Author Margaret Shurdom produced a book about her family’s life in Oman from 1948 to 1983. She paid Max Scott a large sum of money to publish and print the book. Scott took the money, never printed it yet still sold it on his website without delivering it to buyers.
The following is Margaret's experience in her own words.
My family lived in Oman between 1948 and 1983 and I have a deep and abiding connection to the country.
In 2019, I presented to the Omani undersecretary of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, some water colors of Oman which my grandmother painted in the 1950s. I also informed him that I was writing a book about early Oman and would be using my father's photographs of that period. He was very interested and even offered to publish the book but said it would take some time. In retrospect, had I accepted it would have been published much sooner and would not have been such a painful experience.
I began to look for a publisher in 2021 and contacted Max Scott of Nomad Publishing in the UK. I was aware that he had published other books for friends in Jordan and in cooperation with my book designer. He had finished those books in a few months and his fees were less than other publishers. Upon signing a contract with him in October 2021, I paid half the fee. On December 9th, 2021 he sent me the invoice for the second half of the payment and said the book would definitely be out by Easter, April 2022 at the very latest.
Easter came and went with no book and thus began a period of delays, unanswered calls and sporadic e-mails from him, never answering my questions but giving long explanations for delays and filled with empty promises. Max Scott was very charming, a smooth operator and obviously a great swindler. This went on for over a year and in the meantime he had put my book on Amazon, UK and was taking pre-orders. I found that out from four friends who had ordered the book, sent him the fees, and received nothing in return.
Finally, along with others who had been swindled by Max in the same manner, a few of us decided to take him to court in the UK. We began the process and asked him to remove our books from his site and from Amazon and to refund our money. He finally took our books off Amazon and his site but we have received no refunds. Eventually he stated he wanted to settle out of court. But again it was the same story - many delays and no replies to our lawyer's requests.
I have been extremely disappointed with Max Scott's behavior. Not only did he betray our trust but he took our money and seemingly has no intention of returning it. In my case he would have also damaged my credibility with the Omanis had I not known them so well. I certainly do not wish for anyone to go through a similar experience.
I believe it is essential that anyone involved in UK publishing or protecting author's rights should look into this matter and take action.
Please get in touch with us if you have also been affected by a similar experience on defendmeauthors@gmail.com.
Please see other cases in the updates section of this petition and at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569955141326