Thread: Publishing Scams?

How do you know if your book is getting scammed?

If you have to pay a significant sum of money.

If you have to pay a significant sum of money.

Yep. You shouldn't have to pay editing costs that some scammers like to tack on. That's a big one to watch out for. I've never had to even pay a reading cost with agents. I'd avoid those.

If you're not self-publishing, you really shouldn't have to pay ANY costs. If you are self-publishing, stick with Lulu and Lightsource and the other reputables.

If you send me $19.95 I'll send you my guide on how to avoid being scammed.

Originally Posted by Zuiun

If you send me $19.95 I'll send you my guide on how to avoid being scammed.

NOW WITH 85% MORE TARTAR CONTROL!

Don't wait. Act now.

This is link I got from asbolutewrite. I really haven't looked at it carefully. There are other writing scam watch lists and lists of red flags. Just Google publishing scams.

Writer Beware

If you're gonna publish a book, do you have to pay for anything at ALL?

If you're gonna publish it? You mean self-publishing?

No. I meant if a publishing company wanted to publish your book.

No, you wouldn't have to pay anything. You'd have to pay the agent his percentage if you used one. And preferably pay an attorney to look over the contract.

So THEY would be the ones paying YOU.

Yeah...how else do you think authors make money?

I already knew that, but I was just making sure. I don't know all that much about how publishing works.

Since that's how it is, then when the books get sold, part of the profit goes to the publishing companies, right?

Also, is there a price range for how much they'd be willing to pay you for a novel? Not that money matters to me. I'd be happy just to get a book on the shelves.

They give you an upfront payment of "X". You get that payment, but you don't get a percentage of the sales until the publisher has recouped the "X" they paid you. After that point, you get "Y" percentage of the book sales.

Also, is there a price range for how much they'd be willing to pay you for a novel? Not that money matters to me. I'd be happy just to get a book on the shelves.

You can google the highest payout for a book if you want. I'd say the price range is $1000-$1,000,000