Don’t pay! Reputable publishers are supposed to pay YOU, not the other way around, unless you’re something like a celebrity who wants to publish a book solely for clout or whatever and doesn’t care about making money.
If you self-publish without this company, worst case scenario is that you gain and lose no money, but the worst case scenario for paying some random company a few grand is that you lose a few grand, and most people who publish through so called “vanity presses” end up in that scenario.
Oh my God, do not pay. Vanity presses still exist in this day and age and they absolutely offer nothing other than the slightest bit of knowledge arbitrage to clueless people.
Replying to add:
You should not even go with a middleman publisher in the digital publishing space unless you're stupid and unwilling to learn — and worse, love giving people your money and your rights for minimal benefit.
Unless they are providing services such as editing, layout, the cover design, formatting, and marketing, then they are a scam. Even if they do offer those services, they could still be a scam depending on the quality of what they do.
Traditional publishers will not charge you anything at all.
I do not normally post links, because I'm not certain on the rules for this sub-reddit regarding links, however this subject is important enough that I am linking to the Writer Beware Scam Publisher/Agent list: [https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive/](https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive/)
Writer's Republic \*is\* listed on that list. So Beware.
Writer Beware is great website and resource if you are want to avoid getting scammed or are looking for advise on getting published. I encourage you to poke around their site for more information.
> Unless they are providing services such as editing, layout, the cover design, formatting, and marketing,
Even if they do, if the author pays them a single penny, they're a fool paying a vanity press. No legit publisher charges the author for anything. ANYTHING AT ALL. Not a single one.
Yeah, I probably should have been more clear. I'm talking about services for an author that do the editing, cover design, and layout for them because they do not know how to, or do not want to, and so choose to pay someone else to do that work. There are also services that do marketing, etc., as well. Those are paid self-publishing services.
But my real point was to give the link to Writer Beware, for people to easily look up the scam companies to avoid being burned.
These places *are* vanity presses. They like to use different names, like hybrid publisher, self publishing company, author directed publishing, and others. But they are still scammy vanity presses.
https://writerbeware.blog/2019/08/16/from-the-philippines-not-with-love-a-plague-of-publishing-marketing-and-fake-literary-agency-scams/
Always check any "publisher" with Writer Beware or on the Absolute Write forums.
NO! It is a scam. My writer friend had this exact thing happen to them. Thought they were dealing with a legitimate self publishing company and it was literally just scammers. Left a terrible taste in their mouth.
There *are* ways to get help self publishing your book eg hiring someone to layout the book, put a cover on it, produce the copies etc but it will NOT cost a few thousand upfront and it will not be a “self publishing company” it will be legitimate job titles like book binder, cover designer, book print service like IngramSpark, etc.
DO NOT let your partner pay thousands of dollars (or even five dollars) to do something they can do their own damn self. Direct them to the FAQ right here on this subreddit. Or have them check out David Gaughran. He's an expert on all the ins and outs of indie publishing--and his stuff is FREE--or at most he charges a few dollars for ebooks.
EDIT: There's a metric fuck-ton of free resources online for all aspects of indie publishing. Check out the self publishing subreddit, Reedsy's blog and services, SFWA, the Alliance of Indie Authors ... Absolute Write if that forum is still around.
Talk them out of it.
>They are a self publishing company
They are not. There is no such thing. You either self publish, or you go with a vanity press, or you get a real publisher.
Almost all of the smaller publishing houses and printing presses charge per page and per volume to print and bind your manuscript. They always offer either in-house or third party editing and formatting services. Some are actually legitimate and do a very good job. However, most are scams and finding the good ones is exceedingly difficult.
Besides any print on demand book publishing services, like Amazon Kindle, or others I fail to recall at the moment, printing your own books does cost a lot of fucking money. Especially if you use colors because color ink is easily three times the price of just black ink.
EVERY time I have sought a publisher in person for my books, they have listed a $1000+up front manuscript reading fee that would partially go toward printing of the eventually extremely edited version of the manuscript. They also must approve all aspects of the story prior to publishing, meaning - if they don't like a specific aspect of the story or characters, the setting or premise, they will require rewrites.
I get it that NOT ALL publishers do this... But the big ones like Del Rey, DAW, Apex, and many others require an up front submission fee and 6-12 months review time for the manuscript.
That is why I chose to self-publish.
Don’t pay! Reputable publishers are supposed to pay YOU, not the other way around, unless you’re something like a celebrity who wants to publish a book solely for clout or whatever and doesn’t care about making money. If you self-publish without this company, worst case scenario is that you gain and lose no money, but the worst case scenario for paying some random company a few grand is that you lose a few grand, and most people who publish through so called “vanity presses” end up in that scenario.
Worst case scenario is that you lose a few grand and the rights to your work *and* the right to publish further books in the series as you wish.
Oh my God, do not pay. Vanity presses still exist in this day and age and they absolutely offer nothing other than the slightest bit of knowledge arbitrage to clueless people.
Replying to add: You should not even go with a middleman publisher in the digital publishing space unless you're stupid and unwilling to learn — and worse, love giving people your money and your rights for minimal benefit.
Unless they are providing services such as editing, layout, the cover design, formatting, and marketing, then they are a scam. Even if they do offer those services, they could still be a scam depending on the quality of what they do. Traditional publishers will not charge you anything at all. I do not normally post links, because I'm not certain on the rules for this sub-reddit regarding links, however this subject is important enough that I am linking to the Writer Beware Scam Publisher/Agent list: [https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive/](https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive/) Writer's Republic \*is\* listed on that list. So Beware. Writer Beware is great website and resource if you are want to avoid getting scammed or are looking for advise on getting published. I encourage you to poke around their site for more information.
> Unless they are providing services such as editing, layout, the cover design, formatting, and marketing, Even if they do, if the author pays them a single penny, they're a fool paying a vanity press. No legit publisher charges the author for anything. ANYTHING AT ALL. Not a single one.
Yeah, I probably should have been more clear. I'm talking about services for an author that do the editing, cover design, and layout for them because they do not know how to, or do not want to, and so choose to pay someone else to do that work. There are also services that do marketing, etc., as well. Those are paid self-publishing services. But my real point was to give the link to Writer Beware, for people to easily look up the scam companies to avoid being burned.
Complete scam. Avoid like the plague. Actually, I take that back. Vanity publishers are worse. At least you *get* something from the plague.
These places *are* vanity presses. They like to use different names, like hybrid publisher, self publishing company, author directed publishing, and others. But they are still scammy vanity presses.
chuckles "at least you get something from the plague."
https://writerbeware.blog/2019/08/16/from-the-philippines-not-with-love-a-plague-of-publishing-marketing-and-fake-literary-agency-scams/ Always check any "publisher" with Writer Beware or on the Absolute Write forums.
It's a vanity press. Bad idea.
NO! It is a scam. My writer friend had this exact thing happen to them. Thought they were dealing with a legitimate self publishing company and it was literally just scammers. Left a terrible taste in their mouth. There *are* ways to get help self publishing your book eg hiring someone to layout the book, put a cover on it, produce the copies etc but it will NOT cost a few thousand upfront and it will not be a “self publishing company” it will be legitimate job titles like book binder, cover designer, book print service like IngramSpark, etc.
DO NOT let your partner pay thousands of dollars (or even five dollars) to do something they can do their own damn self. Direct them to the FAQ right here on this subreddit. Or have them check out David Gaughran. He's an expert on all the ins and outs of indie publishing--and his stuff is FREE--or at most he charges a few dollars for ebooks. EDIT: There's a metric fuck-ton of free resources online for all aspects of indie publishing. Check out the self publishing subreddit, Reedsy's blog and services, SFWA, the Alliance of Indie Authors ... Absolute Write if that forum is still around.
Talk them out of it. >They are a self publishing company They are not. There is no such thing. You either self publish, or you go with a vanity press, or you get a real publisher.
Almost all of the smaller publishing houses and printing presses charge per page and per volume to print and bind your manuscript. They always offer either in-house or third party editing and formatting services. Some are actually legitimate and do a very good job. However, most are scams and finding the good ones is exceedingly difficult. Besides any print on demand book publishing services, like Amazon Kindle, or others I fail to recall at the moment, printing your own books does cost a lot of fucking money. Especially if you use colors because color ink is easily three times the price of just black ink.
There are a number of small, independent publishers who don't charge for editing and printing. If a publisher does that, step away.
No actual publisher charges the author a damned penny. Not a single one. If you're paying to be "published" you are paying a vanity press.
EVERY time I have sought a publisher in person for my books, they have listed a $1000+up front manuscript reading fee that would partially go toward printing of the eventually extremely edited version of the manuscript. They also must approve all aspects of the story prior to publishing, meaning - if they don't like a specific aspect of the story or characters, the setting or premise, they will require rewrites. I get it that NOT ALL publishers do this... But the big ones like Del Rey, DAW, Apex, and many others require an up front submission fee and 6-12 months review time for the manuscript. That is why I chose to self-publish.