I got this letter in my mailbox recently about a new book marketing company called BookWhirl:

It has recently come to our attention that a company, by the name of BookWhirl,
has been contacting Xlibris authors and offering to provide internet book marketing
services to promote their book. While we encourage you to explore every avenue
available to you to maximize your book sales and exposure, we recommend that you
exercise caution when dealing with any company that has no discernible history or
that seems to appear overnight. To protect yourself, it is advisable to background
check any company that contacts you by visiting the Better Business Bureau
online at http://www.bbb.org/ .

At one of our author’s behest, we took the liberty of doing some background research
on the aforementioned company and found that the address listed on the website does
not exist. Using an online research program, we were able to determine that there
is no building existing on the site, only a vacant space. Furthermore, our attempt
to send a letter communication by Federal Express was returned to us citing the
reason “No Address Existing”. In a subsequent exchange of e-mails with a BookWhirl
representative, we requested for a correct US address, but were given the same
address that appears on their website, and that was listed by Federal Express
as not existing.