If you recall, last month, a book publicity agency — the Albee Agency — posted testimonials on its website falsely attributed to some authors like me, Maureen Johnson, and Myke Cole, using our names without permission. (My post on the subject is here, but also have a look at the Writer Beware entry on them by the most excellent Victoria Strauss.)
Once busted and folks started tweeting to them, the testimonials remained the same but they changed the names associated with those them.
Things have been quiet since then, except recently I caught wind of:
@shamtown not only that, the articles calling Albee agency a scam were faked and paid for a competitor.
— Noah Murphy (@Murphyverse) January 11, 2013
I want this to be very clear: saying the Albee Agency falsely attributed my name and the names of other authors to testimonials they never gave was never an act of espionage launched by some other agency. It was a reporting of details. Nobody paid me. The blog post is not a fake.
I asked the person above (@Murphyverse) about where he heard that.
Was it from the Albee Agency? Is that what they told him?
@murphyverse @nvbinder Where then did you get the idea that I was paid by some competing agency?
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) January 12, 2013
They might have suggests, at least, that there is a chance the Albee Agency was lying to him about what went down regarding those testimonials, telling clients that those posts were faked and paid for by a competitor (@Murphyverse claimed it was “Smith Publicity” doing the dirty deed), when in fact no such thing was or is true.
Murphyverse followed up with (this time without an @-to me, perhaps mistakenly):
They told me the competing agency harressed you int…. You know what, they may not be a scam but I can’t trust them
— Noah Murphy (@Murphyverse) January 12, 2013
(I assume that’s to read, “harassed you into it.”)
Here, the key is, “they told me.”
Meaning, the Albee Agency told him that.
Meaning, they lied to him about that.
Looking through his Twitter stream seems to indicate other problems with the Albee Agency (issues of payment to them without result, issues of non-communication, etc).
The Albee Agency also now has a “word press blog” (“There is not wrong or right way to write a blog.. it is totally personal to you and your interests.”). But maybe there’s also this one? albeeagencyblog.wordpress.com? (Where they misspell their own name as Alby Agency?)
Once again, this is a reminder to be wary of any company out there in Internet-Land who provides dubious services and throw up a whole shitload of red flags. They particularly like to prey on self-published or “indie” authors. So, again, as Victoria Strauss says: writer beware.
14 responses to “Follow-Up On The Albee Agency Kerfuffle”
It saddens me that we live in a world where vanity presses and scams like this are abundant.
Isn’t this enough to convict them of fraud? I mean, people pay them money for a specific thing (publicity), and it seems that that money isn’t at all being used for that purpose. I’m not a legal buff, so that’s why I’m asking.
Thank you for warning the public about this company, I think it was brave of you to confront these people in public. I’m also amazed at how they tried to discredit you by saying you were being paid or harassed into speaking out against them. Apparently there are no depths to which they’ll stoop to keep their “business” afloat.
Back before WIFI was common, I had a friend who created patch cables that would allow you to use a cell phone to access dial-up for you laptop. It was pretty amazing. He had these companies in Asia build the cables to his specs (he was a tech engineer) and then he set up his business using Yahoo! and sold them online. He had a website with multiple phone #’s for tech support, information, sales, etc., but they all rang to the same phone in his basement. The point is, most people probably thought this was some sort of high-tech business that had all of these people working at it — and that is the image he tried to cultivate, instead of the reality that it was a smart guy working out of his basement.
My guess is Albee is the exact same setup, except he’s a shitbird and trying to take people’s money in a scam. Take a look at Google maps streetview of the neighborhood his mailing address exists in. He probably has a side business selling mail-order medicinal pot. Someone should drop in on him and ask him about his business.
It never fails to amaze me to see what people will do in the attempt to make money. I’m not naïve but I still cannot believe the online bs I see every day.
I am utterly aghast–aghast, I say!–to learn for the very first time that you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
I’m glad you wrote this. I’m done with them. Especially since this appeared: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/small-businesses-protect-web-copycats-steal-site-content-article-1.1239301?localLinksEnabled=false
All their half-assed excuses just aren’t adding up anymore or make no sense. I just wanted to believe they weren’t complete scammers
There will be more media about this situation with the Albee Agency. The NY Daily News article is only the beginning. He’s blaming a competitor (I’m assuming my agency) after he ripped off my website copy and posted testimonials from fake authors?
It’s all a bit puzzling. And if he continues down that road, then yeah, this’ll keep popping up.
— c.
[…] Public relations firm Albee Agency made headlines a while back for attributing promo blurbs to authors they had never worked with. One of those authors was Chuck Wendig, and he has a follow-up as to what’s happening now with the Albee Agency. […]
[…] on in the scam so as few people as possible are taken in by the ruse. With the Albee Agency, the slew of faked testimonials was an obvious giant red flag for the company’s legitimacy. But as Victoria Strauss, blogger for […]
Omg, so glad I just stumbled across all this craziness! I discussed getting some pr help from an agency called: sandpiperpublicity.com While doing my due diligence, I found THIS post! Looks like Mike Albee and Lura Dold Albee have just started a new pr company to cover their tracks??? Even some of the website content has been copied. SCARY!!!
Yes, Albee has started a new fraud publicity firm, Sandpiper Publicity. The old Albee Agency website is down. He is unbelievable, a true con-man.
You’re not the only ones… Finally someone decided to stop those con artists, please read the story of writer Thomas Wictor:
http://www.thomaswictor.com/my-two-favorite-con-artists-2/
Mike’s newest venture appears to be http://www.moonandstarsproductions.com