A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Avoiding Publishing Scams

 

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic addresses book scams. Unfortunately, new authors, especially those who are independently minded or who despair of ever finding a publisher, are ripe for the picking by scammers. 

Some of the scams out there include:

• Publishing companies that are scams or rip-offs
• They often "steal" your work; they may publish it, but they do not pay you. Check out the publisher's history of paying royalties.
• They contact you, offering to publish your already published book along with some kind of award program or other enticement. When MSI Press LLC authors forward me letters they get from such scammers, I write to them and give them a piece of my mind. Surprisingly, most write back, trying to justify themselves, but their justifications just underscore the fact that they are scams; sometimes, they mention that they have great lawyers (I doubt it) who will sue me if I prevent authors from agreeing to their services (that threat is not going to stop me from protecting MSI Press LLC authors). They, of course, do not stop doing their dirty work because, well, their dirty work pays off for them big time. Too many authors do not check out scam publishers. They want to believe that their work is desired.
• Vanity presses that try to pass themselves off as hybrid publishers or as traditional publishers. How do you tell?
• Typically, vanity presses contact you and advertise widely on social media.
• Vanity presses will lavish excess praise on you, praise that deep-down you know is not true. (I have had a couple authors whose work MSI Press LLC turned down for not making out quality minimums contact me with copies of lavish praise from "one of your competitors." No, this is not a competitor. This is a vanity press. In these cases, the authors went ahead, in spite of my warning to them, and, of course, their books did not sell (they were not of selling quality to be begin with); a vanity press is not in the business of selling books. They are in the business of selling services to authors.
• So, if you are paying all the expenses and just getting "services," you are probably dealing with a vanity press. Check the quality of the editing "service,"
• How many awards have other books by this publisher won?
• How good are the reviews of other books?
• If the contact comes from a company in the Philippines, walk the other way. There is a huge set of scammers located in the Philippines. 

Two seminars taught by The Literary Center in San Juan Bautista, CA included information on this topic. Handout from "Getting Your Book Published: Lowering Costs and Avoiding Costly Mistakes" and "Publishing a Book: What You Need to Know But Have Trouble Finding Out" can be downloaded for minimal cost.

The bottom line is that if it sounds too good to be true, it is. The best action is to walk away.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Check out any publisher before contacting it, and if contacted by a publisher, think twice, then don't respond. Caveat emptor is in full effect here. Don't be so eager to be published that you ignore warning signs of future problems. The best way to avoid them is not to engage to begin with.

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

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 (Book available from MSI Press LLC; discount of 25% with coupon code FF25; currently on sale for $5, but that offer will not last long).