Thanks God I didn't pay anything.They are big scammers. My gut says its not Legit. Are they reputable? What is your opinion on Trilogy/TBN. I am looking for critical information on Goldtouch Press. If you search for any of their books on Amazon, I doubt you'll find many (if any) that have reviews or sales. Thanks. Can anyone tell me more about this publisher and whether or not I should be wary of them? The whole thing. All this for a charge of $800 plus my travel expenses. I've been sent a contract by Morgan James and they are wanting me to purchase 2,500 copies at print cost + $2.00 per unit. I have received my book back though thank God but still out the 500 dollars!!! For authors looking to submit your manuscript for consideration, visit our submissions page. Johny, I recently was a victim of author house's rip-off. And for distribution, if you want to do it without fuss, you can use a distribution service like Draft2Digital which charges nothing upfront, but will take 10% of retail price. Another kind of scam you might be dealing with is an agent scam. Do you know if Trilogy Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Vanity Publishing or a Traditional Publishing Company? See answer below :) BookBaby is reputable, but there are probably more cost/value-efficient alternatives out there. Thanks Reedy for this information. Ah, I might have been mistaken there. So annoying. So, I am asking for your help. Get exclusive updates on new releases, bestsellers, and more. I won! Or are they a scam? Reviews have been splendid, sales tepid. One last thing: when a company like that says they'll do your marketing, it tends to mean very little. He decided to go the ghostwriter route with an author working with a relatively new and unproven publisher They contracted with him to ghostwrite the book for 10,000.00 up front in full. Yes, they have done everything they said they would do, except put my book in bookstores. They offer bundled packages with a lot of stuff you could get elsewhere for free plus they don't really offer anything editorially apart from "Content Evaluation". Firstly, literary agents wont ever contact you directly unless youre already a wildly successful author (and even then, most reputable agents would avoid poaching you from your current representation). and our I was thinking about Bublish but wasn't sure if i should. Has anyone heard of Sydney Dewitt of House of Literary in Palmville, California? Think, folks. My book has been chosen as a finalist for book of the year. Any guidance you can offer would be so very helpful! Then a web page, short video and distribution to all the different book companies. Do you have any updated information about TBN and their Trilogy publishing arm? It LOOKS good, but how am I to know? Ugly Ducking Presse are definitely a legitimate non-profit publisher. I'm really worried about my situation with what looks like a vanity press. Has anyone heard of Renley Rudolf? I am definitely thinking the same. If that's the kind of company you're referring to, then I agree with you, but they're not called "vanity publishers". They don't even have to publish the book. Who is Powerhouse Press Book? Very interested in working with Author Academy Elite and would appreciate insights/opinions/comments. What dangers do authors face from scammers and shady 'publishing companies'? What is your review of self publishing school? That is my hope but there are so many scammers and by wanting that money up front, well, something about that guy has pretty much ended these hopes. Plus from my understanding of the entertainment business, producers aren't commonly trawling a database looking for spec scripts. There are new companies offering these kind of "marketing packages" popping up every day. I'm trying to possibly find a way out without loosing my money. I wouldn't be able to recommend similar publishers to you as we don't keep a list on Reedsy, however I'd suggest you take a look at Poets & Writers and Authors Publish as resources. We wish you the best with your book. I just want to put it out there. A well-known cluster of scammers is the Filipino network previously associated with Authors Solution and now operates separately. But I still find the blur very annoying. I too was immediately suspicious of the numerous butcherings of English sentence structure within their email, especially for a company that supposedly has reputable marketing inroads within the publishing industry? My radar was on high alert. Anyone had experience with this Company? All facets of publishing, marketing, and selling are the responsibility of the author. Even though I have a ready InDesign file of the book, he mentioned that they would usually make a design on their own. A day or so later a Lady sent me an email. Many scammers impersonate reputable literary agents, film producers, and traditional publishers with fake publishing or movie rights offers requiring author "investments" of thousands of dollars. The book came out great but it was made only in paperback and I couldn't set my own price and I don't have 100% royalty. I had terrible response times, incorrect information and a general lack of any consideration outside of when they were trying to sell me yet another marketing program. I should have said, though I was disappointed in the infographic (you failed to list indie publishing in the comparison and omitted some valuable information re tradpubs), overall I found the article useful enough to reference on my own blog. For more information, please see our I am an author myself and will not help anyone who scams authors. Have you heard anything positive or negative about Westwood Book Publishers in LA? And if that wasnt enough, he decided to send me an email and call me names. Authors own the copyright to their works before and after they publish them. This is an Indian publishing house . They did not list a price, but want me to respond by replying to their email or phoning them. They seemed trustworthy but after reading the blog I'm now a bit reluctant. They do offer a self-publishing track, where they provide all the usual publishing services for a fee instead of buying the book, but they're a legit publisher. Please see letter below: HELP! They look like a self-publishing services company, with relatively low prices (especially for cover design) but a number of oddities: They mention on their website (which looks pretty poor) that their co-operative publishing deal involves them covering 75% of the cost, while the author pays for the remainder. From the research I've done, it's one of the many courses started by semi-successful authors who're looking to monetize their knowledge of publishing. In 90% of the cases, when you receive an unsolicited email or phone call, it's not going to be from a reputable publishing company. Has that been rated? On top of all of this, they asked for unconscionable amount to partner with me. Thank you, Does anybody know or has anyone heard of "Author's House" (@Authors_tweets) I got an e-mail from them promising reviews for my book with three various packages from $100, $200 and $400 (30 reviews) to go on goodreads, Amazon and YouTube. So its no surprise that there are people who will offer to solve your marketing problems for a low, low fee. Hi, I just found your article, thank you for the info. And what about Shadow Mountain. Good luck. Atlantic publishing/ Dorrance publishing either of these legitimate? As I imagine she is reworking her scam under another name, I would avoid any publishing company with "thoughts" in their name, just to be safe. The audio book division is one of the top prominent audio book publishers in the United States. DAW Books Now Book Avenue Pub has contacted me, seeming very interested in highlighting my book at upcoming international book fairs in order to "guarantee" an acquisition by a major publishing firm. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. What do you know about 'Books Agency Plus? In the next post, well take a deeper dive into vanity presses, since they can be quite tricky to spot. I stumbled into Submittable and have been scammed (I think) out of a $30 submission fee. He tells you to deposit the check into your . He signed an Author Ownership release to get the manuscript. Do you have any info or insights into EC? Enter your email or get started with a social account: 1. I recently published my first book with Page Publishing. History The author has talked up a book he wrote on his site. But so have a lot others. Even if they help you polish your manuscript before submitting it to publishers, it should not come with a charge. Congratulations on winning one of their contests and receiving a (positive) free review from them! Thats called business. As a first-time author, I am naive to the ways of the publishing world. Actually you dont have any goal for your book. Thank you for saving me my money & my sanity! This week I was contacted by Atlantic Publishing Group and had a discussion with them. And then outreached by writers republic shortly after. Some of them don't accept unsolicitied materials, some of them do. . If an agent contacts you out of the blue (and you aren't already a bestselling author), they're probably not 100% legit. They're located in Brooklyn and they distribute books in different countries. For example, they might only pay their editor $600 and then mark up the "editing costs" to $3,000 so you could pay more than 100% of the actual costs without knowing it. Secondly, your agent should never ask you to pay for anything. Sounds like a vanity press to me. McNaughtonBooks, are they someone good to publish with. Beacon Publishing Group is an award-winning, independent publisher of books and audio books headquartered in NYC. What do you think? If a literary agent unsolicitedly contacts you to offer you a book deal with a publisher, or asks you to pay a reading fee, your spidey-sense should be tingling pretty hard. Some contests will publish winning entries in a magazine or an anthology which is great. Would appreciate any information you have on him. Just got an email from them. Put in the time and run a bunch of their books through Amazon. On one hand, that is refreshing: they don't claim to offer a complete editing package at a fixed price. Beacon Publishing Group Encourage others to kill their pop-ups too. It houses its own audio book imprint Beacon Audiobooks. Scroll down and check it out :). Hi wanted to know what you think of new book authors. For another, once they own that intellectual property (IP) it becomes a valuable asset on their spreadsheet. I am trying to find out if Self Publishing School would be a good fit for me? They're a "boutique" house (everything outside the Big Five is, really) and I enjoyed a lot of support and personal attention from the EIC and the Publisher. Do you know anything about Gold Touch Press in NYC? So, I'd be very careful. what is your view about "Author's Ink" . If they contact you directly, they're almost certainly a vanity press. It looks like they do some level of editing. Just curious as to what their standing is, in the self-publishing community. Yes I only made a few hundred dollars, but I gained the knowledge and confidence to now be actively scoping out agents and publishers for my next book. Do you have a view on UNITED PC Publishing company, a subsidiary of NOVA? approved for publishing." Stay away from them. For one, their website misspells "Hollywood" more than a few times. To find contests that have been vetted, you can look through this directory of the best writing competitions. Every author or speaker who needs to get their message out should use traditional publishing with random house who takes over your book rights and pays out a meager 8.25% of every sale? Thank you very much for the article. A quick look at their website should've sent up some red flags: their homepage image is a picture of Neil Gaiman at a book signing. I have a self-published book that's been up on Amazon for about 6 months. The website is here: I'm glad I investigated first. Hay House seems to offer some writers resources, but they include some online courses that are seriously overpriced. It's not a scam, but it certainly is an *expensive* course If you want to go the course route, I'd rather recommend Mark Dawson's "Self-Publishing 101" course (it only opens once a year, but you can get on the waitlist). Sent in my children's book, WOW--TO A CHILD CHRIST RETURNED--to Covenant for review. Don't go with them! As I indicated in a prior message here, they tried to gaslight me and implicate me as 'problematic' and uninformed about the world of publishing. Lets talk about traditional publishers and their insanely small royalties (while offering very little and requiring the author to do most of the marketing still) However, it's tough to know what to think without seeing their agreement. I was asked to submit 2 chapters of ms to an acquisitions agent. It is available on line at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart - Hard Cover, soft and all digital formats. Yes, you! Is writers republic reputable? However, with editors and book coaches, whose work is invisible to the reader (if theyve done their job right), you have to do some research before signing a contract with them. Theres never been any evidence of successful pitches, but these services will surely cost you a pretty penny. I haven't found them on one of the links you provided, but will keep digging for more info. One can purchase as many or fewer services as needed. During #pitchmad at Twitter, I was contacted by Uproar Books, which is a fairly new hybrid publisher. I'm very happy with them. What kind of companies are Author House and Christian Faith Publishing? New York is home to Beacon Publishing Group, an independent leftist publisher that publishes both fiction and non-fiction manuscripts. dreambooks distributing contacted me directly , they want $3000.00 to promote my book which was published by archway, do you know this company, are they legit? Thanks :-). HI all, I was approached by Octa publishing company, to publish on Amazon my daughter poetry book? - they don't ask you for *any* money upfront (especially not reading fees, publishing contribution fees) Most of the time, I say, "Thanks but no thanks." BBB handles complaints regarding any business, whether or not the business is a BBB Accredited Business. . reasonable costs for self-publishing services, read more about our selection criteria here. I would like to redo it..change size, do further editing, eliimatnaing a chapter, having a different format so I can have a less expensive selling price. Do the right thing . I'm a new author and so far have attempted to have my books published via the traditional route, submitting my work to various agents, only to receive one form letter rejection after another. I had an excellent experience with CreateSpace, Amazons publishing service. And I've found their customer service team to be pretty knowledgeable whenever I had to call or e-mail. Of course! If they want me to send them a case, I will want money up frontso thanks for sharing this. Does anyone here know if Okada Books is a scam. Thank you! So, I just graduated with my Creative Writing degree/Editing and Publishing certificate, and I'm looking for internships with publishers. Ok thank you. They look like they submit short films to festivals. What about halo publishing International? If so, what was your experience? Do you know anything about this company? You can read more about why here (the comments are particularly illuminating): http://www.victoriastrauss.com/2013/08/30/more-warnings-spectacular-productions-balboa-pressauthor-solutions/. Good info. This business has 0 complaints. My intention is to have my LLC as the publisher GREAT information. I don't know the price of his program, though. This rare achievement in American publishing is a milestone a mere handful of active houses can claim. Do you have any info on Folio Avenue Publishing Services LLC 2031 Union St. #6 San Fransisco CA 94123 ? Let me know how you do. and this is just not true. Now get lots of calls to republish, etc. I do have a very real 65,000 word manuscript that I thought TBN was good to publish, but I do not have $5,000. Learn their tricks and avoid these unscrupulous bandits. That sounds like an awful deal. In general, they break a few of our golden rules: 1) they contacted YOU, which is never a good sign; 2) they have no testimonials from other authors of proof of their track record; 3) their prestigious address in Midtown Manhattan is a virtual office. If you want to confirm your suspicions, just look up the books they've published on Amazon or any online retailer. If you or others would like the real facts feel free to listen to our author clients. Take this free 10-day course to understand your choices. Ive been notified by Pubkits.com. Is Madison seidler editor services a scam? I have been contacted by several companies lately regarding my book I published in 2010-when I was scammed. Why? Why? Leanne, it's unfortunate that you had a bad experience with our company. Convenant publishing company is an hybrid company. He states a book scout found my book and they would like to put me on CBS News Radio with Al Cole. Check out the section in this post about hybrids for some tips on what to look out for. That puts me on the fence about this company. There is a comment below about Author Academy, which I'd encourage you to read. Horrible. Please. DO NOT USE. can you tell me if new reader magazine is legit? Am I being scammed? The biggest problem at Beacon is the higher management. They say they invited me to Jacob javitts and help me sell. There is a fee. Tim Rice. Their sales ranking, # of reviews, and cover art quality will give you a pretty good idea of their standing. Shady as hell. But if you simply must have one, check out our guide on how to get one without paying more than you need to. With vanity presses, the big risk isn't them stealing your manuscript. You have to sign a contract with them and you will have to pay whatever the contract ask for if you sign. When I told him that I didn't have that either, he wanted to get off the phone. I believe that Gold Touch was mentioned in the Writer Beware post we linked to in this post. Companies who send unsolicited emails about their services (especially review services) and who don't have a website are most probably scams, yes. Would only print 100-150 books (hard cover), with the option of ordering more, if needed. Does anyone have any experience with Covenant Books? My husband is excited about being contacted by them, they say he only has to pay 30% which is about $2500, and they will cover the other 70%. Is the company covenant house a reputable publishing company. I have not signed a contract, and I have paid nothing. Fees range from a few hundred dollars to more than $25,000. Do you have any info on this company? As I tried to trace her down, the websites and youtube sites for bookthoughtspublishing were abandoned and then taken down. They weren't best sellers, definitely dated so they may be "period pieces." Ripoff Report | beacon complaints, reviews, scams, lawsuits and frauds reported, 424 results BEACON Ripoff Reports, Complaints, Reviews, Scams, Lawsuits and Frauds Reported Your Search: beacon There may be more reports for "beacon" For more results perform a general search for "beacon" This is something every writer needs. So what is the difference with me just using google to research. Ripoff Report on: Beacon Financial Group, NC SCAM - Beacon financial group scam beware charlotte north carolina. I am currently working on a book, and I was found a publisher she seems nice but her contract is 3 years at a time it stats that she can republish etc. Publishers in LA confirm your suspicions, just look up the books they 've published on Amazon or any retailer. A vanity beacon publishing group complaints talked up a book he wrote on his site to Beacon Publishing Group had... 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