We've entered a new year, and that is incredibly exciting for many of us. But as with every new year, businesses are looking to capitalize on their monetary gains, and independent publishers are no different. I know because my email has gotten bogged down with hundreds of these so-called publishers. As a result I feel that what I'm about to say is incredibly pertinent:
PUBLISHERS WILL NEVER CONTACT YOU FIRST.
SERIOUSLY.
Not one publisher—whether an independent publisher or one who works in a respectable publishing house—will ever reach out and say "they want to you to publish with them" without seeing your book. A legitimate publisher will never reach out to you before you send them a query letter, or reach out to you looking for your query letter, either. If you have been contacted first by a so-called independent publishing company, they are a scam. These companies make their money off you considering every step of the way you are paying them to publish your book by setting you up with overly priced "publishing packages" that may seem great at first. After all, what better way to get published immediately than to have someone take care of all the details for you for only $500-$3,000?
The stories of people falling for these scams is heartbreaking, especially considering the worst of the scammers may not even actually wind up publishing your book at all but instead send you back dozens of copies that you then have to distribute manually. And that's assuming your lucky enough to see any actual books at all. The other downfall of using one of these publishers is that you cannot use them as a publishing credit in the future since legitimate publishers will immediately flag this—at best—as a reflection of your inexperience coupled with naivety. As a result they will not take you seriously as writer.
No, you've got to make those first moves.
And filling out an online form absolutely does not count as a first move.
You've got to write a formal query letter to a publisher (unless they specify otherwise within their information) and then wait.
If you are emailed anything along the lines of "we want your query letter" or "we want your novel" or "we want you to publish with us" and all you've done is fill out an online form...run. And if you haven't filled out a form yet and have no idea how the publisher could have possibly gotten your information...run faster.
As someone who has dealt a great deal with not only avoiding scammers, but actively studying and learning how they implement their scams, and learning about all the new and old scammers out there, feel free to email me (oaktreebookservices@gmail.com) your questions on the matter regarding whether you've got a scammer or a real deal. No, I do not nor will I ever charge any form of compensation—monetary or otherwise—for such questions. I simply do not want my fellow writers and future authors to ever fall pray to the devastating mistakes I've seen others become victim to.
