A free guide from Jay O’Connell, Book Producer · Cambridge, MA
Before you pay anyone for help with your book.
AI-enhanced publishing scams are everywhere, and they go after first-time authors and memoirists. I know smart, tech-savvy people who have fallen for them. And if you have recently published anything on Amazon, you are being targeted as we speak.
These rules will help protect you.
The rules
1. Money flows toward the author. Real publishers pay you. Real agents never charge a reading fee.
2. Nobody legitimate comes looking for you. “We loved your book” from a stranger is how most scams start.
3. Check that the people are real. Google them yourself. Don’t ever use the link or phone number in the message.
4. Pressure is a tell. A real offer will wait a week.
5. Never pay with gift cards, wire transfers, or crypto. If anyone asks for this kind of payment, never speak with them again.
6. Keep your rights. If you pay for any service, you keep your copyright and your files.
7. Search before you sign. Search the company’s name with “scam,” and again with “Writer Beware.”
Watchdog lists
Writer Beware—writerbeware.blog. Writer Beware has warned writers about publishing scams since 1998. It’s run by volunteers, led by the author Victoria Strauss, and backed by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, a professional organization of authors. Nobody there is paid, they sell nothing, and they don’t take donations. They post a warning only after they’ve seen documents, and their files have helped law enforcement convict scammers. Search their blog for a company’s name, or email them about it, free: beware@sfwa.org.
ALLi Self-Publishing Service Ratings—selfpublishingadvice.org/best-self-publishing-services. The Alliance of Independent Authors is a nonprofit association of self-publishing authors, founded in London in 2012 by the author and former literary agent Orna Ross. Its Watchdog Desk checks the companies that sell services to authors and rates them, from “Excellent” down to “Watchdog Advisory,” flagging the ones that, in its words, “overcharge, over-promise, under-deliver.” Anyone can read the ratings. Look up a company before you sign.
Been scammed? Report it to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
Or just ask me
Email me about any editing or publishing offer, and I’ll tell you what I think. No charge, no obligation.
I provide end-to-end publishing services to my clients, and know what they should and should not cost you. I can evaluate legitimate business models, and differentiate between subsidy presses, small presses, vanity presses, and out-and-out fraud.