A Belhar pensioner has broken her silence about a publishing company that allegedly scammed her out of thousands of rands.
Sylvia Abrahams, 71, is a retired nurse who decided to write a book about her 50 years of nursing experience.
The mother of three says in 2015 she saw an advert in a newspaper for a book publishing company called Publishing World SA, who had a store in Goodwood at the time.
She says she paid them R33800 to publish her story, but a few days later was told curtly that “nobody would want to read this”.
The hartseer mom says she was crushed and went home.
But the process was already under way and the publisher promised to edit and compile her book anyway.
After months of waiting, she went back to check on the progress only to discover that the company had closed shop.
“The shop was gone, the phones were off and nobody was in sight. I didn’t know what to do and so I just kept quiet about it because that was a hell of a lot of money I just lost,” she says.
But she recently decided to speak out after her daughter referred her to Living Coloured author Yusuf Daniels for assistance.
Yusuf, a self-published writer of four books, has been offering advice and classes to children and adults interested in becoming writers.
He says he was kwaad when he heard how Sylvia was ripped off.
“How can they rob an old lady of her dream? They took her money! This woman could have been my mother, and so I am upset, ek is bef**,” he says.
“Why is it that there are so-called publishing companies and actual publishing companies that charge people five times the amount than what they should to publish a book, and then on top of it you (the companies) do half or no work.
“A pensioner who saved up and used those savings to publish her book was scammed out of all her money and got absolutely f*k*l in return.”
Yusuf has now agreed to help Sylvia publish her book at a “very minimum cost” which is yet to be determined.
Sylvia says: “I am really grateful to Yusuf for wanting to help me get my book published. I know I won’t get my money back from Publishing World SA. I will leave them in God’s hands.”
When the Daily Voice called Publishing World SA on the number provided, and visited the address, the number was non-existent and there were no offices for the company at the address.
The Daily Voice has also tried to email and inbox the store via social media but received no replies.