A key aim of this petition is to reveal cases of exploitative behavior by unethical UK book publishers such as Max Scott. The following is Bashar Tabbah’s experience.

In brief: Max Scott took $10,000 from Jordanian corporate sponsors to publish and print Bashar Tabbah’s photography book. Scott spent the money to repay his debts instead and never printed the book.

Bashar Tabbah is an established Jordanian photographer and researcher who has published several photography books about Jordan and Palestine. Ten years ago, Bashar started working on his first major photography book, which focused on Jordan’s cultural heritage. After two years of research and photo shoots Bashar began to look for international book publishers. The most enthusiastic of them was Max Scott who expressed great admiration for the subject and for Bashar’s work.

He agreed to publish and print the book internationally, through his company Gilgamesh Publishing, if Bashar would pay him $10,000. Bashar secured this money from three Jordanian corporations who agreed to sponsor the project as an important national endeavor.

After receiving the money, Max Scott’s commitment to the project dramatically changed. What followed from Max was a distressing and endless series of missed deadlines, unresponsiveness, manipulation and unfulfilled promises. Max finally admitted to Bashar that he had used the Jordanian sponsors’ money to pay his other debts instead. Bashar sought help from the UK’s Society of Authors. They wrote to Max a number of times but he eventually just stopped responding. The book was never printed causing Bashar serious moral and reputational damage,

Please see the full account of this story and others here : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569955141326