THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR CHERYL KAYE TARDIF

Mystery, suspense, thrillers, paranormal, horror & YA by "Cheryl Kaye Tardif" & romance by "Cherish D'Angelo". Cheryl is represented by Trident Media Group in NY.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

eBookSmarts warning to my author friends!

There is a company called eBookSmarts (.com) run by a fellow named Hassan Shah, and I am appalled at his expectations--and you should be too.

They claim to be able to give you free stats on your books. Sounds okay. I was interested, even though I have other ways of viewing stats. But I have always been open to new ideas, so I thought I'd give them a try.

After finally getting into the site, I went to set up my book info and what did I discover? They actually wanted me to give them my Amazon login info, INCLUDING PASSWORD. WTF???

And you only discover this AFTER you have signed up for their free beta.

When I asked him what "idiot in their right mind" would give him such access, he said "Apparently a couple hundred idiots think our service is worth trying..."

Wow...

Then he mentioned KDP. So he's asking for either my KDP login info which gives him access to all my personal info like bank account info, including the ability to mess with our publications, pricing and more; or he was asking for my personal Amazon account login info, which gives him access to my personal info and credit card. Really??

ANY COMPANY WHO ASKS YOU TO GIVE YOUR AMAZON ACCOUNT INFO IS UNPROFESSIONAL AND BORDERS ON "SCAM"!

Ok, today's rant--over! Maybe...

UPDATE: Jan 25/14:

They sent out a mass email stating: "We are just sending out an email to let everyone know that we have hit a few speed bumps. Not to worry though, we are implementing a new solution to overcome the issues. You may notice a few changes by tomorrow afternoon, but nothing major."

First, I never opted in to any email, nor have I communicated with them via email in the past. I have only communicated with them Facebook. So let's add adding people to a mass email without their permission. Um, that's called SPAMMING! Will wonders never cease...
 

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