Comments on: Before You Pay Thousands to Publish Your Book, Read This

By: MINDY ALYSE WEISS

MINDY ALYSE WEISS — Fri, 02 May 2025 11:12:30 +0000

I’m so sorry this happened to you, Colleen. (((Hugs)))

Thank you so much for helping others avoid similar issues!

By: V.M. Sang

V.M. Sang — Fri, 02 May 2025 09:39:25 +0000

I was accepted by an agent in the US for my first book. They recommended a new publisher, which they claimed was a hybrid. The publisher asked for, I think it was $5,000 as my part of the deal. I decided I couldn’t afford this, and refused the contract. I also left the agent, too.
This was in the early 2000s. I self-published a couple of books.
I later submitted my next book to a hybrid publisher recommended by an author I’d met online. She was published by them.
It was clear exactly what I would be contributing to (cover design, editing and formatting, + some marketing.) The amount was in the hundreds of dollars, not thousands, and would be removed from my royalties. (This was for not only the two parts of the submitted book, but also I moved my self-published books to them.)
They have several hundred authors, quite a lot whom are Amazon best-sellers and award winning authors. They do marketing, including on bookbub, and also produce merchandise associated with the books.
I would recommend, as you suggest, looking carefully at any publisher, and definitely check out Author Beware before signing anything.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Fri, 02 May 2025 01:58:06 +0000

In reply to Trine Grillo. Thanks for stopping by, Trine!

By: Trine Grillo

Trine Grillo — Thu, 01 May 2025 19:54:32 +0000

Thank you for this valuable post.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:40:07 +0000

Great advice, Angela! $1,000 per keyword! Who knew there was such a money-making opportunity out there! (Ack!) Yes some of these “vetting” processes are a joke! But the scammers know how to play on our dreams. Hopefully more writers will become aware of their tactics.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:37:32 +0000

In reply to BECCA PUGLISI. Ah, no worries Becca. It was a LONG time ago and I learned! Yes, agree on that "line." So important to do your research--and talk to other authors! :O)

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:18:42 +0000

I’m sorry you suffered through this, Colleen, but I’m thankful you were able to share your experience with us. The line separating vanity and hybrid publishers has gotten really blurred over time, now that anyone can put out a shingle on the internet. So this detailed breakdown is super helpful.

By: ANGELA ACKERMAN

ANGELA ACKERMAN — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:00:24 +0000

I am so sorry you were scammed in this way, Colleen. I unfortunately know many authors in this boat, and it is so bad now because it is hard to tell Hybrids from Vanity Presses, because Vanity Presses market themselves as Hybrids. I’d add to all this great advice to really talk to other writers, research the publishing company name on Google, adding +scam to your searches. This will bring up any chatter from authors who feel they were scammed.

Some Vanities are more sophisticated now, and can provide detail on all the “services” you get for their packages, but that doesn’t make them less of a scam. Once contract I read for someone who asked me to look at it (among other things, it had a $1000 fee for choosing a ‘keyword strong’ title for her NF work!). And a marker of Hybrids is that they ‘vet’ rather than take anything, but again, Vanities will use language that suggest that the author’s work was ‘picked’ (vetted) to make them seem like a hybrid. Some hybrids I know of have terrible editing and lots of complaints.

So yes, please do all your research and ask many people for advice before agreeing to anything with a Vanity or Hybrid.

Thanks for sharing all this, Colleen!