The answer is YES!
Now, do we do this all of the time? No! But, we do research!
I am bring this up based on a recent submission I had in the last couple of weeks. The authors had a pretty vague query letter as well as using only initials for his/her signature. As someone who likes to address people professionally and with the right gender attachment, I did some searching. Here's where it gets fun (and scary).
The first thing that pops up in my search is a legal case (I did also verify this in the court system as well). This author had a $2 million and change settlement against him/her for... get this.., embezzlement.
WHAT???????
I only wanted to find out about a gender and I got this. Dodged that bullet.
But what else do we look up?
For starters, I have a lot of people who tell me they have been previously published by some of the major publishers. This is a good thing, but again, when they keep things vague, we want to know more. When those books were published 2 decades ago, or the projects were not exactly the way the books were portrayed in the query, then we have a problem.
I also research when someone says they have an active social media following, a blog or something that makes them sound like a great person. So, let's see what you have?
The reality of this situation is that, we do look. If what you are claiming is not all there, or you are hiding something. news WILL GET OUT!!! I promise.
As far as the author with embezzlement charges, you might want to rethink things.
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