A couple of years ago, Lin Robinson told us about some shady activity on LinkedIn by one Korede Abayome, who runs Indie Writer Support and ParaDon Publishing , among other things.
According to his bio, Abayome was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in California. He goes by a number of different aliases, including Celina Marka (acquisitions editor for ParaDon), Judd Miller (ParaDon’s webmaster), and Artis Reed (which appears to be a pen name of Abayome’s). He sells publishing services to would-be writers, but his customers say he pockets the payments and never provides the services. One of these iffy services is a $250 “Elite Membership” to Indie Writers Support, which claims it has “raised a few authors to the NY Times best sellers list.” Of course, it doesn’t say which authors it has helped to get on the list. ParaDon also claims to have struck a deal recently with BookBub; as you might have guessed, BookBub says it has never done business with ParaDon.
Also troubling is ParaDon’s proposal to send each of its authors a debit card, to which their royalties (which, curiously, ParaDon touts as being a “50% royalty or less”) would be deposited. Similar debit cards have been dinged for having high fees. Some even charge the card holder 50 cents if the card is used for a point-of-sale purchase.
ParaDon claims to be located in Great Falls, MT, but its address apparently doesn’t exist. Great Falls police reportedly issued a warrant for Abayome’s arrest early last month.
All this is documented in this thread at the Absolute Write Water Cooler. The thread is 21 pages long and dates back to 2011. Feel free to read it yourself. It’s fascinating stuff.
There have been enough reports of scammy behavior involving Korede Abayome over the years that I would think twice about doing business with him, any of his aliases, and/or any of the websites associated with him.
(Thanks to Phillip Frey and Julia Atkinson for the tip.)
Thanks for posting about this. I dealt with these fools (Judd Miller) when they first started. At the time their services were much different. I paid for a service (100.00) which was suppose to be posting on various sites etc about my new release (2012 – Reflection) on two separate occasions. They claimed they did it the first time and I fought to get the second one done. No clue if they ever did it the first time. It got to the point that I threatened to sue and demanded my money back. Of course I never received anything back and simply gave up. They used to run a website too. Not sure they still do or not. I removed myself from anything having to do with them. BEWARE! I still get emails from Judd Miller (yesterday) asking me to join a web site.
Ugh, Kim. Sorry you lost money to this guy.
He runs several websites and at least one Facebook group — none of which I’m going to link to, because he doesn’t deserve the clicks from us. I will say, though, that the Indie Writers Support site lists all of his various outfits at the top of the page.
Great post, Lynne. Another PSA from IU!
Thanks, Candace. If we can keep one indie from getting suckered by these types of outfits…
Thanks for the warning. I have seen their posts doing the rounds again lately. If it sounds too good, then it always is.
Absolutely true, Vicky. Thanks!
Wow! How do people get away with this stuff? Thanks for warning, Lynne.
You bet, Linda.
I hate to sound defeatist but do any legitimate support companies actually exist? 🙁
There definitely are, Meeks, but it does seem like scammers hide behind every bush.
The only way to deal with this stuff is with knowledge. Thanks, Lynne.
You’re welcome, Gordon. 🙂
Well done, Lynne… all we can do is keep putting the word out and, hopefully, flush these rock spiders out of the shadows.
That’s the plan, T.D. — thanks. 🙂
Thanks for updating the ParaDon/Abayomi saga!
Kim, it’s not too late to report Abayomi’s fraud to the police in Great Falls, Montana. One of their detectives is working on the case, and the more people who come forward the better. I’d also advise you to report IWS to the Federal Trade Commission.
Abayomi, wearing his Judd Miller hat, now claims that ParaDon’s first books will be published this month…which, if true, is depressing. There’s plenty of info out there about Abayomi’s dishonesty, and ParaDon’s own press releases are so absurd they’re laughable. Alas, some writers are so desperate to be published they just ignore the giant red flags flapping in their faces.
For what it’s worth, ParaDon has been rated F by the Better Business Bureau after Abayomi ignored their emails regarding his false claims about ParaDon’s imaginary founder, the size of the company and the photoshopped image purporting to show ParaDon’s HQ in Great Falls.
Julia, thanks for coming by and letting us know the latest. And thanks, too, for spreading the word about this scammer.
Thanks for the info. Will pass on the warning.
Thanks, Susan! 🙂
A website devoted entirely to ParaDon and its offshoots will be up and running in a few days.