Tag: predatory publishers

NOOK Press for Print Books

Nook Press logo newThis week, NOOK Press announced it would begin “publishing” print books.

There’s a reason why I put “publishing” in scare quotes. For indies, the news isn’t as big as one might think at first glance.

First, the good news: NOOK Press will indeed turn out a print book for you, in a variety of trim sizes and cover types – including hardback, which CreateSpace doesn’t offer.

NOOK Press also provides a handy-dandy formatting guide, which looked pretty comprehensive to me when I skimmed it: covering everything from headers and pagination, to what the heck front matter and back matter are, to how to size the spine. And it actually appears to be written in English, not typeset-ese, which I thought was a problem when I originally looked at Lulu’s directions.

Now, the bad news. And there’s a lot of it. Continue reading “NOOK Press for Print Books”

Vanity Presses, Scammers, and Thieves, Part 1

scammer“I need to terminate contracts with my publisher,” an acquaintance recently said. “I never get a statement and I haven’t been paid.”

“You should check into my publisher,” another acquaintance said. “Their upfront fees are much lower than most.”

Wait…what?

In my self-publishing guide I said, “Hopefully by now it goes without saying that money should flow to the author, not from the author.” But I was wrong. Every week I read another post or article about someone either paying ridiculous amounts of money to sign on with a “publishing” company, or someone who signed with a company they’ve since discovered is a scam.

Because it bears repeating, because publishing scams still swindle naïve authors, and because I’m a graduate of the I Wuz Scammed School of Hard Knocks, a recap: Continue reading “Vanity Presses, Scammers, and Thieves, Part 1”

How to Spot a Scam

snakeWelcome to the cyberverse. There are plenty of hucksters, scammers, con artists, and assorted seedy characters looking for every opportunity to move some money from your pockets to theirs. Some writers have spent thousands of dollars following the path of promises, misrepresentations, and “expert” recommendations made by some very bad people. They’re out there. Learning how to recognize them is your best protection.

There are a couple of very good watchdog resources every author should know: Writer Beware and Preditors & Editors. Both these sites do an outstanding job of tracking the latest scams and bad behavior in the publishing industry.

Indies Unlimited is not a watchdog site. Part of the reason is that we know these shadowy scammers can (and do) easily change their names and open up under a new banner whenever they are outed. Trying to compile a list of suspicious actors becomes a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. But a leopard cannot change its spots. If you know what to look out for, the name of the beast doesn’t matter.

Here are some guidelines which will help you identify scammers, no matter their name: Continue reading “How to Spot a Scam”

No Paragon

Sooner or later any writer on the web (especially on Linked In) will run into mega-spammer Paradon Books (a revolution in publishing they will tell you) or Indie Writers Support. They exist, they say, only to help you get to be a star. But there are a few problems… like they don’t seem to actually exist.

This innovative publisher—though it’s hard to pin down what is so revolutionary about them, or what they actually publish–lists a PO box in Great Falls Montana, and sometimes a street address there: 804 47th Street S, Great Falls MT. And a photo of their huge glass building with their name on the front. But Google Street reveals that address to be a small residential building, and the big glass skyscraper doesn’t exist. At least not in Montana. The post office box is unconfirmed and their phone number is an 866 non-geographical toll-free. Which does not answer, or even ring (sometimes it returns a “fax screech”.) All email addresses for the company and people associated with it are hotmail or gmail, none use their own “names” in the addresses. If you Google them up, you run into a chorus of deep suspicions, including mentions on “419” sites that have reason to suspect them as originating from that area code—Nigeria—which is richly associated with email spamming and scamming. Continue reading “No Paragon”