I was the victim of a horrendous publishing scam...

The night I typed L.R.Price into google was the night my life fell apart.

This is something I haven't spoken about in great depth publicly and now I am finally ready to talk about it.

18 months ago, I finished writing The Mannequins. It took me 4 years to write, during which I got married, graduated my teaching degree, bought a house and had a child. It was an enormous journey and it took a huge amount of blood, sweat, tears and caffeine. But it was finished. I had put the Mannequins through 5 rounds of editing and was finally ready to start looking for a publisher.

After a few weeks of looking, a company approached me. They were called L.R. Price Publications. They asked me to send my manuscript as they had seen my social media accounts. After sending the book, a few weeks later, they contacted me and said they would love to publish me book. I was overjoyed! I looked through their website and saw many positive reviews. They had a ton of accolades, testimonials and happy authors. Their website appeared legit and they had books on Waterstones and Amazon. They explained the publishing industry was extremely competitive and I would need to contribute £1500 towards the publishing costs. They sent me a fancy contract and cajoled me into believing many authors are choosing a hybrid publishing option. Unfortunately, I signed the contract.

6 months later and I hadn't heard anything from the publishers. I was starting to feel nervous. I sent an email to the Chief Editor asking why I hadn't received anything. Russell Spencer replied, stating that the people editing my book are extremely busy and if I continue to complain about the process it may have an adverse affect on the progress of my book. I was dumbfounded. The tone of his email was so curt and unprofessional, it shook me to my core. A few months later and I've still not heard anything. I send a few more emails to Russell, no so polite this time. He ignores them. By now it's been 9 months and I haven't received a single edited chapter! My mind starts going into fucking overdrive! So I call the company and demand to speak to Russell. The first few times, they palmed me off and said he was busy. After calling back 5 times over a month, I let the receptionist have a piece of my mind. To my amazement, he replies, 'I'm sorry sir, but this is a virtual helpdesk. We have no ties to the company and could not put you in touch with Russell, even if we wanted to.' That is when the alarm bells started to ring at fever pitch.

The night I typed L.R.Price into google was the night my life fell apart.

I stumbled across a website (Author Complaints at LR Publishing London Ltd. (formerly LR Price Publications Ltd.) - Writer Beware) which caused me to break out into a fit of violent sobbing. I couldn't believe what I was reading. I had waited nearly a year under the pretence my novel would be published and they hadn't even read a SINGLE FUCKING CHAPTER!!!

The more I read, the heavy the feeling pressing down on my chest became. This sick, evil, twisted, unscrupulous people had scammed over 150 authors of close to £250,000!

So here goes, let me tell you a story...

This company, many years ago, used to be legit. They published over a 100 titles and had some success (hence the books on Amazon & Waterstones.) Somewhere down the line, they decided to start scamming people. I don't know what happened, perhaps they started making a loss or perhaps they got greedy. Regardless, they made the decision to start taking authors' money and not publishing anything. The novels they did publish (over 2 years) were poorly edited and shoddy. I know this because I've been in contact with over 100 authors who have also been scammed. The company claimed to have a head office in Canary Wharf. A fellow author went to investigate and it turns out it was simply a P.O BOX. No office. They claimed to have a team of professional editors and a legal team. Apparently, (this has not been proved) they were using scammers from Nigeria with no credentials and grad students as a legal team. I certainly did not see any evidence to convince me otherwise. Their reviews, testimonials and accolades were also apparently either paid for or made up. Again, I have no evidence to prove this but my writer friends do.

Anyway, a few months after I discovered the scam, L.P.Price appeared on BBC's Watchdog (BBC One - The One Show - LR Price Publications - December 2024) This was a landmark moment for all of us who had been scammed. Unsurprisingly, the staff at L.R.Price fled like rats from a sinking ship LR PUBLISHING LONDON LTD overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK The MD (Leonard West) was first to go, followed by Russell Spencer and co. Shortly after the company was dissolved.

We are hoping they will face criminal charges but haven't heard anything yet. How these awful, terrible people sleep at night is beyond me. Scamming someone is bad enough but scamming someone's dreams? That is fucking despicable. There is a special place in hell for you!

Thankfully, my bank's fraud team acknowledged it as a push-payment scam and reimbursed the £1500 (the good karma I deserved!) I learned some really painful lessons from this experience.

1. If you think you've done enough due diligence, DO MORE! Be 100% certain before handing over any money.

2. If something is too good to be true, it usually is.

3. DO NOT pay to publish. Vanity publishing only ends in tears.

4. If you are going to sign with a independent publisher, contact their authors, buy their books and demand a face-to-face meeting.

5. Scammers are hiding behind every corner. Whether it's plumbers or publishing houses, they come in every shape and size. Keep your eyes wide open.

I hope you have learned something from this horrendous experience and took something useful from my story.