Support for Indie Authors discussion

So today I get an invite from StoryRocket.

"I recently came across your author profile and had to reach out." Yeah, right.

Anyone ever dealt with them? Seems exceptionally scammish to me, but as Mrs. Rock constantly reminds me, I am far too skeptical.

Not in this case - has scam written all over it.

StoryRocket is an interesting thing. If you have a book that has movie potential, you might consider it. But for most it's a waste of money. They do host online "Ask Me Anything" meetings that might interest some. I checked it out but didn't do anything with it. There is a guy one town over from me who did us it and got a producer interested. So this is neither an endorsement nor a detractor. It works for some, probably not for the vast majority.

Robert wrote: "StoryRocket is an interesting thing. If you have a book that has movie potential, you might consider it. But for most it's a waste of money. They do host online "Ask Me Anything" meetings that migh..."

Best way to determine if it works for anyone is to see if StoryRocket has ever optioned a book into a movie. A reputable company would be all about advertising such success. A scam, not so much.

They do have success, but again, not for everybody

Robert wrote: "They do have success, but again, not for everybody"

Okay. The thing that has me stumped here is this. I went to their website and for the life of me, cannot figure out how they make any money. They position themselves as an aggregator, or meeting place for writers and agents or producers. But they provide no concrete examples of success stories that I could find.

Wouldn't a company such as this celebrate the successes they've achieved? Wouldn't that be a selling point to attract more business? It makes me wonder just who these "agents" and "producers" are that frequent the site. And, back to the money, just when the touch or request for funds will be applied.

Tread carefully.

My rule of thumb is:

If they contacted me out of the blue, it treat it as a scam. Legitimate companies do not have time to proposition unknown authors. Sort of like the company who was using a Canadian movie company what was in bankruptcy.

The other thing--if they ask for money, delete. That is a scam.

The site doesn't ask for money. It says membership is free.

I know full well when a service is free, you're not the customer. You're the product being sold.

Just for fun I submitted a question to their help desk basically asking what their business really is.

I'll post their response here, assuming I get one.

Interesting side note for what it is worth. Storyrocket is promoted through Bowker, the agency that is responsible for the sale and administration of ISBNs in the US. Storyrocket is listed as one of Bowker's author resources on Bowker's website. I just received an email from Bowker regarding a discounted promotion for Storyrocket.