Legitimate publishers, or scammy villains? How can you tell?
by Anne R. Allen
New writers have much to be wary of these days. New publishing scams are landing in writers’ inboxes faster than we can send out warnings.
Probably the most dangerous predators for the newbie writer are phony publishers, because they can shatter dreams as well as drain bank accounts.
I often meet writers who fell prey to less than legitimate publishers like PublishAmerica — later known as America Star Books. Or Author Solutions snagged them in one of its many predatory incarnations.
The “bad guys” are the companies that pretend to be selective, traditional, royalty-paying publishers, when they’re actually “vanity” presses. “Vanity Press” is an old-fashioned term from the days before digital self-publishing, when publishing your own book cost a fortune and didn’t do much but feed an author’s ego.
Present day vanity presses generally use hard-sell tactics to push worthless marketing packages as well as overpriced self-publishing services. Bookstores know them well, and usually won’t take their books, even on consignment. Their reputation for producing unedited dreck can sometimes get an embarrassed newbie writer laughed out of a store.
Vanity presses often require that the author buy a certain number of print copies. These are usually priced so high that an author would have to sell them at a loss to compete with traditionally published books.
On top of it all, these companies can tie up a copyright for years.
In all cases, they are in the business of making money FROM the writer rather than FOR the writer.
They stack the deck against you by charging more than you can ever make back in book sales. An author can’t make a profit with a vanity press book.
But Aren’t There Legitimate Self-Publishing Companies?
Absolutely.
Companies like BookBaby, Lulu, Ingram Spark, D2D, Smashwords, and CreateSpace (now part of Amazon’s KDP) are all reliable self-publishing companies.
There’s nothing shady about offering paid services to self-publishers. Very few indie authors can produce a professional quality book without hiring professionals. Amazon itself used to offer fee-based assistance with cover design, interior formatting and even editing.
You also want your books to be with a reliable distributor.
Going to one full-service company, like Lulu or Bookbaby—a place that provides all the services, including distribution—is a reasonable option. Especially for a new author who doesn’t want to learn a bunch of new tech as well as everything else involved in launching a book.
They’re also an excellent choice for people who aren’t planning to write more than one book, and may have a memoir, family history, or collection of recipes or poems they want to publish mostly for family and friends.
But this is a situation where the buyer needs to beware. Shop around and compare prices. Good self-publishing assistants charge a competitive rate for their services. Some, like Story Editing Services, (which offers cover design and formatting as well as editing), charge by the hour, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Vanity presses charge a whole lot more than simply the cost of the services. They may not even list their pricing on their website. They may also ask for rights. No legit self-publishing assistant has any need of your publishing rights.
And they will never call themselves publishers.
Types of Publishing Available to Today’s Author
1. Big 5/Major Publisher
These mostly require a literary agent. The “Big 5” are Penguin-Random House (PRH), Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, and HarperCollins.
There are other major publishers that usually require literary representation as well. Some of the best known in the US are Kensington, Norton, Workman, Chronicle, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Abrams, Scholastic, and Amazon imprints like Lake Union, Montlake, and Thomas and Mercer. (Amazon imprints are not carried in brick and mortar stores, but they are otherwise like the other major publishers and the Big Five.)
2. Small, Independent Presses and Micropresses
These are sometimes called “indie” publishers. (Just to confuse you 🙂 .) Many of these are prestigious, and may require agents. But some high-profile indie presses will look at unrepresented manuscripts too. Some you may recognize are Algonquin, Graywolf, Tin House, Grove Atlantic, and Copper Canyon. And there are new small presses and micropresses springing up all the time.
These can be the best route for literary or niche authors. The top indie presses have the same kind of distribution as the Big 5, and their books can be chosen for Oprah’s book club and nominated for the big awards just like bigger publishers’ books.
But most small presses aren’t high-profile. They’re also not big money-makers. And since their owners are often more into literature than business, they can go under. That means even though they are legitimate publishers with the best of intentions, you could still end up being stiffed for royalties.
So check a company’s track record before submitting. If they’ve been around a while, it’s more likely the owners aren’t just winging it.
3. Digital-Only or Digital-First Full-Service Publishers
Imprints of both major publishers and indies can be digital-first. What this means is the book is first published as an ebook, and the paper version doesn’t come out until/unless the digital version sells.
Harlequin’s Carina Press, HarperCollins’ Killer Reads and Harper Legend, and PRH’s Alibi are all digital-first publishers.
Many independent digital-first companies aren’t household names, but they’re solid, legitimate publishers that pay royalties (often much higher than the big guys.) They have acquisitions editors, book editors, cover designers, formatters, etc. who insure quality.
4. Yourself: Pure Self-Publishing
The author is CEO. You’re the owner of a publishing business that hires people to do the formatting, cover design, editing, etc. You hire professionals to do all those jobs you’re not qualified to do. (And the days of getting away with 100% amateur self-pubbed books are pretty much over.)
Self-publishing is a great choice if you’re a savvy business person and write in a genre that’s read voraciously. You need to be good at producing quality writing fairly quickly. For more on how to self-publish effectively, see my post on 9 Tips for Self-Publishing Successfully.
If you don’t know where to start looking for professionals to hire, I recommend Reedsy, which has vetted lists of service providers for indie publishers. (No I’m not an affiliate. I just like them.) And if you’re looking for translators, editors and other freelancers with a global reach, there’s a new company called ServiceScape that looks intriguing.
DO learn about the business before starting your own.
5. Hybrid Publishers
These can be confusing, because the lines between hybrid, assisted self-publishing, and vanity publishing are blurry. Sometimes the blurring is done intentionally. So be extremely careful before signing with a hybrid company.
A true hybrid publisher charges an upfront fee, but they should otherwise behave like a traditional publisher.
This means they maintain a reputation for high quality. They are selective in what they publish, and provide solid professional editing, design, marketing, and distribution.
Make sure they really do! Look at the books they’ve published.
Here are the IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association) criteria for an approved hybrid publisher as reported by Publishing Perspectives. A good hybrid press must have:
- A defined mission and vision
- Vetted submissions.
- Publish under its own imprint(s) and ISBNs.
- Publish to industry standards.
- Ensure editorial, design, and production quality
- Pursue and manage a range of publishing rights. (They’ll either work to get you audio and foreign rights, or you can negotiate to keep them.)
- Provide distribution services. This means they have a sales staff that actively market your book to retailers and distribute to wholesalers.
- Demonstrate respectable sales. A hybrid publisher should have a record of producing several books that sell in respectable quantities for the book’s niche.
- Pay authors a higher-than-standard royalty. Because the author has made the initial investment, IBBA says the royalty should be 50% or higher.
Hybrid companies can be pricey. But pricey doesn’t always mean scammy. If you go this route, shop around. And don’t be flattered into signing before you’ve done thorough research.
6. Assisted Self-Publishing
That’s when you hire a “general contractor” to manage many of the non-writing tasks. Assisted self-pub includes pay-upfront models or royalty-sharing models.
I would recommend the royalty-sharing over the pay-upfront, unless the pay-upfront company is also your literary agency, or someone else who is invested in your book’s success.
A number of literary agencies do have assisted self-publishing wings to help their authors self-publish between releases with traditional publishers. These are operations like Fuse Literary’s “Short Fuse” press, which is exclusively for their own otherwise trad-pubbed clients.
Assisted Self-Publishing vs. Vanity Presses
A lot of vanity presses pose as self-publishing assistants these days, so again, authors need to do their homework.
A good self-publishing assistant—
- Does not pretend to be a traditional publisher.
- Is transparent about what they are and what they do.
- Never bad-mouths other legitimate types of publishing (or publishing industry watchdogs.)
- Charges the going rate for services and lets you know where the money goes.
- Does not push expensive marketing packages. (A tell-tale sign of a vanity press.)
- Does not ask for rights and offers non-exclusive contracts that can be terminated at will.
- Is not pushy or flashy or hard-sell.
- Never promises the impossible, like getting your books into the big box stores, landing you a movie deal, or rocketing you to the NYT bestseller list and Oprah’s Book Club.
- Does not require you to buy print copies of your own book or make them so pricey that you can’t make a profit when you sell them.
- Has a reasonable production schedule and can give you a launch date so you can plan your publicity.
Self-publishing services’ fees will be a good deal lower than vanity or hybrid publishers, so you have a much better chance of actually making money with your books.
Here’s a list of self-publishing services with ratings from the Alliance for Independent Authors.
Beware Vanity Presses Masquerading as Legitimate Publishers or Self-Publishing Assistants
Some self-publishing services started out as legit, but discovered they made more money selling useless marketing packages (and ridiculously pricey booths at book fairs). Or Author Solutions scooped them up and turned them scammy.
When iUniverse started in the late 1990s it was an excellent self-publishing assistant. There was no KDP in those days, and POD was brand new. It was a great way to self-publish at the beginning of the digital publishing era. I have friends who published with them early on and were happy campers.
Then Author Solutions bought the company. The authors found themselves in telephone sales hell. They were harassed day and night by predatory salespeople trying to bully them into buying high-priced marketing packages.
Some of Author Solutions’ brands are: AuthorHouse, Trafford, iUniverse, Xlibris, Palibrio, BookTango, WordClay, FuseFrame, Archway, Partridge, Westbow , Balboa Press, Abbot Press, and Dellarte Press. They are probably buying up new companies as we speak.
You don’t want to go there.
Even if you’re willing to pay the high prices for services you could get cheaper elsewhere, the constant hard-sell harassment can drive you batty.
In 2014, Penguin Random House bought Author Solutions and many top publishers let them take over their self-publishing wings. The result was disastrous lawsuits. PRH finally had enough and sold Author Solutions in January of 2016 .
But there are plenty of new scammy vanity presses mushrooming up all the time. Author Solutions is still doing business under ever-changing names. Industry watchdog David Gaughran always has the latest news on these less than legitimate publishers. And always check Writer Beware.
You also always want to do a search on the name of the company with the words “scam” and “complaints.”
Beware Bad Contracts
Even legitimate publishers can come up with some pretty rotten contracts, so remember that the best policy is to run any publishing contract by a lawyer before you sign.
Ruth Harris offers this bit of valuable advice:
“Bottom line when deciding whether or not to sign with any publisher is to have an IP lawyer review the contract. A good IP lawyer can revise clauses in the writer’s favor when a legit publisher is involved or warn you away from agreeing to predatory contracts. The expense will be well worth it to save you from rights grabs, insane “fees” and future years of misery.”
Remember that writers who are desperate for publication are easy prey. Don’t let yourself be pressured into signing anything.
***
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) October 7, 2018
What about you, scriveners? Have you or anybody you know been taken in by vanity presses posing as legitimate publishers? Did you see an ad for a company that looked “too good to be true” and wondered if they were legitimate publishers? Have you used assisted self-publishing or hybrid publishing?
You can hear a podcast interview with Anne at the Writing for Children website this week. I talk about blogging for authors and give some of the background of two of my mystery novels. My microphone was ancient, so I sound pretty ancient too, but it’s a fun interview.
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Anne—Aaaargh! Thanks for the invaluable info. Sounds like there are more ways to get scammed than there are to get published. 🙁
Ruth–I’m afraid you’re right. Self-publishing has given the old fashioned vanity press momentum–and a whole lot more nasty ways to prey on newbies.
Some things that help identify if a publisher is a scam or doesn’t know what they’re doing:
* Spelling errors on the web site, or in the paperwork they send you. One anthology I submitted to had a spelling error in the street address on the printed letterhead. It was a sign that did not bode well.
* No contract. And if you get a contract, read it carefully before you sign it. If there’s something in there you do not agree with, DO NOT sign it. Your strongest power is to walk away, and many writers fear never getting published that they will knowingly sign a bad contract.
* Website selling to writers, not to readers. Even the small press sites are focused on their readers.
* Information for writers is vague. They say they take submission and don’t tell you the word count, what they’re looking for, what rights they are buying, and what they pay.
* Secretive. I ran into a person who said she was buying all genres of fiction for an online magazine and no length requirement. That alone said scam, but I asked what the rights and pay was to see what she said. She wanted me to email her because it was a secret!
* Wants to help writers. Run as far away from this one as you can. They probably don’t have a clue what they’re doing and will grab your rights out of ignorance. I’ve seen people who thought writers were to be pitied because no one was publishing them, so they started a publishing company.
* Charities. Good intentions do not make good publishers. ALL of the charity-sponsored calls I sent my stories to failed. Most of them just disappeared. Right now there are a lot of calls for veterans stories. They’re approaching the veterans as a way for the vet to exorcise the demons (my point above, wants to help writers) through fiction or non-fiction. It makes you feel like they’re listening to you, and it’s heartbreaking when it goes belly up.
Absolutely the one thing you should always do is READ THE CONTRACT. Understand what it says and how it will impact your book. Eager at the thought of publication, people signed the Publish America contract and gave away the rights of their book for 7 years. Then, when they found out what a problem PA was, they tried to get back their rights. The publishers think of your book as inventory on a balance sheet. They will NOT give it back if you sign over all your rights to it.
Linda–These are all great tips. You’ve hit on something important with several of these. If their advertising is aimed at writers rather than readers…run. A legit press makes money from READERS. Real publishers don’t want to help writers, they want to please the book-buying public. Thanks a bunch!
Lots of terrific, scary advice Anne. Perfect for Halloween! Probably the most accurate and scariest part is the notion that true DIY is pretty much over. You’ve lined up the choices very well in my view.
Will–Haha. Yeah, some of these folks are pretty scary. Thank goodness we have watchdogs like Writer Beware. And it’s true that unless you can design a professional quality cover and format the book interior to industry standards, you’re not going to sell books these days. Some authors are renaissance-persons who can do it all, but most can’t. And shouldn’t
I’m with a legitimate small publisher and happy to be there.
One of my blogger buddies started a hybrid press where the author pays a fee up front. However, I did have several concerned writers email me when that press participated in our #IWSGPit because they look like a vanity press. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference I guess.
Alex–I love being with a small press, too. Hybrid presses can be perfectly legit, which is why the Independent Book Publishers Association put together that list of criteria. You might want to send a link to the writers who are concerned about your friend’s hybrid publishing company https://www.ibpa-online.org/default.aspx
I got sucked into that ASI thing because a writer who doubled as a vendor for arts and crafts who published with them told me about how good they were. An expensive for me to learn as now I spend my money where it should be spent (professional editing/copywriting, professional graphic designer for covers) and not for those shoddy marketing packages.
Btw, because I was with ASI, they have taken to selling phone numbers to other scammy vanity publishers. I know this because I’ve received about a half dozen in the past several months at my work number (which is the only number ASI has). Only caught one of them in a lie after I’d aggressively questioned them on how they came across my work number, and that was when he said that I had participated in a book fair and that’s how he got my number.
GB–You’re not alone. A lot of excellent writers got taken in by those guys. They sounded so good. And when a friend you respect recommends them…that’s exactly what happens.
I didn’t know they also sold the info from their prey to other predators. That’s really scummy. Thanks for the warning.
Excellent post this week, Anne! I’ll be pointing all my students here, particularly in a few weeks when we get into the Business of publishing. There should be a special ring of hell for these outfits that end up dashing people’s dreams in order to fleece them of money.
Melodie–Thanks for steering your students our way! I agree that people who feed on other people’s broken dreams are some of the lowest forms of life.
This post is invaluable!! I’m going to keep it in a special place. Yesterday I was just researching Austin Macauley Publishers. They are a hybrid publisher. They seem totally legit; but I’m going to take your advice and do as much investigating as I can in case they “say” they’re interested in my book. Thank you so much, Anne.
Patricia–I don’t recommend Austin Macauley. They are a vanity press that has been trying to re-brand themselves as hybrid, but in the past they posed as a traditional publisher and didn’t spring the huge cost on authors until they’d “accepted” their manuscripts. Maybe they’ve changed, but you know: leopards/spots.
Also–the biggest red flag of all–they wrote the most unhinged hit piece I’ve ever read trashing Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware. They claimed she was a pedophile because she was a member of SFWA, the professional organization for SciFi writers that gives out the Nebula awards. They based this claim on the fact that a nutjob misogynist once tried to run for president of SFWA, and said nutjob has been accused of pedophilia.
That’s like saying that you’re a cannibal because you’re a North American and Jeffery Dahmer was a North American. When a company publishes something that toxic and stupid, I would hold my nose and run away very fast.
I hadn’t heard of Austin Macauley, Anne, until a new writer I know told me they’d offered her a contract and what did I think. Their wesite is hard to decipher, coming across as legitimate and only charging fees in a “few” cases that “need more work” which turns out to be all their submissions. I warned my friend off, thankfully before shet signed the contract, but it’s easy to see how authors could be deceived.
Valerie–It sounds as if I was right about leopards and spots. They have redone their website and rebranded themselves as “hybrid”. They’ve also convinced some very big names in the business that they’re legit.
But I saw their attack on Victoria Strauss. No legitimate company would write such a toxic, moronic attack on anybody, much less somebody who is so universally respected. And no real publisher would be ignorant of SFWA or the Nebula awards.
It’s just a new version of an old trick. “I love it but it needs an editor. Here’s an editor I happen to know…” Editor gives kickback and you’re out thousands of dollars for a run through spellcheck and an expensive, unmarketable book.
Anne,
What an incredible post! Again, I feel like I am back in school and learning how to navigate this new world that I am a part of (and avoid the reefs). Thanks for sharing this knowledge–I am soaking it up like a sponge.
BTW, just finished my first book, “It’s Your Camino.” Its the story of our recent 500 mile hike across Spain. I completed my first edit today and plan on doing three more edits (one of them by reading it out loud). Any thoughts once I finish my internal edits?
Thanks Anne!
Ken Strange
Former FBI agent/ Private Investigator
Owner of “Strange Investigations”
Kenneth–The best thing to do after you’ve finished a book and given it a once-over edit is put it away for a couple of weeks. Then approach it when you have some distance. We have several posts here on self-editing, so do a search and you’ll find some of our tips. Reading it out loud is very good. Reading it to a critique group is even better. (I have several posts on how to deal with critiques, too.)
Anne,
I have just pushed my ‘draft’ book away and will get back to it in a couple of weeks. Thanks for that advice. I will look for the posts on self-editing and how to find a critique group. Also, want to go back and review the links you previously provided “how to write a first and last chapter.” Much appreciated.
Ken
It’s a minefield out there. Bad enough for writers, but also nasty for small but conscientious indies who tend to be tarred with the same brush as the ‘vanity’ specialists or the empty promises money-grabbers. Where the publisher I am associated with does do assisted self-publishing I feel they are justified in breaking your rule about bad-mouthing the bad guys. Those so easily lure the unwary into lots of expenditure followed by shattered dreams.
colonialist–I’m with a small press, so I understand. They’ve had their ups and downs. They got accused of being underhanded when instead they had been ripped off. But they made up the money out of their own pockets. That’s why I mentioned that small presses can go under, but it’s not because of evil intentions.
Maybe I didn’t word that caveat well. I didn’t mean legit publishers can’t badmouth scam publishers. I was talking about those scammy sites that say “agents are all crooks and the Big 5 are all going out of business and the best way to publish is to drink our Kool-Aid.”
Oh, and editing is another thorny issue. Small publishers have limited capital or time with which to give edits as part of the package, so some submissions have to be turned away with a request to get it edited, outside or with us. This is not an indication of a scam. Writers find it hard to accept that even professional editors need to have their own books edited, as mine have been.
A request for an edit is only a red flag when a press requires applicants use an editing company they own–or get kickbacks from. If they ask for an outside edit, and you’re paying, you should be able to choose your editor.
I enjoy reading your emails I get as they are always have good information. I do have a question. Have you ever used Grammy for editing? I just used it for the first time on a novel, but when I got done it had completely taken out the first 3 pages of the beginning of my story and now I have lost it and can’t find it. I’m frustrated this happened and not understanding why or how it happened. Any suggestions?
Joanne–That’s awful!! I’m not a fan of those editing programs. They’re so often wrong. I know grammar better than the people who program those things. But I do understand wanting to use them, to catch typos and stuff. But I’ve never heard of them eating whole parts of your book.
A lot of (human) editors will tell you to start a book later in the story than you wrote it originally, so the program may have done that somehow. I hope you have another copy somewhere? It’s so awful to lose your work, especially an opening you probably worked hours on. Good luck!
Thank you Anne for the valuable information. It’s quite scary to read but good to know.
I write mostly for educational publishers and I wanted to add that sometimes legitimate educational publishers can be a bit difficult to work with too. As it’s not always easy to find someone who can write about teaching Zulu or someone who knows how to make string theory or quantam physics sound easy and fun (just examples – I can’t do either), they sometimes like to keep an author for themselves by slipping exclusivity clauses into contracts. So,watch out for that type of clause even from publishers who are upstanding anf well-known.
Louanne–I probably should have put the section “Beware Bad Contracts” earlier in the piece. Absolutely! Traditional publishers can offer horrible contracts. So can some literary agencies. Educational publishers–usually small, but sometimes imprints of the majors–can be the worst, because there’s so much money at stake with textbooks.
They can add exclusivity clauses and in perpetuity clauses that are downright larcenous. So as Ruth Harris says, ALWAYS run a contract by a IP lawyer or other legal professional who knows about contracts and intellectual property.
Writers can be so eager to publish that they don’t take the time to find out what they’re signing. I hope you didn’t learn this lesson “the hard way.”
Thanks for the reminder!
I think the “Bad Contract” paragraph is exactly where it should be at the end of the article because (at the end of the day) writers shouldn’t just blindly sign a contract from a legit publisher because they’ve managed to dodge all the other pitfalls you mentioned in the article before that paragraph. I gopz that makes sense? It actually mirrors reality.
The Society of Authors has a wonderful team who will read contracts for you if you’re a member. Last year I was very eager and so delighted that a publisher wanted my material for a graded reader. And then I got the contract with its heinous exclusivity clause telling me that I couldn’t write for any other publisher while I was writing their book, nor could I write for any other publisher for FIVE YEARS after the book came out. And this is a very well-known and popular educational publisher. I asked the SOA for advice and they wrote back telling me to get rid of the clause if possible. It was not, So, I declined the offer, but it was a very difficult thing to do and not as easy as it easy to write the sentence “I declined the offer”, as though I have offers every day and can afford to pick and choose! I was very disappointed…
But, two weeks ago I sold the same book to a different publisher who is paying me double and there’s no exclusivity clause in the contract. Hindsight is always 20/20 and it’s easy for me to say now that I made the right decision a year ago, but at the time I was devastated.
So, yes, beware of bad contracts and know that there can be life after refusing one.
Louanne–Thanks for sharing your story. I’m so glad it has a happy ending!
And that’s a great tip for UK authors: Join the Society of Authors. You don’t have to be a published author to join.
And in the US, the National Writers Union also provides legal help for members and will help with contracts. Annual dues is a whole lot cheaper than hiring a lawyer. (Not to be confused with the Authors’ Guild, which will only accept authors who already have contracts with big corporate publishers.)
Ref: Comments about Austin Macauley, a while back I posted a comment on here saying that they liked my book, but wanted fees ranging from £2000-£4500 depending on the publishing terms, fortunately for me I found out what they were like and refused to pay such fees by ignoring these so-called ‘publishers,’ plus I haven’t go that sort of money to waste – other writers haven’t been so lucky and ended up seriously out of pocket. According to other people’s criticisms, AM don’t do proper editing of books either.
As for AM’s character assassination of Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware and just about anyone else who dares to speak against them, the reason for that is obvious, criticism threatens any income they earn by scamming hopeful writers.
Sarah–I’m so glad to hear you escaped the clutches of AM! Somehow–I guess through intimidation–they manage to keep a good name with people like Publisher’s Weekly, so a whole lot of authors get taken in by them. One of my friends even had his agent send a ms. to them.
I wrote this post to show there IS a difference between hybrid and vanity publishing. AM is definitely vanity. And I advise that nobody do business with people who trash-talk publishing industry watchdogs. You can say they’re mistaken or even dead wrong, but character assassination is the weapon of the desperate and the criminal. Everybody should stay away. .
Is Author House a reputable publisher? Do they cause copywrite issues for writers if writers decide to republish their books elsewhere?
Joe–Nope and Yup. Author House and its umbrella corporation Author Solutions are some of the scammiest vanity publishers around. Here’s industry watchdog David Gaughran on the subject. https://davidgaughran.com/2015/04/29/author-solutions-and-friends-the-inside-story-2/ (Since he wrote that, Penguin-Random House has sold the company.)
I have just receieved and email from Austin Macauleys saying they like dmy manuscript I submitted in August. Reading the comments on here I think I will steer clear of these and find somewhere else.
Beth–Danger, Will Robinson! Austin McCauley is a notorious overpriced vanity publisher. “Writer Beware receives more reports and questions about self-styled “hybrid” Austin Macauley Publishers than we do about any other vanity.” Here’s the full article. https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2019/07/from-writer-bewares-files-seven-most.html
Thank you for this article. A few weeks ago, I had a free strategy call with Self-Publishing School. They are supposed to coach writers and help launch/market books. The person turned me off because they wanted to lock me in at $5000 on the spot. Then, pressure me and made me feel bad because I said I would not decide something like this after a 45-minute call. I was not intending to pay that kind of money after hearing their pitch. I was pissed that they took the angle of asking me if I was procrastinating or if I wanted to be an author. I have worked as an account manager in tech and sales/marketing. Urgency and other tactics do not work on me.
Rachelle–You’re very lucky you have an “inner skeptic”. So many new writers don’t. That “hurry up” bullying ropes in a lot of tentative types. Self Publishing School is a newish scam and not many people have been warned about it yet. If you want a self-publishing school, join the Alliance of Independent Authors for their podcasts, and follow David Gaughran. Read a few of his books (His first is free now, I think.) Probably won’t cost you more than $10 and you’ll get all the “secrets” this Chandler Bold guy has. Here’s the lament of a poor guy on Reddit who fell for this “School’s” BS. https://www.reddit.com/r/FakeGuru/comments/j4cd0h/selfpublishing_school_and_chandler_bolt_is_a_scam/
Thank you so much….I have a great deal to learn!!!
Beverly–All new writers need to learn this stuff. Unfortunately these predators are everywhere now. They’re proliferating like Tribbles Do browse a few more of my scam alerts. (Put “publishing scams” in the search window.) And always check Writer Beware before you sign anything.
I’ve published both of my novels through iUniverse. I went with them the second time because I was impressed by the quality of the hard copy that their printers produce. While working with them on my manuscripts, the back-and-forth was easy and professional, and their response time to questions was very good and satisfactory. Yes, I paid for production, but I thought their packages were reasonably priced. I received a significant discount on the second novel, too, because I was a repeat customer.
You (and others here) are right about the pressure from the sales department to purchase sellling and marketing packages. That was annoying to the point of harassment. The young woman who hounded me had no clue how determined I was to spend my money the way I had budgeted it – I didn’t have the money to pay for anything other than the publishing package itself, for one thing, and the money I had saved for a bulk order of print copies was specifically earmarked so I’d have copies 1) to give to those who helped me along the writing journey, 2) to give to family members, and 3) to have in hand to send autographed copies to those who ordered them from me directly.
She was really flummoxed when I pointed out that not only couldn’t her marketing package guarantee sales, but also that if I didn’t buy the package, my books would not evaporate. I haven’t done much in the way of marketing the book, but I haven’t been sucked into spending money for possibly the same non-results. My marketing results are my own responsibility, and at least at the moment, I don’t have a problem with that. I have a lot of other irons in my fire.
Brass Castle–I have a poet friend who uses iUniverse because the books are beautiful, with good paper stock and lovely covers. But she got fed up with the harassment too. Obviously they make the bulk of their money from selling junk marketing “packages.” Try telling them them you’ll never publish with them again if they don’t stop the harassment, then block their number.
That experience was three years-plus ago. These days, I get a call maybe once every two or three months and the occasional email. I don’t mind that.
In any case, as you advise, so your homework and be very aware of what you want, have the strength of character to stick to your guns when pressured, and know that you have control and power over your own budget. (Oh, yeah, don’t forget that your book still exists whether or not you buy any marketing package – hee hee.)
Brass–They do use some hard-sell tactics, according to my friend. They put you down and tell you you’ll never amount to anything. So yes, hang onto your sense of self and your book. Most of their marketing doesn’t sell books anyway.
Whole chunks missing from your manuscript may or may not be the fault of the editing program. The internet can do some really weird things. (For example, somehow it deleted my MS Office software entirely from my computer a few months ago – no Word, no Excel, no PowerPoint, no Access, no Note, no Outlook, no Nothing. I had left the computer on with Outlook open overnight, and – poof! – it was gone the next morning. Fortunately, I re-installed it using the product key. None of my files were affected, but I couldn’t open anything without the software.)
Two lessons: 1) always save your product keys, serial numbers, and such somewhere other than in your computer, and 2) never send your only copy of anything anywhere. Always make a copy to send – set up a folder for submissions or whatever to keep track of what you’ve sent where.
Brass Castle–Ouch! That’s awful. I’d better check to see if I have the serial number for my Office suite somewhere. What a miserable thing to discover. Office is not cheap.
Is Christian Faith Publishing an honorable company?
Peggy–I guess it depends on what you mean by “honorable”. They are a vanity press who don’t reveal how much they charge for your “investment” in the company. They do seem to have better distribution than most, but without knowing if marketing is includes in the initial “investment”. There’s a chance they could keep hitting you with additional charges. There are other real Christian publishers out there. I’d try them first.
Dear Anne,
I send you this by way of thanks for you scam-publisher post.
I lived in Sydney, for many years before moving to the Blue Mountains a while back. In Sydney, I boarded in a southern-suburbs house.
One night, a storm came on suddenly and passed in a few minutes. At the time, I was sitting in the kitchen, looking through the full-length plate-glass window at the beautiful back garden. A delightful jumble of plants; one of those accidentally beautiful arrangements. The garden was floodlit by a couple of lights fixed under the eaves. There’s the picture.
After the storm, everything was so quiet and still. No traffic, no people. Not a sound anywhere. It was then that this piece formed in my head.
WINTER GARDEN SYMPHONY
A new leaf of monstera—brighter green
Sheds raindrop notes from its unfurled tip adown
To a spider suspended on silver stave
Between pyracantha and frangipani strung.
Dry, in a leaf of fine, curled gold,
She sees the notes glissade
To where a summer-red geranium,
Now winter flowerless,
Nods in metronomic time.
Above my eye the maestro holds
Hibiscus, hydrangea, mulberry, motionless.
Coppery acokanthera stands alert.
All wait poised,
Yet still the maestro holds.
Silently, the metronome ticks the tempo
But nothing sounds a note.
Bob Ryan
Bob–Your poem is lovely. But don’t waste it here on a how-to blog. Do send it out to literary magazines where it will be read by people who are looking for good poetry. If you’re looking for the right magazine, try looking through the Authors Publish newsletter, and the Poets and Writers database online. Best of luck in your poetry career.