Tag: vanity press

Black Rose Writing — A Less-Than-Ideal First Experience

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedWay back in 2009, I managed to finish the novel that had taken me more than twenty years to write. I was proud, I was elated, and I was clueless as to how to get it published. So I paid for a membership with Writers’ Digest and looked on their website for possible publishers. That’s where I found Black Rose Writing. I sent them a query letter and a brief synopsis of my weighty military thriller. Then I crossed my fingers.

A few days later I received a reply stating they would love to publish my book. Holy cow! I was over the moon! My first query letter and I’d landed a publisher. How did I get so lucky? I’d read about numerous authors sending out thousands of query letters only to be rejected by every publisher under the sun. Was my book that good? Or did I have cause to be worried? Continue reading “Black Rose Writing — A Less-Than-Ideal First Experience”

My Expensive But Not-So-Horrible Vanity Press Experience

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedIn contrast to some of the horror stories we’re hearing this month on #PublishingFoul, I thought it might be a good time to tell a somewhat mitigating story about the not-so-bad but still expensive lessons. The truth is, not every publishing horror story is awful. Along any continuum, you’re going to have a range of experiences, some worse, some better.

Back in the 90s, I had already had two books traditionally published, but the climate was rapidly changing. The bigger houses were getting very conservative and they were more and more unwilling to take a chance on an unknown or almost-unknown. If the author was not already a name, they weren’t biting.  Luckily for writers, there were plenty of small presses springing up across the country to take up the slack. Well, luckily for some, not so much for others, as we’ve seen. Continue reading “My Expensive But Not-So-Horrible Vanity Press Experience”

How To Avoid Publishing Predators

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedGuest Post
by David Gaughran

I have been campaigning against exploitative services like Author Solutions for a few years now, and it’s clear that the business model of such predators is to target the inexperienced and uninformed.

Some blame the victims, suggesting they didn’t do enough research, but this is more than a little unfair. These companies are extremely skilled at targeting writers before they discover the self-publishing community, and use a variety of deceptive means both to ensnare writers and to ensure that they don’t discover genuine reviews.

Also, the lines between traditional publishing, self-publishing, and vanity publishing are more difficult to define every year. Part of the reason is that vanity presses have now rebranded themselves as “self-publishing service providers” and they are often owned by traditional publishers.

Confusing already, isn’t it? Here are five ways you can cut through the crap and avoid predators: Continue reading “How To Avoid Publishing Predators”

Word on Da Street Publishing?

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