877-207-1679

Thanks everyone for the good information; got the call on my answering machine and decided to Goggle the number since I could barely understand it.  Thank goodness for good people who share their experience.  Thank you ...Dataed:  9/28/2011

Just got the same call. When you call back no one answers. SCAM!

I have basically the same story. I wrote a book and had it published. This woman calls out of the blue named Lee something. She had a heavy accent and connection was scratchy. Sh said she wanted to set up a free consultation to promote my book. I told her that I handle my own book promotions. I thought I was talking to Book World, apparently I was talking to BookWhirl.com Scammers for sure.I di not give out any info to this caller, thank goodness. It makes me wonder if I should pull down all my advertising on the internet about my book. That must be where she obtained her information from. Damn these people scouring the internet to ruin people's businesses.The extension they gave me was 323. Don't call these people. They should be reported to the FBI

Received call from Book World re: my book....wanted me to call....had questions....called sounded Oriental....my Dad said it was probably a scam and I thought so, too.....googled the phone number and this website came up.....

Seriously sketchy. They called my parents' house (I haven't lived there for over six years, well before I wrote my book) and asked for me. Shen/Chen Daniels, heavy accent, bookworld.com. They've called several times -- is there a way to get them to stop harassing my parents?

Once again, Chen or Jen (sounds Asian).  Calling for my son, who has not lived here for years.  Total scam.

This is who the call came from:
Jen Daniels

Marketing Associate

Marketing Services - BookWhirl.com

Toll Free: 1 (877) 207-1679 Extension # 332

Fax No.  : 1 (800) 852-4249

Email    : jdaniels@bookwhirl.com

 Info@Bookwhirl.com

 www.Bookwhirl.com

Just got the same message.  Could hardly hear the first part of the message on my machine.  Could not make out the name.  I was given extenstion 378, male voice from another country sounded as though.  I am an author who wishes to advertise in any way I can, but I usually check out all numbers before calling.  Thanks for all your information, glad I found this site.  I will not be calling this individual.

Got the same message from a Marco merralles at Book World wanted to talk about my wifes book.  How did he ever get my mobile?  

Thanks to this website there's no need to find out if it was a scam or not

I never return calls from people I don't know unless I look up sights like this.  I have written several books and my first flag on the message was that the caller didn't identify the book name.  Second, he called my home which is unpublished and is not connected to my publisher or any of my books.  I hate to say that I see a scam around every corner but companies like this continue to prove me right.  The only thing I worry about is that scammers will begin to read sites like this and start practicing new techniques to make themselves more believable.  I received a call from a 'legitimate' company with a well spoken human who had seemingly appropriate credentials, addresses and phone numbers.  He had a website that had promising information.  It wasn't until I spent more time looking at his sight and noticing little details, outdated information, invalid phone numbers, lack of 'real' references...
Thanks to all you who report scams!

Received a call from a man with a foriegn accent concerning my book "OUR LAST DANCE IN IOWA". When he stated he was from Arkansas I knew it was a scam. His name is Markus Winters at Ext. 373 , he stated he was with "Book World" from Green Bay Wisconsin. The scam involves you paying 349 dollars to place your book in their so called stores in Wisconsin and 5 state surrouding area. He will state they will have you do tv and radio interviews. I called the real "Book World" home office at 920-830-7897 and informed them of the scam.  The person stated this was a scam.

The company name is NOT Book World -- I work for Book World, and we NEVER make any such calls.  We're a retail chain of book and gift stores in the upper midwest area, not scam artists.  The culprit is "Book Whirl", and they claim to offer affordable book marketing services.  Unfortunately people often do think they're saying Book World and when they can't reach anyone at the number the scammer gives, they sometimes Google us and call here instead.  I've gotten four calls in the last week or so from hopeful authors who have done that.  Two said the name was Mark something, one wasn't sure, and the most recent one said Marcus Winters -- all same phone number, different extensions.  Don't trust them!

I have just received a similar message, now from a woman called Malissa Adams, but still extension 323 about my book 2012 Nibiru Rising. Its spread to Australia. Just thought I would update everyone.

I was left a VM on my personal cellphone about my FATHER'S self published book. There is absolutely no reason my # should be connected to his book.

Here is how that happens.  Companies such as Choicepoint use data mining to connect you up with all of your friends and relatives.  Sometimes they get it right, sometimes not, so you and your Dad may be merged in some records.  These records, flawed or not, are then available to anyone with a credit card to pay for them.  Nice, eh?

My guess: Either a skip tracer is looking for your Dad, and decided to fish with you, or the records are muddled, and someone thought they had the author.

A self-published author I worked with got a call from this number today. Foreign (non-American) woman, wanted her to call back. She couldn't understand the message, tried to call and couldn't get through. I checked the number for her and found this forum. I'm sure it was this bookwhirl.com (she thought it was bookworld.com the woman said) and I've told her it's a scam and not to call back.

Just got a call, couldn't understand what he was saying.
Googled the area code and saw all these post. Sounds like
A big scam. Never called the number back.

Received a phone call.  Tried to call the number back but it keeps ringing or going into a message loop (ie: you use a menu to find the person that called you; regardless of which number you select - operator, current customer, etc. - you will be put on hold for a long time or someone picks up the phone and hangs up!)  Read the other reviews on this number.  Could not tell if the person was from Book World or Book Whirl?  The person had a slurred (quiet) speech.

I never reached out to these callers.  Suggest for anyone to stay away from them.  Their cold calling prospects seems very dodgy.

Got a call from a rep at this number a couple of hours ago (I believe that she said her name was Amy). Interestingly, she was looking for my fiance's father -- who has a nearly three decade writing career and a couple of New York Times bestsellers under his belt. He has gone the self-publishing route because the traditional publishing industry has narrowed to the point that there is no such thing as a mid-list anymore; many other former mid-list authors have gone the same route for the same reason. (For those who don't know the terminology, the mid-list was composed of authors who were not consistent best-sellers, but had solid sales records with good followings; between 25,000 to 50,000 sales per title.)

Dad-in-law to be also has an easy-to-find website with contact information and title availability. The fact that Bookwhirl called us indicates really sloppy data mining techniques. I actually thought that they were looking for my fiance at first, since he and his dad are co-authors on a couple of titles, and it wasn't until Amy mentioned the name of the book that I figured out who she wanted.

Really, this makes me cringe. They're so obviously taking advantage of people who don't know the first rule of publishing: money flows *toward* the author.

I got an interesting call from (maybe) Miss Flory Torres who had a few questions about my self-published book 'University- War of the Twin Thrones'. Thinking it might be someone interested in paperback distribution I tried to call back, just got a msg machine, twice. While the 'calling from' on the message left me was garbled, the company named in the callback (which did NOT sound like the "I'm calling from..." name sounded like Book World. So, I look up 'BookWorld' and find a chain store in the upper midwest, but no reference to the phone # I called. I tried the phone number, and found this.

Disappointing, but not surprising.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it just might be a con man in a duck costume.

The # given me was 877-207-1679 x 380.