Approached by a publishing company, no money upfront, but will want 50% of subscription fees. Fishy?

[Quantum Fome]

I produce an investing podcast that surrounds new prediction technology. We have bi/tri weekly discussions on the market and particular stock picks that seem promising based on this tech. My partner was approached by a marketing/publishing firm suggesting that they ghostwrite a book (for free) and they would schedule for one of us to appear on select podcasts within their network (they claim one of them has 9 million listeners). I don't really know what to ask but to me this doesn't seem legitimate. Are there any questions that I should be asking to weed out possible scams?

 

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[Choate]

I would not give up 50% of my revenue for a free ghostwritten book and the opportunity to appear on a few podcasts per month. The only quantifiable numbers I'm hearing here is how much you would be losing if you were to take on this deal.

 

[Quantum Fome]

% of a company for a free ghostwritten book and the opportunity to appea

Just got off the phone with them. Their idea is to write an ebook, with a ghostwriter (free) and split the revenue generated from the sales. Supposedly, she estimated that within 3-6 months there would be upwards of 100k sales of a <$10 eBook. They claim to have done this with over 2000 books and are incredibly good at it. Part of the marketing strategy would be having us on Podcasts that get a lot of listens (one in particular, London Real). When asked for more information, she seemed upset and said that she wasn't there to audition. That's when the Zoom call disconnected due to running out of time.

 

[William Steele]

I'm in the publishing business and get emails like this daily.

When I first started receiving emails like this, I was like you.

"Oh wow this important company that makes a lot of money and wants to partner with me"

It's all BS and noise.

It comes down to what do YOU want to do with your podcast at the end of the day.

Do you want to sell your podcast to a larger media company?

Do you want to grow your podcast with 100% equity?

How much money do you want to make?

These are questions you should have thought about extensively.

Everything I'm seeing here is just noise. It's all promises and marketing BS.

Keep growing your podcast and ignore all of these kinds of emails.

Do you think Joe Rogan responds to these kinds of emails? He makes millions every month.

P.S. You have an investing podcast, investing is one of the most expensive, most competitive, and most profitable markets that exist. If you can build a media company in that market, you're golden.

P.P.S. I've watched London Real for years, unless Brian Rose emails you, or you can an email from someone with an @londonreal.com email address, I would ignore it.

 

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[Rabby]

Next comes the part where they tell you they need a small investment of $5,000 just to get the whole thing started... but "don't worry" everyone makes bucket loads of money off our 9 million listener advertisement-cast and word salad ebooks.

"When we said no money up front, we meant until we feature the book..."

 

[Quantum Fome]

"Oh wow this important company that makes a lot of money and wants to partner with me"

It's all BS and noise.

Thank you. This is kinda what I thought.

Next comes the part where they tell you they need a small investment of $5,000 just to get the whole thing started... but "don't worry" everyone makes bucket loads of money off our 9 million listener advertisement-cast and word salad ebooks.

"When we said no money up front, we meant until we feature the book..."

The funny part is, when I asked to see more information she said to look at her website. I was like, you mean the personal infomercial you have about how great you are with no measurable success? She was apparently insulted that I said we would want to think about it. An act, or ego. Either case, a no thank you.