Up-Date on Miami International Book Fair “Offer”

7.08.19

Last week we alerted you to an email from EC Publishing that has been sent to many of you, stating that your book has been chosen to have a “special spot” at the forthcoming Book Fair in Miami. One of our intrepid members, Leticia Mooney, identified this as a suspicious offer, but decided to respond to the email in order to find out as much information as possible. She has given us permission to use her experience in the hope that it may be of benefit to other members.

Leticia initially corresponded with the sales person who sent the original email, forcing EC Publishing to clarify that they “do not own or organize” the Miami Book Fair and are in fact “only one of the contributors”. The email then went on to try and answer the issues Leticia had raised, including intellectual property, territoriality, channels and distribution and applicable fees. The answer was sent in an unfinished email, followed by a request to disregard the email sent in error and to say that the matter had been referred to their Board of Directors.

If you weren’t suspicious before this, you would certainly be starting to wonder why sensible questions were remaining unanswered by now.

The Finance Manager then wrote, with a sales pitch about their service but provided none of the requested detail, other than the offer of a Skype call. When Leticia pressed again for details, she was advised that EC Publishing would discuss and get back to her with a proposal as soon as possible. That was 4 days ago and there has been no further correspondence.

We can only echo Leticia’s advice and thank her so much for her willingness to share this enlightening information.

Leticia’s warnings:

• Know what your rights are
• Know the right questions to ask to elicit the information that you need to make a good decision
• Be unafraid to call out inconsistencies
• Persist even in the face of pushback

Always remember that a good business will have no problem answering fair questions directly.