3 ms·

This looks like a bit similar to various 'vanity publishing' operations in the writing world. These varied quite a bit, there was an era (pre-Internet) when it

This looks like a bit similar to various 'vanity publishing' operations in the writing world. These varied quite a bit, there was an era (pre-Internet) when it wasn't uncommon for the up-and-coming corporate executive to hire a writer and publisher to write a glamorous biography and print a few thousand copies, to be handed out to whoever would take them. I suppose today that approach could plausibly provide a 'source reference' to base a Wikipedia page on (See! See! Someone wrote a Book about Me!). I suppose this is relatively harmless, if a bit ridiculous. However, another side of the vanity publishing world is pretty scammy, basically promising writers and musicians and artists (generally ones with little commercial promise) 'a chance at success' by taking their money and doing things like this. https://selfpublishingadvice.org/what-is-vanity-publishing/ https://selfpublishingadvice.org/what-is-vanity-publishing/ > "A reputable company empowers clients with the information they need to choose the right service for their needs. That's in stark contrast to the deceitful and manipulative tactics used by vanity presses, where the goal is to sell the authors as many services as possible."

bombcar 4y ago
A similar thing exists in the music industry outside of Instagram, continually selling wannabe musicians "agent access" and "recording sessions" for $5-10k a pop and never actually doing anything.
digitallyfree 4y ago
I think there have also been cases where celebrities or politicians have hired fake "fans" (basically actors) to show up to their appearances and make them appear more famous then they actually are.
- willcipriano 4y ago
  Paparazzi are typically tipped off if not outright paid to show up at the right time.
aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago
>However, another side of the vanity publishing world is pretty scammy, basically promising writers and musicians and artists (generally ones with little commercial promise) 'a chance at success' by taking their money and doing things like this. My wife’s mother is a lovely lady whose hobby is writing. I won’t say she’s particularly good at it, but hey, let a 60 year old lady do whatever makes her happy, right? Then one day she announced that she won a “contest” with one of her novels, and it’s going to be printed by a publisher! She was super pumped about the whole thing, but gradually it came to our knowledge that she’s gonna pay a substantial sum for this from her pension, because the “prize” was actually just a 50% “discount” on getting her book printed with this publisher… Clearly, there was no real contest at all. This was just a vanity publisher preying on less sophisticated aspiring writers to part them from their money. It’s a complicated situation, because on one hand we didn’t want to ruin her happiness; on the other hand, she was clearly getting scammed badly… In the end we managed to convince her to go with the smallest possible quantity, which was of course then distributed mostly among family and friends. Very disgusting and sad practice.

bombcar 4y ago

A similar thing exists in the music industry outside of Instagram, continually selling wannabe musicians "agent access" and "recording sessions" for $5-10k a pop and never actually doing anything.

digitallyfree 4y ago

I think there have also been cases where celebrities or politicians have hired fake "fans" (basically actors) to show up to their appearances and make them appear more famous then they actually are.

willcipriano 4y ago
Paparazzi are typically tipped off if not outright paid to show up at the right time.

aaaaaaaaaaab 4y ago

>However, another side of the vanity publishing world is pretty scammy, basically promising writers and musicians and artists (generally ones with little commercial promise) 'a chance at success' by taking their money and doing things like this. My wife’s mother is a lovely lady whose hobby is writing. I won’t say she’s particularly good at it, but hey, let a 60 year old lady do whatever makes her happy, right? Then one day she announced that she won a “contest” with one of her novels, and it’s going to be printed by a publisher! She was super pumped about the whole thing, but gradually it came to our knowledge that she’s gonna pay a substantial sum for this from her pension, because the “prize” was actually just a 50% “discount” on getting her book printed with this publisher… Clearly, there was no real contest at all. This was just a vanity publisher preying on less sophisticated aspiring writers to part them from their money. It’s a complicated situation, because on one hand we didn’t want to ruin her happiness; on the other hand, she was clearly getting scammed badly… In the end we managed to convince her to go with the smallest possible quantity, which was of course then distributed mostly among family and friends. Very disgusting and sad practice.