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Book Millionaire
Want to be a best-selling author making millions of dollars? Then sign up to be on Book Millionaire and your dreams could become reality! Here's your chance to finally become America's next Best Selling Author and Reality Show TV Celebrity! We are scouting for the next group of candidates for America's hottest new reality show. Act now. Picture yourself featured on national television sharing your story, writing, book-to-be or book with millions of people showing you have what it takes to be America's next Best Selling Author and Book Millionaire.
John Ordover brought this to my attention, noting that it looks like a scam, and I have to agree with him. On Book Millionaire's website they claim to be producing a new reality show, but nowhere can I find what studio or network they're working with, or where they're getting their funding from. Plus, they don't even require contestants to be published authors. You only have to have an idea for a book. But how can you become a bestselling author without a book? Maybe they'll help you sell your idea to get a huge advance. Could happen, so it's not impossible that it's legitimate. And maybe they don't list any partners because they haven't sold the idea to any networks yet. I don't know. But right now it looks kind of shady.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Thu Apr 14, 2005 | Permalink |
Total Comments: 16
Category: Entertainment, Literature/Language
Category: Entertainment, Literature/Language
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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Not that I know ANYTHING about the industry but aren't some shows developed, and even pilot episodes filmed, and then they're pitched to the studios in an effort to get someone to pick it up... and therefore pay $$$ for it and pay for the future production costs? Could be legitmate in their efforts to try and make the show, but I doubt it'll go anywhere if that is the case... sounds like really BORING T.V. to me... a show about reading. How American is that? 
Posted by Mark-N-Isa in Midwest USA on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 07:56 PM
That could be, but there's not even a production company listed as the developer. Based on the info on their website, they seem to basically have an idea for a show, and that's it.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 09:51 PM
So, they have an IDEA for a SHOW which is about people who have an IDEA for a BOOK. Can't see how THAT can fail! Now all they need is an IDEA of a NETWORK.
There's always PAX, I suppose. If they'll put my fat as on the air, they'll put on ANYTHING!
Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 11:46 PM
There's always PAX, I suppose. If they'll put my fat as on the air, they'll put on ANYTHING!
That's "ass," not "as." I was distracted by my cat trying to climb the window screen.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 11:47 PM
Sounds like some kind of vanity publishing thing -and how is such a show going to actually work, on a practical level? What could be more boring that watching a bunch of people write a book? Every week, will the contestants be asked to read out loud the most recent five hundred words they have written? How will the audience interact with this?
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 05:19 AM
My first thought, too, was (if it's at all legit) is some sort of vanity press setup. No way I'd submit anything I wrote to this sort of thing.
No doubt it'll sucker in a lot of people, though.
Posted by Nigel on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 06:28 AM
No doubt it'll sucker in a lot of people, though.
As someone who makes these stupid shows for a living, I can tell you that this is definetly bogus.
Most of the time a show is bought by a network when it is cast, but in some rare occasions the show will be cast on spec by a production company. Since the show lists no networks, nor production company or sponsors, it's BS.
Production companies also love phones, I know because I'm on mine all damn day. Yet if you want to audition for this, you're only given a PO box in Wisconsin. My first tip for any production company based out of Wisconsin, get the hell out of Wisconsin. There's no industry there, and no chance to take meetings or sell a concept.
Not to mention the fact that it's an idea for some of the most boring television imaginable. This is either a vanity press, or an out and out scam.
Posted by Lothar Ignatius on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 08:45 AM
Most of the time a show is bought by a network when it is cast, but in some rare occasions the show will be cast on spec by a production company. Since the show lists no networks, nor production company or sponsors, it's BS.
Production companies also love phones, I know because I'm on mine all damn day. Yet if you want to audition for this, you're only given a PO box in Wisconsin. My first tip for any production company based out of Wisconsin, get the hell out of Wisconsin. There's no industry there, and no chance to take meetings or sell a concept.
Not to mention the fact that it's an idea for some of the most boring television imaginable. This is either a vanity press, or an out and out scam.
Real simple solution, folks. Just google "Lori Prokop," the host of the alleged show -- and find out that she's a major Internet MMF scammer. Best Seller would seem to be just a lure to drag in people to pay Lori lots of money to learn how to make money fast...
In fact, Best Seller doesn't even seem to be a vanity press. I have a feeling the switcheroo once they get the suckers in the door is to teach them how to be the best seller as in salesman -- selling Lori's crap and giving her most of the money, of course.
Posted by Teotwawki23 on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 11:34 AM
In fact, Best Seller doesn't even seem to be a vanity press. I have a feeling the switcheroo once they get the suckers in the door is to teach them how to be the best seller as in salesman -- selling Lori's crap and giving her most of the money, of course.
So, the deadline for application is 7/31/05. They then plan to select participants, film the show, finalize it, sell it to a network, and get it on the air for the fall of 2005. All this in four months? I guess it could happen, but don't networks usually finalize their schedule months before?
"Book Millionaire" Host and Executive Producer Lori Prokop has 10 years of television experience...
Damn, I have 34 years of television experience myself. My parents have been watching even longer.
The Listing for Best Seller Publishing, Inc on Preditors and Editors states "Not recommended. A print-on-demand publisher located in Bruce, WI. and operated by Lori Prokop. (P&E believes that Prokop may be a pseudonym)."
Posted by Charybdis in Hell on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 12:43 PM
"Book Millionaire" Host and Executive Producer Lori Prokop has 10 years of television experience...
Damn, I have 34 years of television experience myself. My parents have been watching even longer.
The Listing for Best Seller Publishing, Inc on Preditors and Editors states "Not recommended. A print-on-demand publisher located in Bruce, WI. and operated by Lori Prokop. (P&E believes that Prokop may be a pseudonym)."
I gotta bridge you can buy.
Posted by pepe nero in New York on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 06:45 PM
Lori Prokop is, of course, an anagram of 'OK! Roli prop!', which is the kind of thing a four-year-old child might say if he or she were starting up a propellor-driven aircraft.
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy on Sat Apr 16, 2005 at 11:30 AM
This is being discussed on a writer's forum I frequent. The concensus seems to be that this is BS.
Not to mention, "Lori Prokop" hasn't a single TV credit listed on IMDB from her "ten years" of experience.
Posted by Brian Sack in NYC on Mon Apr 18, 2005 at 03:25 AM
Not to mention, "Lori Prokop" hasn't a single TV credit listed on IMDB from her "ten years" of experience.
Reminds me an awful lot of the Python skit where you get a running commentary on Thos Hardy's new novel.
Posted by Allen on Wed May 04, 2005 at 02:26 AM
Aw sh*t! After reading what you all wrote I am really dissapointed. I submitted an application and I feel like I just got suckered. Ok, So that was a fun exercise. NEXT!
Posted by Lorne in Arlington VA on Fri Aug 05, 2005 at 12:57 PM
Ditto to what Lorne wrote August 5: I too submitted my application and audition tape—which was the most difficult project I've done in YEARS, I might add. Man was I excited—as was my husband, family, neighbors, associates, etc, etc...
I was so excited I couldn't think straight—cliche or not, that's how high I was from this project.
Then, for some reason, I did a Google search on Lori and Book Millionaire, and that's when I started reading all of these postings saying it's a scam, hogwash, and BS.
What bugs me the most is that I found out about this show and audition through my Erma Bombeck Newsletter. Coming from them, I figured it was legitimate....I mean, aren't they savvy to scams and schemes? Don't they have Erma's pristine reputation to protect?
So, what's the latest on Book Millionaire? Anyone know?
Sheree
Posted by Sheree in South Carolina on Thu Aug 25, 2005 at 06:57 AM
I was so excited I couldn't think straight—cliche or not, that's how high I was from this project.
Then, for some reason, I did a Google search on Lori and Book Millionaire, and that's when I started reading all of these postings saying it's a scam, hogwash, and BS.
What bugs me the most is that I found out about this show and audition through my Erma Bombeck Newsletter. Coming from them, I figured it was legitimate....I mean, aren't they savvy to scams and schemes? Don't they have Erma's pristine reputation to protect?
So, what's the latest on Book Millionaire? Anyone know?
Sheree
Lori says that Book Millionaire was killed by a secret publishing industry conspiracy that paid bloggers to criticize her project.
You can find out more about online huckster Lori Prokop's Book Millionaire scheme, and her other get-rich-quick schemes, here:
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/lori-prokops-sp.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/loris-mission-f.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/the-best-of-lor.html
Posted by Lee Goldberg on Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 12:43 PM
You can find out more about online huckster Lori Prokop's Book Millionaire scheme, and her other get-rich-quick schemes, here:
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/lori-prokops-sp.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/loris-mission-f.html
http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2007/09/the-best-of-lor.html
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