by Karen Newcombe
Where money goes, scammers follow.
Self-publishing has been a hot news story for the past two years, with multiple feature articles in the Wall St. Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, and most other newspapers and business magazines. The story has huge appeal: unknown author rejected by dozens of traditional publishers earns over a million dollars in a few months. We all know that this only happens in a few rare cases, but hey, it could be me, right?
Scammers have taken notice of the huge numbers of people choosing self-publishing, and they have jumped fully into the game of bilking you out of your money. Some of these scams run right to the top of the traditional publishing industry as revealed in this article by Indie Reader, "Simon & Schuster Joins Forces with Author Solutions to Rip Off Readers". I urge you to read this article and search out other reports about self-publshing scams to understand more about the tricks these organizations play on hopeful authors.
Self-publishing scams are designed to take advantage of the uninitiated and trick them into paying big money while offering minimum or no services, or even actively sabotaging the client and then charging extra fees to "fix" the problem. I am extremely disturbed that a major publishing house like Simon & Schuster would choose to ally itself with a known scammer like Author Solutions, and even more distressed that Author Solutions is now owned by Penguin. Are traditional publishers that desperate?
When you're shopping for self-publishing options, do your homework. In my opinion, there are three self-publishers that I would consider using as of this writing in September 2013:
These three are widely known to be legitimate, and offer a wide array of services, excellent support, and active online communities that are extremely helpful to the self-published author. Services are offered a la carte or in bundles, so you can choose exactly the support you need, or you can do it all yourself. Other legitimate self-publishing services are available, I do not mean to imply these are the only three out there. These are the three I feel most comfortable endorsing today.
For the sake of transparency, what I offer my clients is help in actually writing their books – teaming with them to create an outline, collect materials, research supporting information, interview experts, and either ghost writing or guiding the author through the writing process. I can help clients navigate the self-publishing process, or can handle it for them entirely if they are too busy.
If you're considering self-publising, my number one tip right now is to do plenty of research before you choose a publisher: read the reviews by others who have used the service, and run a few searches on "self publishing scams" to see if the firm you're considering has a bad reputation among other authors. Look out for the hallmarks of every scam: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Happy writing, and be safe out there!