Author: Robert
Date:   09-14-08 21:21

You know, I was going to vanish for a while, but in my leisure time discovered yet another one of Robert Fletcher's brazen scams.

He and his cadre of con men are now hiding behind a front called "Strategic Book Publishing". They also have a "literary agency" supposedly catering to all genres.

I'm too lazy to do any further research into his latest cons, but here's a hint.

Go to the wayback machine, and look up rfletcher.com. There is a page from 2007 which directly links to strategicbookpublishing.com. There is also strategicbookagency, strategicbookmarketing, and probably a plethora of other clones pointing directly to our friend from Boca Raton, Robert Fletcher.

Christ, I have to admire this guy, he has balls of brass!

That's all I have to say for now, it's up to you guys, Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin to thwart Fletcher's latest incarnation; I'm growing bored playing with him.

Author: Kitty Foyle
Date:   09-14-08 22:33

Thanks, Robert. We discussed this a bit in a recent thread.

http://www.writers.net/forum/read.php?f=10&i=184601&t=184556

Hmmm....maybe you and the con man knew each other in a past life! And this time around you're determined that he gets what's coming to him.

Don't get bored with it...you're doin' good! :-)

*_*

Author: Wonky
Date:   09-15-08 02:16

I wonder what Fletcher's eternal punishment in hell will be?

Author: Joe Zeff
Date:   09-15-08 15:08

Reading all the books he's tricked people into paying him to agent them, and editing them. Once edited, they are turned over to a demon who's job it is to rewrite the book without correcting any of the issues, after which they go back into his reading queue.

Author: Kitty Foyle
Date:   09-15-08 15:57

After a zillion years go by, he will have to scarf down every one of the books. This will of course make him puke.

The puke will then morph into yet more books to be edited...books that had been written by trillions of his hoofed cronies. Who wrote them out of spite. 'Cause they too think he is a rat bastard.

At which point...

*_*

Author: Joe Zeff
Date:   09-15-08 18:27

It occurs to me that I should ask two of my Big Name Author friends. Years ago, they co-wrote Inferno, taking place in Dante's Hell, with sins he'd never dreamt of. One of the most memorable images is what is being done to the babylonian who invented "paperwork." He's trying to fill out his retirement forms, in triplicate, on clay tablets. Alas, he's doing so in the city of Dis, with red-hot iron walls, which means that the clay always dries long before he's done. Recently, they finished the sequel, Escape From Hell. Last time I was house-sitting, I saw a printout of the manuscript, but Jerry didn't offer a look, and of course I didn't.

Author: Smiling Curmudgeon
Date:   09-15-08 22:20

Joe,

I knew one of your BIG Name author friends tangentially in college. Sat at a long dinner table, along with other young guys. Played poker with him once in a while in his third-floor garrett (sp?. He was a couple-three years ahead of me, and wouldn't remember me. Always wished I'd had the opportunity to know him better.

Loved his books for many years.

Cur

Author: Joe Zeff
Date:   09-15-08 23:08

Interesting. Not, I presume, the one I house sit for. If you ever come out to the LArea, come to a LASFS meeting; he'll probably be there and might remember you.

Author: Robert
Date:   09-16-08 02:11

Hi everybody!

Kitty:

Don't worry, I'll keep playing with Robert M. Fletcher and his scurvy ilk on occasion, it's become a hobby of mine.

Trouble is, it's 2008 and most servers use encryption these days, and I'm sure Fletcher's on to me by now, considering I paraded all of his little secrets before the entire world, from ByteAudio to his LSU follies.

Aside from all that crap, between fixing computer systems and online commodity trading, I don't have the time I did back then.

I swear, Robert M. Fletcher, alleged Ch.E., must hate me. I like that; I would if I were him, and I hope he does hate me for exposing him for the unmitigated fraud that he is. If he only knew who I really was, he'd probably have a stroke!

Funny thing is, he has no idea who I am, and he never will. I hope he reads these words and grits his teeth in anguish.

That's what he gets for f***ing with the wrong man, Bobby.

Yes, this is a vendetta, which I will not stop. If Fletcher gets close to me, I'll simply disappear for a while and leave him holding dry sand that runs through his greasy fingers.

For the real Robert Fletcher: I've left you a few clues in this message - see if you can figure out who I am, @!#$.

Come on, computer guy, find me - you smiling, evil, beady-eyed fraud! I'll bet you don't know Basic from C; I've been screwing with you for six years and you still haven't caught on!

A clue: my real name is contained within this very message.

Go ahead Bobby, try keywords, simple code, or even hexadecimal code. Try calling that fat slob "futurist" friend of yours Paul Anderson in Texas for help - I guarantee that you cannot find out who I am, ever - for I'm smarter than you could ever be.

Author: Kitty Foyle
Date:   09-16-08 11:07

Oooooh....this is exciting! :-)

*_*

Author: Wonky
Date:   09-17-08 03:06

I would like to see a pic of the real Fletcher!

Author: Kitty Foyle
Date:   09-17-08 11:13

Wonky, we must be patient. Here's what he said in the Profanity thread:

At any rate, if time permits, I’ll try to dig up two photos I have of Robert, one of him standing before a lectern, lying to a crowd of people no doubt, and another from his defunct website rfletcher.com. That photo has a close up of our friend in a business suit with a striped tie if I recall correctly, smiling like a vicious Florida alligator. I also have a photo somewhere of bloated Paul Anderson; he appears to be 5’10” and about 275, and looks about to explode; he reminds me of a land bound orca in a blue suit. Further, if one dressed him up in a Nazi officer’s uniform, he could pass for a Hermann Goering look-alike.

Other Robert will surely post a pic any day now.

*_*

Author: Wonky
Date:   09-17-08 23:05

sick

Author: Robert
Date:   09-18-08 03:12

My good friend Wonkster:

We've corresponded in the past.

I've tried to post a picture of Fletcher here, there is no way that I can post his scurvy ilk on this forum. I'm an IT pro turned day trader, and I can't hack a photo of Bobby onto this site. I've tried for two hours, the server is locked out and I'm not going to waste any more time trying to break in. I have to get to bed so I can trade commodity stocks tomorrow. For me, that's six AM California time and it's 12:48 here.

For the record, Wonky, Bobby Fletcher looks like a beady eyed Jew from suburban Haifa in Israel. I'm a beady eyed Jew too, hailing from Sacramento, CA, posting from Rhode Island, as of this post, so please don't take it personally, that is, if you are of Jewish ancestry. I am very proud to be Jewish, so don't think I am using my description of Robert's ethnicity in a pejorative
vein.

Indeed, I do like bagels my friend, especially with cream cheese, but I don't keep kosher, to my Orthodox father's chagrin, as I love ham and cheese, raw oysters on the half shell, and steamed jumbo shrimp. My mother cringes as my my four children from my lovely Catholic Shiksa wife frolic among the northern redwoods in our suburban backyard.

Hell, the wife is calling, I love her intensely but even she can be a shrew, though she is Irish - Swedish - Italian. What a combination.

Enough of that, I'll build a blog for yours and other's viewing pleasure on Google or Wordpress shortly, leave a link here, and post Fletcher's pix on the blog. In the close up, he's actually wearing a red tie; I was wrong with regard to the striped tie.

Take care people, and watch out for Robert Fletcher, Ch.E., he's no match for me, but he is still a danger to all aspiring writers.

Author: Kitty Foyle
Date:   09-18-08 11:11

Good grief, Other-Robert...you're from Sacramento?

I've been semi-living here for the past year and a half (don't ask!), but plan to move back to the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York as soon as the opportunity arises.

They don't even attend to their road kill out here! A few weeks ago I was walking home on one of the main streets and saw what looked like a large reddish-haired dog sprawled in the center of the road. A woman who approached me from the other direction sadly confirmed that yes, it was indeed a dead dog. :-(

Horrified, I turned around and took a parallel street back home. (I'm a sensitive soul.) I felt so sorry for its owner. Surely there must have been one around somewhere.

Exactly a week later I was in that neighborhood again. As I got closer to where the dog had been hit, I saw.... the dog ! It's mangled corpse was still squashed in the center of the street. Not as much of it, of course -- some crows must have had a few meals out of the deal.

I quickly turned my head and hurried by...fuming all the way home. When I called the Sanitation Department and told the guy the location of the remains, he said, "That's the County's responsibility, not ours." Yeah, he said he'd pass my comment on to them.

Okay, Other-Robert...will look forward to seeing your blog.

*_*

Author: Kathy Michaels
Date:   04-25-09 05:45

Hi, I'm not sure if I should be posting here, sorry if not. I just wanted to say how relieved I am to have found this thread as I was just about to sign a contract with SBP and pay them $675. I am concerned now as they have my manuscript. Do I need to worry?

Author: Allen Schatz
Date:   04-26-09 16:29

Glad I started to check out the sites too... I also just made a boo boo and sent my manuscript... I immediately followed up with another stating the first should be ignored and the attachment deleted... both will be saved just in case something goes wrong. I'm pretty sure we're protected by copyright laws (even if we never file anything) -- but I'm going to go do some research right now.

When I got the messages saying someone was interested, something in the back of my head said "too good to be true" and all the crapola in the email they sent should have been more of a warning... but unfortunately, Yahoo email doesn't let you 'recall' a message.

Good luck to both of us.

Author: Allen Schatz
Date:   04-26-09 16:40

http://www.allsands.com/writing/copyrightswrite_xa_gn.htm

Author: Kathy Michaels
Date:   04-27-09 04:19

Hi Allen, cheers for getting back with that info, great to know they can't use it. I'm seriously considering publishing it myself as an e book from my website and giving it 6 months to see how it goes, got to be worth a try...

Author: James Macdonald
Date:   08-20-09 13:44

Apparently our boy Bobby Fletcher is renaming his scam yet again to Strategic Book Group.

Same people, same scam, same source of income (the authors' pockets). Just another name change.

With any other company this would be brand dilution and they'd slit their own throats before they'd do it. With Fletcher, it's camouflage and staying one step ahead of Google.

Author: Jennifer Monreal
Date:   01-06-10 23:25

I thought all my dreams had come true when I signed my first contract with a literary agent. Then I was amazed when they hooked me up with a publisher...Strategic. Well, being new to the publishing world...I was an easy target. I signed a contract for two of my works and invested over $1600.00. Now that the illustrations are complete and the ball has fell into thier court, no one will answer any of my emails or phone calls. There has been no effort on their part to fulfill their end of the contract. Who is this Robert and what do I do now?

Author: Jennifer Monreal
Date:   01-18-10 08:30

Well, it seems to not be true. There were a few glitches, but we have finally moved into the text blocking stage with Strategic. Aparantly, they are a genuine company. You guys really had me worried.