Harrison Brought Logic To AWESOMECON—MAY 29-31, 2015
It was that time of year, when we “genre” geeks got awesome for AwesomeCon! The Washington, D.C. area convention featured […]
June 24, 2015
How to Avoid Book Publishing Scams, Pt. 1
I’m sure you’ve heard of them or seen their aggressive advertising campaigns. Author House, Xlibris, iUniverse, Trafford Press…the list goes on. But are these just publishing scams, or legitimate publishing services that offer tangible benefits to their clients?
What you may not know is that about two years ago, a law firm in New York filed a class action lawsuit against Author Solutions, the parent company of the above-mentioned outfits. If you’ve used the services of one of these companies, you may want to check it out and see if you qualify for joining the lawsuit yourself. [UPDATE: This lawsuit has been denied class action status so the original page is no longer available, but other efforts against Author Solutions and other alleged publishing scams persist. Click here for more details.]
Despite the usual legalese, it’s really worth reading the full complaint as a case study in how these companies work. I’ll leave it to the judges to decide if in fact their practices are illegal, but I am going to say without equivocation that most, if not all, have deceptive marketing practices that often pull in amateur writers who simply don’t know any better.
I want you to know better.