Publishing is at an all-time high and with so many people pursuing their dreams and passions about publishing their very own books, sometimes things can end in a bad way.
Traditional publishing works in a simple way where reputed publishers get approached by authors and then they choose if they want to publish their work.
So, there is not much trouble with traditional publishing companies. The problem lies with self-publishing houses which pop up in the garb of a real publisher.
IS IT A SCAM?
When there is a demand there needs to be a supply and with the rising demand for publishing, there are a lot of traditional publishing houses that go into hybrid publishing and do self-publishing as well.
The problem lies in the fact that seeing the publishing industry and how successful it is, many scammers dress up as publishing professionals and run publishing scams.
They keep the publishing costs real low so that it is attractive to new authors.
The outcome is very bad because many excellent authors, after getting scammed, totally lose faith in the world of publishing and they do not publish anything in their lives.
The scammers get rich and ditch their old name and open a new scam publishing house and do the scam all over again.
So, what is the solution? There are no concrete rules for avoiding publishing scams.
However, we will tell you how to avoid publishing scams by following a few techniques.
TECHNIQUES TO FOLLOW TO AVOID PUBLISHING SCAMS
BE WARY
A publisher will rarely contact you to have your book published.
This only happens in the traditional world where you are already a big-time author with many best sellers and only then will reputed publishing houses approach you.
However, if some publishing house decides to approach you and you are a new author then you must always be very wary because 99% of the time it is probably a scam.
You might be wondering why is this the case, the answer to this is simple, this is simply how publishing works.
No reputed publisher will approach a new talent and be the first point of contact.
This is because publishers always have their hands full and are already working with popular authors so they do not need new talents like the movie industry.
If you get an email someday about some ‘reputable’ publisher trying to approach you in the hope that your book will become a best seller then you must be very cautious and delete that email as soon as possible.
After you have deleted the email, you must then find out all the places where you have mentioned that you are going to write a book or have it published.
If it is a comment on a social media website then find it out and delete the comment.
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER SCAMS
Traditional publishing works totally different from self-publishing because it is the hardest to get anything published traditionally.
There are a lot of steps that need to be followed from agents to meetings and a lot of steps between them.
If you have been selected by a traditional publisher you might think that the risk period is over because now you can hand over your manuscript and they are going to publish it.
However, you should not stop being cautious because there can be a scam waiting to happen.
This is generally the case because in traditional publishing the author is not spending money and it is the publishing house that is the investor and the author gets a cut of the profits depending upon the contract.
It is nearly never the case that the author has to pay the traditional publishing company any money at all and if the traditional publishing house decides to ask for money for publishing, that can be trouble.
Traditional publishing houses are big companies and corporations that have boatloads of money and capital and they simply do not need the author to finance the book.
They might give you excellent excuses and one of the best excuses is that they are taking a risk by publishing you under the name and that is why you have to spend some money too.
Simply stop communicating with them and look for a different publisher and spread the word about them in the literary circles and among your readers because that is a perfect scam.
RESEARCH
One of the simplest ways to avoid a scam is research. Research is the biggest tool that you have in your arsenal to detect a scam.
The first thing you can do is simply Google them and find out what kind of publishing house they are.
Find out what kind of books they published and how many books they published.
Find out a new author like yourself who has published a single book with them and try to contact them on their social media.
Be frank and simply ask them about their experience but you must keep one thing in mind and that is to not stop with one person and cross-check with different authors.
Another important step would be to ask your friend to get a quotation from the same publisher and if you find out that your friend is getting a different rate from you, that is a scam waiting to happen.
TRUST YOUR GUT
You are an author and you know how to listen to the heart, it is your imagination and intuition that have brought you to this moment that you are about to publish your own book.
So, you must never shy out about listening to your heart and if your heart says something is wrong then something is probably wrong.
It is your money and your reputation in the line and if you feel like you are going to be scammed then you must simply walk away.
They can do nothing to hold you back as long as you have not signed the contract.
Even if you have signed the contract and feel like it is a scam, simply go to the nearest police station and file an FIR.
The police are going to find out if they are a legitimate publisher and if they really are then they won’t mind but if they are a fake publisher, they will simply try avoiding the police.
You are the author and the power is in your hands. You do not have to worry about any scammers because there are a hundred ways that you can detect them from far and not step into their scam.
If you still feel like you might be scammed then the best option for you is to self-publish your book with a reputable publisher like ours at Orange Publishers.
We are the most trusted and popular book publishers in India and we have deep roots in traditional publishing with a different imprint name.
We have one of the most seamless publishing experiences where you simply have to submit your manuscript and we will do the rest for you including promotion as well as copyright.
You do not have to believe us because you can simply check the dozens of books that we have already published with some of them even being bestsellers. Come, check out our website.
