Kerry Slattery, general manager of Skylight Books, Los Angeles, Calif.,
has another cautionary tale about an author appearance scam (see yesterday's Shelf Awareness), one that
happened a few years ago. She writes:
"The author Eric Alterman [a columnist at the Nation and author of What Liberal Media?, When Presidents Lie
and more] was scheduled to appear at our store, and C-Span was planning
to cover it. I got a call that morning from 'Eric Alterman's
assistant,' who told me that he was terribly sorry, but that Eric woke
up with a serious case of bronchitis and would not be able to catch his
plane to do the event and wasn't able to talk at all--and that he felt
just terrible about it. It was a very busy moment at the store and I
didn't think to get the number, etc. The first thing I thought of was
to call C-Span and let them know. I don't know why I didn't think to call the publicity person at the publisher, but I didn't
have it handy and I was really busy, and the call seemed convincing to
me. When I called C-Span, they contacted the publisher and found out
that Alterman was indeed planning to appear and that the call was a
scam (apparently from someone who didn't agree with the author's
political views)! Fortunately, I hadn't sent out a cancellation e-mail,
and everything was fine, but I felt so foolish for being taken in."