Scams in the Publishing World

So you've got a novel. Your mom, uncle, and pastor think it's great and so do you. Awesome. What next?

The first thing you need to be aware of is that the publishing industry is full of sharks. Writers are not a protected group, and white collar crimes against writers, while still illegal, are beneath the notice of most law enforcement agencies. So while you're looking at potential publishers, pay attention to red flags. Learning how the publishing industry works takes a lot of time, but learning how it doesn't work is a good way to protect yourself.

The publisher requires a fee.

This is a huge red flag. Any publisher that charges you money to be published is a vanity publisher. Vanity publishing has a place in the publishing industry, but it is not a good place for your novel.

The publisher's website has grammatical errors.

The publishing industry is full of English majors. A misspelled word, or worse, a consistently misspelled word is a major sign to avoid the publisher.

The publisher emails or mails a contract to you without consulting you first.

An editor will not fling himself into the jaws of the unknown, and neither should you. Real publishers will get a feel for what it'd be like working with you, and there will be a period of time to haggle back and forth over the specifics of your contract.

The publisher directs you to a book doctor.

Real publishers have their own in-house editors. If your novel needs a book doctor, a real publisher won't buy it.

The publisher tells you that you'll have to do your own marketing.

Real publishers have their own marketing departments. Some publishing firms encourage their authors to have book signings, but they'll never require it. The author's job is to sell his or her novel to the publisher. The publisher's job is to sell it to bookstores. If the author has to sell his manuscript to the bookstores himself, what's the point of the publisher? Why not just hire a printer, like Lulu?

The publisher uses Print-on-Demand tech.

The publishing firms that a novelist is interested in, that is, the type that can make money for him or her, have print runs. If they're printing the author's novel to-order, then it will never sell more than a handful of copies. A publisher can't sell your novel, after all, if there isn't a novel to sell.

The publisher solicits you.

There are exceptions to this one, given the correct circumstances. But for the most part, publishers receive hundreds and hundreds of unsolicited manuscripts, per day, and it would take an act of congress to get an editor to increase his slush-pile willingly.

The publisher is having a contest.

This is a huge red flag, but only if you've never heard of the publisher. Writing contests do exist. A lot of them are reputable. A lot more of them aren't. The simplest contest scam simply charges an upfront fee and never declares any of the contestants a winner. Some of them go a bit deeper: if the prize of the contest is ensured publication, there will often be fine print that forces the author to agree to pre-purchase several hundred copies of his own book, or to pay for some other service, such as book doctoring or marketing. The novelist's mantra is this: "Money flows toward the author." Any contest that violates this mantra is just trying to separate the author from his cash, and there will never be light at the end of the tunnel.

The publisher wants you to buy your own book.

Real publishers don't really care if you buy your own book. A lot of authors do, a lot of them don't. The publisher should be far more concerned with generating a readership for its authors, not selling books to the people who wrote them.

The publisher uses a lot of jargon you can't find anywhere else.

A great example of this is the scam publisher PublishAmerica's website, which repeatedly uses the term "traditional publisher." This term is absolutely devoid of meaning. The publishing industry is competitive, not traditional. There are not traditions that a publishing firm follows, outside of selling books to bookstores. And that's not a tradition, its business.

The excessive use of jargon, or the obscuration of the English language, amongst an industry of English majors is always a red flag.

Writing is a profession, not a hobby. The publishing industry is the author's partner. The author is not a publisher's customer, ever. If the money isn't flowing to the writer, something is wrong.