Woman sentenced in literary scam

SYRACUSE - A woman accused of bilking would-be authors with false promises to publish their books was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Martha Ivery, 57, pleaded guilty a year ago to 15 counts of mail fraud and other charges. The Catskill, N.Y., resident was sentenced in federal court to 65 months in prison. She also was ordered to pay 231 victims $728,248 in restitution. As part of her guilty plea, Ivery admitted she defrauded clients from 1995 through 2002, either through her publishing company in Catskill or by posing as a literary agent named “Kelly O’Donnell.” When Ivery failed to follow through on promises to publish books, she told writers there were problems with illustrations, or computers, or, in one case, that the manuscript had been aboard one of the planes hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks, prosecutors said.