and
it was a great show!
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com/sbm-frankfurt-2009.html shows our
exhibit in Frankfurt where many relationships were built and deals are in
process.
We plan to be there next year with more authors.. And we hope you are there
with us!
Sincerely,
Liz, Tania, Linda, Mark - Acquisitions Team
If you would like to speak with someone, please call Mark at 561-455-6066.
For a current listing and an example of our hundreds of books published
please visit
www.StrategicBookGroup.com.
Ps. You can trust that we will produce your book. OVER 1000 authors have
published with us in the last few years. They can be viewed at
www.StrategicBookClub.com. If you sign up with us, we will deliver!
To see how we handle the production and marketing aspects of our business
you might visit
www.aegpublishinggroup.com/clientcare.html We are committed
to efficiency.
To see more about our world class marketing company please visit
www.StrategicBookMarketing.com
Let us publish and market your book. Our marketing department is better than
our competition!
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EMAIL 2
Hello!
After review of your book query which was sent to us by our sister agency,
we would like to examine your work for publishing. (For reference, your
query is at the bottom of the email). We have an immediate need for books
of all genres that came about because of our recent exhibit at the Frankfurt
Book Fair. See the note at the bottom of our email.
PLEASE NOTE: IF YOUR WORK IS NOT FINISHED PLEASE LET US KNOW. We need
finished work. If your work is not finished then you should work with the
agency. They can sell unfinished work.
------------------
A quick blurb about us:
We are mainly a book marketing company so we can make decisions very
quickly. Please visit our website at
www.StrategicBookMarketing.com for an
overview of our company and you can see some of the fine authors we have
published and that we represent at our author site
www.StrategicBookClub.com. We have sold over 50,000 books on their behalf
in the last year. And, we love international book expos. See the note at
the very bottom.
We would like to review your work.
---------------------------------
This email tells you how to send your work to us. Our review process is
designed to evaluate both the technical quality of the writing and the
subject matter. Don't worry unduly, or spend a lot of time trying to clean
it up in a hurry. There is always time for that should we decide to work
together.
Email Us Your Work Please
------------------------------
To take the next step, would you please FORWARD this email with a copy of
your work and 2-3 illustrations (if needed) to:
[email protected]
(or simply reply to this email)
If you do not have illustrations for the work, please indicate that in your
email as well although your query has indicated that you do have
illustrations already.
Be sure that the information below is included in the email along with a
copy of your work. Please do not change the subject line. Our Review Team
will go over the work and get back to you in about a week.
Sincerely,
Liz, Tania, Linda, Mark - Acquisitions Team
If you would like to speak with someone, please call Mark at 561-455-6066.
For a current listing and an example of our hundreds of books published
please visit
www.StrategicBookGroup.com.
Additional information about our book marketing philosophy
---------------------------------------------------------
Please understand that first and foremost, publishing is a selling business,
not a writing business. We will be making our decision from a marketing and
sales perspective primarily.
Because we make the bulk of our money in selling books, where we should, you
will find that our concentration on marketing is world class. Marketing is
the toughest part of the book business. However, we do feel that we do a
better job than most. Selling books in the traditional manner is a very
straightforward process, then we add some special techniques that other
companies don't have. The books will be available to bookstores and on
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all major online retailers. Every publisher that
we know of, from Random House to Authorhouse, follows this marketing
sequence.
But that's not good enough! We make money if we sell books! That's what we
both need to focus on. We are specialists in finding alternate means of
distribution and working the online search engines. When you publish with
us, you will be working with our marketing specialists at
www.StrategicBookMarketing.com . You might give that website a read. And
finally, take a look at some of the examples of what we are doing for our
clients, right now.
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com/blog/
P.S. Heartfelt Praise From One of Our Authors:
I received my copy of "The Rope" today. It's hard to describe my feelings.
After all this time, it's real. It's here. And it's beautiful. I feel like I
did when my son was born. What used to be a joke, or a dream has really
happened. I received a total of eleven books this afternoon. There are fifty
more coming. I took the very first book out, and set it aside. I really want
to sign it and send it to you. I think that is only appropriate. You are the
one that has really made all of this possible. I live in a very small town.
700 people. I know most of them. News has spread quickly about the book
coming out on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, K Mart, Yahoo, and Google. They
have asked me to do a book signing and sells at the new library here in
Dorris. The support for the book has been phenomenal. I feel like a
celebrity. Tell Mark I'm not gay, but I think I'm in love with him. The
cover is fantastic. Everything about the book surpasses anything I could
have hoped for. Because of you and Mark, this is the only way a person
should consider publishing their book. I would love to be a spokesman for
you. Thank you guys. You have all been great. If you need an approval of the
book from me, you have it. But more than that, you have my respect and
admiration. Hope to hear from you soon. Terry Salyer - Author
OPT OUT: When you filled out the form you elected to receive emails from our
company. To be removed from receiving any further emails please reply or
forward this email with your email address to
[email protected] and you
will be removed from any further emails.
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EMAIL 3
Thank you for your manuscript. It has been received and will be reviewed in
the next week or so.
There is no need to send additions, fixes, cover designs, etc. We can work
with what you sent. There is always plenty of time to make changes if we
decide to work together. You should be receiving a response within the
next one or two weeks. We appreciate your patience in our review time as we
receive hundreds of submissions each
Would you mind helping us make a publishing decision by answering the book
marketing questions below?
--------------------------------------------------
We want to know more about your available time, your technology background,
and your sales proclivities. The key is consistency and focus.
=============================
Q) How much time per week do you have available to help us market your work?
A)
Q) How internet savvy and technical are you? Are you comfortable with new
programs on the web? Do you have a blog? Do you post regularly? Please
discuss.
A)
Q) Would you prefer to market on the web or market by going out and visiting
locations, giving talks or book signings? Some authors want to get out
there, some want to market only on the web, and some will do both. Tell us
about how you feel about selling activities. Some people are very
comfortable with public speaking and some are not.
A)
Q) Next, please read
www.StrategicBookMarketing.com for an overview of the
various programs that we offer. What would you most like to do in the first
30 days after your bookis released to help market your work? Please choose 3
of the marketing techniques listed on our website and note them here along
with any pertinent comments that you may have.
(NOTE: Depending on the situation, these marketing programs are generally
free to the authors we publish under our traditional publishing contract).
1st Marketing Technique:
2nd Marketing Technique:
3rd Marketing Technique:
Thank you in advance to the answers to these questions. This will help us
make up our mind as to which type of contract and agreement we can offer
you. We would like to work with you and this will help us decide.
Sincerely,
Liz, Tania, Linda, Mark - Acquisitions Team
If you would like to speak with someone, please call Mark at 561-455-6066.
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EMAIL 4
IT IS CLEARLY STATED THAT IT COST THE WRITER TO PUBLISH WITH THEM AND IN THIS EMAIL THEY SAY HOW MUCH, THOUGH THEY DON'T MENTION THAT TO BE AT A BOOK FAIR YOU HAVE TO PAY TOO.
We are sending you this email because we want you to see our commitment to
the authors we have published. We do everything we can to market our
authors and their books!
We sincerely want to publish your book
and market it in the US and around the world.
Join us now and be ready for the London Bookshow.
We hope that your writing career is proceeding successfully, and that you
will choose us for any of your publishing needs.
*******
We offer finance plans and allow you to 'pay as you go'. See below.
We know that you want to get your book published so you can start making
money with it. We are happy to take a long term view with you. This also
allows us to prove ourselves to you, one step at a time.
One of the deals we are MOST PROUD OF, IS A DEAL TO SELL OUR AUTHORS' BOOKS
IN CHINA.
Here is a page from our partner's catalog when they go to the Beijing Book
Show this year.
http://www.strategicbookgroup.com/StrategicBookGroup-China1.JPG
At the world's largest book event, Book Expo USA, New York - Strategic &
Eloquent Publishing exhibited their authors' work to an enthusiastic crowd
and great success. To see pictures of our participation in the the event,
please visit
http://s639.photobucket.com/albums/uu112/aegpublishinggroup/?albumview=grid
We had a dozen authors perform book signings and we are happy to say that
none of the authors went home with any left over books! Deals were made and
it was a great show!
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com/sbm-frankfurt-2009.html shows our
exhibit in Frankfurt where many relationships were built and deals are in
process.
We plan to be there next year with more authors.. And we hope you are there
with us!
Sincerely,
Liz, Tania, Linda, Mark - Acquisitions Team
If you would like to speak with someone, please call Mark at 561-455-6066.
For a current listing and an example of our hundreds of books published
please visit
www.StrategicBookGroup.com.
Ps. You can trust that we will produce your book. OVER 1000 authors have
published with us in the last few years. They can be viewed at
www.StrategicBookClub.com. If you sign up with us, we will deliver!
To see how we handle the production and marketing aspects of our business
you might visit
www.aegpublishinggroup.com/clientcare.html We are committed
to efficiency.
To see more about our world class marketing company please visit
www.StrategicBookMarketing.com
Let us publish and market your book. Our marketing department is better than
our competition!
Please. Let me suggest that you take a good look at our 'pay as you go'
financing package. Because of the great response to our offer, we are
filling up our time slots for production very rapidly. I strongly suggest
that you get your signed contract and initial minimum payment to the office
to reserve your place in the production process. Also, once the economy
turns back up, we may not offer this program as it is not something we would
offer in stronger times.
Let's not let money stand in the way of working together! We completely
understand cash flow challenges, so we are willing to work something out
with you. We can work with you for as little as a regular payment of $50.
We like you and your work and we are willing to try to figure something out
together. This is a slow moving business and we're in it for the long term.
We would hate to lose an author that we like because of something as simple
to deal with as money.
Consider if you could make small payments of $50 every now and then.
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We are willing to provide a program like this for authors we hope to work
with. Here is how it would work. You determine what you are comfortable
paying. We will work with you as you pay us. That way we can get started,
and we can take our time and publish the work a little bit at a time. Here
is a good example of what we have to do to publish your work and where the
costs are. The example below shows how we can proceed with someone that can
afford to send $50 to us on some regular basis.
Contract Administration and Plan Accounting ($100) - It costs us about $100
to setup your file, assign your ISBN, and to issue a receipt for your
payment. This also covers the administration associated with managing the
payment plan. As you would expect, there is more overhead with this plan
simply in terms of accounting.
Manuscript Review and Preparation ($100) - As you would expect, we have a
qualified editor review every manuscript for text quality, image quality,
formatting, legal issues, etc. We use the review as a 'roadmap' for
identifying any potential problems that can be fixed as we go. You will
receive the review and go back and forth with our review team to make sure
that the next steps go as smoothly as possible.
Text Blocking ($150) - Creating a "final" text block that is ready for the
printer takes our talented designers about 6-10 hours. We also let you
proof the Text Block and then you formally sign off on it.
Back Cover Writing ($100) - Typically, the author has a hard time writing
about themselves and it is so important that we do it well. Writing a
compelling back cover takes us about 3 hours of work and going back and
forth with you.
Cover Design ($150) - Like the Text Block, creating a compelling cover, that
you approve takes us about 6 hours of work. You will approve the cover and
we consistently get high marks from our authors for the quality and impact
of our covers.
Galley Proofing ($100) - We hate errors, but they do happen. Galley proofing
is the final/final proof step before the work is uploaded to the printer.
We need to make sure that we have the correct final files and that all work
is done to specifications.
Proof Copy ($50) - A physical proof copy is printed and mailed to you for
final approval before printing.
Ingram Catalog and File Upload Fees ($100) - There are a series of one-time
fees that we pay the printer when we send your file for processing. The
Ingram fees are to make sure that your book is available for purchase around
the world by bookstores and other outlets. Also, this fee takes care of the
upload to Amazon and other online retailers.
Author Book Selling Website ($100) - The Author Book Selling website is
where your clients can buy the book on the web. We provide a customized site
that tracks purchases, etc.
We will also be providing you with a Royalty Management system to check on
your sales and royalties and we will be providing you with monthly
production/accounting statements.
And finally, the next step is Marketing... Marketing ... Marketing..
Conclusion
----------------
The costs above are given to you at 'our cost', we are not making a profit
at those numbers. And, these costs don't even include what we will expend
on your behalf when it comes to marketing, answering questions, fixing
problems, etc.
The total above is about $900. If you provided payments of $50, that's only
eighteen payments.
So, this truly is a Joint Venture Publishing project. As you can see there
are a lot of 'moving parts' and it takes a top notch company to pull them
all together.
We have already invested in getting to know each other and we hope that we
can work something out to work together. If you can afford to send us $50
every now and then, we are happy to proceed and work for you. If we can
cover our costs, we can stay in business, and if your book is out in a year,
that's still great! Once your book is out and starts selling then there is
every chance in the world that you can recoup your investment!
We hope you will join us. To participate in this program please follow
these instructions. $50 is the minimum payment we can accept because of our
costs in issuing a receipt and managing the accounting. Of course you can
pay more if you choose.
To Begin, please reply to this email and fill in your desired amount and
frequency:
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Yes. I would like to participate in the Joint Venture Publishing Program
with a Financing Option. I am able to pay $______ approximately every
________ (weeks) and I understand that the total is $995. I understand that
this is not a formal financing commitment and that if I am late or skip a
payment that it will not be held against me. I understand that you will be
doing the work described above as I pay you and that if the work is done,
that there are no refunds. If the work is not done, then you may receive a
refund of that portion only. I understand that there is no time limit and
that I may take my time in making payments. I understand that I will
receive copies of the items described above and that I may quit at any time.
Type Your Name:_______________________________
This is not a commitment in any way. This determines if we can work
together. If we can work together we will send you the revised contract for
your final signature.
=================================================
Ok, that's it.. If you will send in this information, we will make sure that
it fits for us, and we will finalize the contract with you.
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EMAIL 5
Thank you again for your interest in our book publishing and book marketing
company. We like what we have seen so far and we would like to try to work
something out with you in order to publish your work.
At this point we have published about 1000+ authors like you, and we are
proud of what they have accomplished. These authors are holding their work
and selling nicely. It is a good feeling to move forward like this. You can
trust that we will produce your book. OVER 1000 authors have published with
us in the last few years. They can be viewed at
www.StrategicBookClub.com.
If you sign up with us, we will deliver!
The beautiful aspects of our agreement are:
1) The fifty percent royalty is industry leading, and shows that we really
are partners, and
2) if the sales are what you suggest, then you get your money back.
We think our agreement is extremely fair and takes into account the
topsy-turvy nature of the publishing business of today with its inherently
higher risks.
Before you read the information and our offer below, let us offer one
caveat. This discussion is NOT about the quality of your work. This
discussion IS about our perception of how hard, or easy it will be to SELL
your work. Many authors take a publisher's response of anything less than
"100% jumping up and down" personally.
Please understand that first and foremost, publishing is a SELLING business,
not a writing business. We are making our decision from a marketing and
sales perspective.
Based upon what we have seen, we may have a publishing option that works for
you. Our decision is based mainly on sales and marketing factors and risk
and our analysis of how hard, or easy, it will be to get to 5000 sales.
Please let me explain more.
While we are not confident that we could recoup publishing costs within the
first year of publication, we do see a possibility of recouping our costs
within the next three years. Because of this, we feel that your work is
best suited for publication under our Joint Venture publishing arrangement.
HOWEVER, PLEASE NOTE: If you plan on writing multiple books, and if sales
from the first book meet or exceed our expectations, then we will almost
certainly publish the new works under the traditional publishing model not
the joint venture model.
Here is more information about our Joint Venture program. (An agreement is
attached).
Our Joint Venture program gives you a 50% royalty and allows us to split the
cost of production with you to produce a printed book. Your one time only
fee of $995* includes ISBN, cover design, publishing, distribution,
marketing and promotion. The only elements that this cost does not cover are
illustrations and editing and editing is NOT mandatory for this offer. So,
basically, for $995 you will hold your finished book in your hand, and we
can start selling it together.
-----------------
PLEASE NOTE: If sales from the first book meet 1000 units, then you will
receive a $1000 bonus and then we will almost certainly publish the new
works without asking for your financial support of our marketing efforts.
In other words, if the first book does well, it's easy to work together to
do subsequent works at no charge to you. You will see a clause in the
contract that says that if we reach 1000 sales with your first book that
subsequent books that we publish for you there will be no shared fees AND we
will pay you a $1,000 advance.
-----------------
==================
* In today's uncertain economy we realize this may be daunting. We have a
program to reduce the risk and allow payment plans of as low as $50 per
payment. Please see the information at the very bottom if this is of
interest to you. NOTE: WE WILL ALSO DO THE WORK AND YOU WILL APPROVE IT AS
THE MONEY IS RECEIVED. It is a 'pay as you go' plan.
===================
Your book will be available for bookstores to order as many copies as they
wish through our Ingram distribution agreement, and it will also be marketed
through the online retailers such as Barnes&Noble.com, Borders.com,
Amazon.com, etc. In return for participating in the cost of publishing, you
are rewarded with a 50% royalty, as opposed to the standard 6%-12% royalty
provided by most traditional contracts.
Ingram is our US and international distributor. Bookstores can order as many
or as few books as they like and your book will be listed in Bowker's Books
in Print, the order source for bookstores. Your book will never run out of
print and there are no limited print runs.
We think our marketing department is better than anyone else. Please see
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com
We use a professional marketing team that will help you promote your book.
We will send out press releases to your local media, as well as help you
increase your internet presence with social media. For more information
about our marketing and promotion, please visit
www.aegauthorsedge.com and
http://www.strategicbookmarketing.com/blog/ . This will show you what we've
done for our other authors, including book tours, television appearances and
interviews.
We take care of building an author website for you (which you can see at
www.AEGauthorsEdge.com by searching for any keyword). We create an author
display video (check out our YouTube channel at
www.youtube.com/authordisplay ), we take care of getting your book on the
retail websites and if desired we will set you up with social media sites
such as Myspace and others.
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Sincerely,
Liz, Tania, Linda, Mark - Acquisitions Team
If you would like to speak with someone, please call Mark at 561-455-6066.
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EMAIL 6
I ASKED FEEDBACK FROM MY MANUSCRIPT SINCE I REALISED I WAS RECEIVED SAMPLE MAIL ALL THE TIME AND NOTHING WRITING ON IT WAS PERSONAL, HENCE THE REASON WHY I ASKED FOR FEEDBACK.
HERE IS THE REPLY: (ENJOY)
Our review team has reviewed your manuscript and if they did not think it would sell they would not have recommend to publish it. Sorry, but they do not give out feedback but when you get into the production process they will review your manuscript and you will get feedback from them.
IT MEANS YOU HAVE TO PAY T KNOW WHAT THEY THINK. IT'S LIKE YOU WANT TO KNOW IF YOUR BOOK IS GOOD, WELL LET'S GET IT PUBLISHED WITH YOUR MONEY THEN YOU WILL SEE BY YOURSELF
WRONG OR RIGHT?
SORRY GUYS FOR SUCH A LONG THREAD BUT IF IT CAN HELP OTHERS THEN SO BE IT.
I AM SO DISGUSTED RIGHT NOW. ESPECIALLY THAT I HAVE JUST RECEIVED ANTHER EMAIL FROM THEM WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS AND THEY LIKE TRYING TO PUSH ME UP TO SEND MONEY. 'LET'S GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED AND LET'S SELL IT...."