Tag: self publishing scams

March Madness: What To Do When Your Publisher Scams You

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedWelcome to March. This month we’re doing something a little bit different – we’re having a theme month. Spearheaded by the lovely Lynne Cantwell, we’re going to feature articles from minions and guests alike about being scammed by publishers. We want those who have fallen victim to these publishing predators to know they’re not alone.

Since March is a huge sports month, we’ve tied that into the theme, with our great referee-type dude throwing the penalty flag at those bad eggs, and we’ve registered the hashtag #PublishingFoul.

Lynne will be kicking off the month (get it – another sports pun!) on Thursday and will give you all an idea of the great features she has in store for you. Meanwhile, if you have a story you’d like to share, please drop us a line through the contact form. We want to spread the word so that these types of things won’t happen to anyone else.

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”

PublishAmerica Changes Its Name, but Can It Change Its Stripes?

americastar2Recently, Victoria Strauss wrote a post for Writer Beware about a change at PublishAmerica. If you’re not familiar with PA, they are one of the most seductive of vanity publishers, primarily because they promise so much and require no up-front payment from authors, blurring the definition of vanity publishing just enough to make it sound good. When I first stumbled onto them over a decade ago, they blared in very large type across their webpage, “We don’t want your money! We want your book!”

And they did, and were very happy to have it.

I won’t lie; I fell for it. While I had had several books traditionally published by then, I still had several unsold manuscripts and uploaded one; they gobbled it up. It sure seemed like a win-win. It didn’t take too long before I was disabused of that notion. Continue reading “PublishAmerica Changes Its Name, but Can It Change Its Stripes?”

Due Diligence in Action: AmazonBookClubs.com

Thank you for finding Indies Unlimited.

Here at IU, we do our best to provide helpful information to indie authors of all levels. Our goal is to provide the knowledge they need to make intelligent decisions about writing and publishing. We are not, however, a watchdog site, nor do we try to be. There are other sites out there, such as Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors, which dedicate their resources to identifying scammers.

Despite all the efforts to make authors aware of predators looking to make money off of them, the best tool is actually knowing how to spot a scam. That knowledge will enable authors, no matter how often the scammer changes its name, to avoid being taken advantage of.

Thank you again for finding Indies Unlimited.

– The Admins