Ingram Offers Refund on Scam Title

by Kevin Howell -- Publishers Weekly, 4/3/2007 1:01:00 PM

In what appears to be the final word on a strange bookstore scam story PW broke last week, Ingram now says that it will accept returns on the previously non-returnable vanity press title The Shortcut: 20 Stories To Get You From Here To There (Author Identity Press, $17.95; 978-14243-2797-3). At the same time, a self-published writer who contributed to the title is also offering to buy the apparently unwanted books in order to dispell any suspicion that he might have had a role in the scam.

Kevin A. Fabiano is one of 14 budding authors sharing space with public domain short stories by Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe and others in the anthology, The Shortcut. He is also one of three publishing partners who put up $250 each to buy an ISBN, create cover art, create Author Identity Press and print the book through Ingram’s Lightning Source. More than a dozen booksellers have complained to PW about being duped into ordering copies of the book by a customer who gave a fake name, phone number and credit card.

Ingram spokesman Keel Hunt said Ingram made the decision to accept returns on this non-returnable title, "In the interest of supporting our customers." According to Ingram’s Automated Stock Status System, Ingram has sold 1,163 copies of the short story anthology. BookScan’s reported sales were 150 copies.

Fabiano had been cast in a suspicious light when bookstores receiving phony orders for the book were all given the same customer name: Michael Evers. Evers is the main character in two novels written by Fabiano.

"Why in a million years would I want to ruin the name of a character I am trying to brand?" Fabiano asked. "If I were to do something greedy and sleazy like this, I wouldn’t do it with 13 other authors, I would do it for a book only I wrote. And I’d never use the name of a character that I’m trying to brand and whose name I’m spreading around on the internet to promote a new novel."

Although most booksellers will probably accept Ingram’s offer, Fabiano states that he will purchase copies of the book that were bought by bookstores prior to March 30 (the date of PW’s second article on the scam. Booksellers can fax him a copy of the invoice, proving they made a purchase and he will send them a check to purchase those copies for the amount the bookstore paid. "I don’t want anyone to be defrauded, so the only person out anything will be me," said Fabiano. Bookstores can wait to mail out the copies of the books until his check clears. Bookstores should fax their proof of purchase information (and mailing information) to (763) 431-3588.

"When I read about this scam, I felt like I was hit in the chest with a sledgehammer," Fabiano said. "I’m not the kind of person who makes false accusations. I have an idea of who is behind this smear of my name, but right now I just want to fix the issue."