The WritersWeekly Podcast

Music: "Light Rays" used with permission from Billy Bob Thornton and The Boxmasters. https://theboxmasters.com/store     Do you remember the movie based on the Stephen King novel "Misery?" An author is stalked and captured by an obsessed fan. She proceeds to torture him while still professing her admiration of his works. “I’m your number one fan!” Although most stalkers don&apo...

We decided to have a silly episode. Clayton Jones and Brian go head to head to see who knows more about little factoids in the literary world.  How many of Angela's questions can YOU answer?  Join us for fun, laughs, and some interesting information you may have never hear before as we play the Weird & Fun Book & Author Trivia Game. Text us directly and tell us what you think of this...

Guest: Gary Sturgis, The International Bestselling Author of Surviving Grief – 365 Days a Year In this episode, we continue our interview with BookLocker.com's international bestselling author Gary Sturgis! Do you have a book on the market that's not accumulating the sales you'd like to see? It's likely due to your marketing strategy, and how you communicate with potential read...

Guest: Gary Sturgis, The International Bestselling Author of Surviving Grief - 365 Days a Year  Do you have a book on the market that's not accumulating the sales you'd like to see? It's likely due to your marketing strategy, and how you communicate with potential readers online.   In the next two episodes, Angela and Brian welcome back Gary Sturgis, BookLocker's best-selling a...

You've heard us say it over and over again: DO NOT PAY FOR BOOK REVIEWS!  So, what is an author supposed to do? Wait around, hoping for readers who might decide to take the time to review their book? Beg people on social media for positive write-ups? Ask their family and friends to post reviews on Amazon? (DON’T DO THE LATTER! You could get banned from Amazon for doing that! We explain why in...

Approximately 90% of banned Amazon KDP accounts are never reinstated!   We were recently contacted by yet ANOTHER terminated Amazon KDP author. His unpaid royalties are $38K (!!!), and there is NOTHING he can do to get his account back (he’s tried!), nor to get his $38K. He can’t even access his files, nor see his past sales reports. He’s completely and permanently LOCKED OUT of his Amazon KDP acc...

In this episode, Professor Clayton Jones joins us again! Being an English Professor at the University of Tennessee, a professional editor, AND a professional book marketer, he’s seen it ALL! And, so has Angela, who has been in the business for 28 years! While Clayton discusses authors who have behaved badly when working with him, the examples Angela shares are from folks who contacted her through...

Could that very active fellow Facebook author group member really be a SCAMMER? Chances are pretty high THEY ARE!   Publishing scammers have infiltrated Facebook’s author groups to perform DATA MINING! What’s the problem, you ask? All they have is your Facebook profile link. So, what’s the big deal?   Nope, that’s not ALL they have! They start with your profile, and within minutes, they likely kno...

In Episode 10 of the WritersWeekly Podcast (one of our most popular ones!), you heard the story of how Angela Hoy started WritersWeekly.com as a young, single mother, with MANY challenges along the way. Those included skipping meals early on to ensure her children were well-fed (her ex wasn’t paying court-ordered child support), and later suing Amazon.com for federal anti-trust violations, and win...

In this episode, Angela and Brian share real stories about lawsuits that were filed against authors, and how those proceedings affected them financially…and otherwise. So many authors feel that, even if they get sued, they might win…so, no problem, right? WRONG! In the U.S., unless a case is declared frivolous by a judge, you might never get back all the money you spent defending yourself.  Anothe...

If you hate scammers, you're gonna LOVE this episode! Angela actually convinced this scammer to write an ARTICLE telling all about how he fools people into thinking he is a book marketer/freelance writer based in the USA, and convinces them to pay him for his "services." What's best is that he have all the messages and emails between Angela and this scammer, in which he reveals...

In this episode, Angela and Brian go over the latest “services” that international scammers have dreamed up to suck authors’ bank accounts dry. They will even tell you that not buying some of these services could land you in jail! Don’t be taken in by these fraudsters! No longer is it simply offering “full publishing services” for rock-bottom, unbelievable prices (the “publisher” then disappears w...

Traditional publishing? Self-publishing? Hybrid publishing? What's best for YOUR book? Is your manuscript even ready for publication? Who can help you determine that, ensuring a polished manuscript, and the best possible chance for future sales? The good news is, there is no need to walk the publishing path alone! In this episode, Angela and Brian explore the benefits of hiring an Author Coac...

In this episode, we are joined by BookLocker.com author, Rickey Pittman, The Bard of the South!    Rickey is an author, musician, storyteller, historian, and college professor. His major focus is on Southern America. He unearths and creatively covers old stories that tell of the South’s rich history, struggles, and unique identity. And, his fiction is AMAZING, too! (Read more about that under Epis...

Have YOU, too, received a bad book review that was all about you and not about your book at all? JOIN THE CLUB! In this episode, we share several real examples sent to us by authors who have been the victims of this type of vendetta online. We also share how you can respond to these personal attacks with maturity and class. And, by doing so, you can save your book sales!  =========================...

In this week's episode, Brian and Angela welcome friendly and feisty Bob Wahl to the podcast! Bob is 91 years young, and is the author of five books. He contacted a company called Authors Hike / AuthorsHike.com to help promote his books. After paying them $4,000, he was shown a web page that had a graphic of more than 1400 (fake!) "orders" for his book. Author's Hike then tried...

Could this publisher be a scammer??? We keep receiving emails asking this exact question DOZENS of times every week.  Now, in this Episode, using the examples of Ashbery.com, NYBookPublishers.com, and McGilliganpublishing.com, we SHOW you, step by step: WHERE to look for the evidence that an online publisher is potentially a scam. WHAT to look for to determine if an online publisher is potentially...

Michaele Aldophe had a heart-wrenching but also hopeful and faith-filled story to tell the world. As a 14-year-old migrant from Haiti, Michaele (Mickka) was raised by her abusive father. She grew up, graduated from college, got married, and gave birth to a premature child who wasn't expected to live. Through prayer and the grace of God, he did! A divorce then left her raising her child alone....

It was all coming together. His five-book series were going to become a movie! A "literary agent" had reached out to him via email just last month.   Then, in emails shared with the author, that agent was negotiating between a “Fox Entertainment” executive, and a famous screenwriter (a member of the Writers Guild of America) who is currently in California, working on the next season of &...

We've heard it a thousand times: "I KNOW my mother (father, sister, brother, Uncle Cletus, Aunt Ethel, etc.) bought my book! Where are my royalties?!" And, a thousand times over, we've had to break it to an author: "We're sorry but your relative actually did not buy your book. They lied to you to keep the peace." And, we provide proof to the author that the sale...

Please excuse the audio quality on this episode. You can hear and understand the conversation perfectly, but we had a technical glitch with the microphones. As a result, our audio went through the computer microphone rather than our professional grade exterior mics. This is still a wonderful and VERY intriguing story and we know you will enjoy it. ****** The year was 1971. A young, twenty-somethin...

THIS IS PART 2. DON'T MISS PART 1! Please share the links to these episodes with your friends and family members. MORE IMPORTANTLY, listen to these episodes and then sit down with your children to educate them! We know it will be uncomfortable but The Yahoo Boys and other scammers are responsible for not only financial devastation, but also for deaths all over the globe. WE MUST PROTECT OUR C...

Facebook owner, Meta, projected $16B in revenues from SCAM ads – and it was POLICY. Reuters conducted an investigation covering 5 years’ worth of confidential documentation by Meta Platforms, Inc. (the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) that described the company’s attempts to figure out how much the company would PROFIT from advertising purchased by the scammers. According to R...

They started the original "Nigerian Prince" email scam, but have expanded into so much more! Join Angela and Brian as we slog through the grimy slums of Nigeria and Ghana - home of one of the oldest, most sophisticated, and most successful scamming organizations: The Yahoo Boys. In this episode, we discuss the broad diversity of scams these techno-theives are involved in, their extravaga...

Sorry about Brian's voice on this episode. He was in the preliminary phase of COVID, and now he's totally laid up and miserable.  In this episode, we discuss a new scamming technique that combines the old with the new. Scammers are now using AI to create convincing-sounding "reviews" of authors' books, while using spamming software to send out these email scams by the thou...