When you’re ready to publish your book, how do you know where to find a quality publisher? There are lots of options online with promises practically shouting for your attention. Some of them are scams by fake editors and bad marketers, which will end up wasting your time and money.
Join me in today’s episode, as I talk about the ways you can vet the pros and avoid those time-wasting, wallet-draining scams—from checking credentials, reviews, and work history to matching the professionals’ niche with your book’s genre for better quality and targeted support. Learn how to position yourself for success, so you can focus on quality over speed and avoid the lure of cheap promises connected to low quality and risks.
If you’re ready to look for a quality publisher, even if you’re not finished writing your book yet, this episode will help you create a strategic approach to find the best fit for you.
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How to avoid publishing scams | Episode 270 Transcript
These transcripts were generated by robots, not writers
Stacy: Welcome. This week we’re going to talk about something that drives me absolutely crazy and sometimes makes me angry, which is publishing scams. Unfortunately, it’s only getting worse. I have seen a huge uptick in scammy emails, reports from clients of scams they’re receiving, seeing people post on the Internet about when they’ve been scammed or if I get a scam email in, I’m doing some research and learning about other people who’ve been scammed. And so I don’t want this to happen to you and if it has, I want to help you avoid it in the future. So today we’re going to talk about how to avoid publishing scams. Welcome to Beyond Better, a podcast that explores a simple but profound idea. We all deserve to lives we love and that includes our work lives too.
Stacy: I’m your host, stacy Ennis, an author, book coach, speaker and long time location independent entrepreneur living in Portugal with my family of four. Join me as I talk business, location, independence, writing, publishing, and so much more, all focused on building a life that is beyond better. Before we do, let me introduce or reintroduce myself. I am Stacy Ennis. I am a book strategist and coach. I’m of course a writer as well an author and I’ve been in this industry for 17 years, which means that I have seen a thing or thousand. I’ve seen a lot, a lot of bad actors, big promises that were never fulfilled. And I really try to help authors avoid being taken advantage of. It’s not cool, it’s not fun, and it’s not something that I want anybody to ever experience.
Stacy: So hopefully this will be really helpful for you as you continue on your author journey. Let’s start with some of the ways that scams show up. I have a list here in front of me, so I’m going to be referencing this list and my notes as I talk through this with you. So here are some of the scams that can show up at every single stage of your author journey. You can have guaranteed book deals. Editors, quote unquote, who are not skilled or trained. Not only waste your time, which is precious, but your money and can actually make your book worse. Sometimes book coaches, quote unquote who have no real experience or credentials.
Stacy: So this is somebody who maybe wrote one book and then decide that they’re qualified enough to charge people a lot of money to write their books or help them write their books. Shoddy self publishing companies, this is usually the cheaper ones who take your money. They Return just junk to you and then they’re gone. Poof. Even shoddier hybrid publishing companies, these are usually charging you more money and then they’re returning junk and poof, they’re gone as well. These are also professionals who will straight up take your money and ghost you. Marketers and publicists who charge a bunch of money for quote unquote custom work and deliver little for the investment. And on and on. There are many bad actors in this space and I really want you to avoid them. But there’s also some true professionals.
Stacy: These professionals include skilled and trained book proposal coaches, values driven agents and publishers. Skilled and trained book strategy and writing coaches like me. Quality self publishing coaches, project managers and companies. Proven hybrid publishers who produce books that can stand along traditionally published book and hold their own. Marketers, PRofessionals and others who elevate your brand, business and book. And again, on and on. Okay, so we have a sense of who might scam you. We have a sense that there’s lots of good actors out there. I know so many great people who are so worth hiring. Let’s talk about how to not get scammed, because I don’t like to get scammed, you don’t like to get scammed. So how do you avoid it? Let’s talk through it first is to vet like your book depends on it, because it does.
Stacy: I am continually amazed at how many people will hire somebody without really doing their due diligence. They will spend more time trying on outfits for an important event than researching somebody. They’re about to give hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars to support them on their author journey. So vet the professionals. Here’s some ways you can do it. You can ask for testimonials. You can talk with past clients. This could even just be by email. You don’t necessarily need to ask somebody for time on the phone, but find you know, somebody who worked with this past with this professional and email them and ask about their experience. If you find negative reviews or you don’t find much of an online presence, those are major yellow slash. Well, I’d say probably red flags that you need to pay attention to.
Stacy: Any skilled professional should have a track record, a proven track record and some kind of presence online. Now I have to make a side note here for editors specifically. When I was an editor, I remember this and I work with a lot of amazing editors who don’t have a huge online presence, but you still should be able to find them. At minimum, they should have a website and or a LinkedIn profile, like the bare minimum, they should be findable. A little side note here though. If your budget is tiny, it’s minuscule. Maybe you’re working on a book that is more of a passion project and not really connected to something bigger that you want to do in the world, or it’s not connected to your business or brand.
Stacy: Now, side note, if you have a business or brand, everything is connected to your business or brand. But let’s say that you’re not building a business and brand or a mission and you are writing something that is really a personal project. You might find a less proven professional I think about myself early on when I was editing, people got me so cheap. I was really good because I had trained honestly since I was in junior high. I had started doing extra courses, extra trainings, got my bachelor’s degree, got my master’s degree, but I wasn’t proven. So basically I would spend anywhere from two to three times of time on a project than I would bill for. And I considered it my own cost for learning. And so people got a great deal, they got great work.
Stacy: Those exist out there, those types of people, they’re a bit hard to vet. But don’t lose heart if your budget is smaller and you do need support. What I wouldn’t recommend is having somebody who’s really good at English edit your book. Not the same thing. Editing a book and being good at writing or even editing an article is not the same thing as understanding how to edit a book and doing so well. If you’re considering hiring an editor, you can always ask if you could hire them to edit maybe a chapter or five to ten pages so you can get a sense of their work before you make the decision to hire next is to check their credit. Anybody worth working with in this industry should have credentials of some kind. And those credentials don’t have to be a university degree.
Stacy: I have a bachelor’s in writing, a master’s in writing and editing. But that doesn’t have to be the case. Credentials can take a lot of different forms. So, for example, credentials could include proven work history. They could have worked at a major publishing house or maybe at a major marketing firm. They could have completed a certificate in the area that they’re working in. So in writing, in book marketing, in publishing, something along those lines. They might also have awards they’ve won or lists they’ve been a part of. They might have a designation like a B Corp, a benefits corporation, which is a very rigorous process to show that you put your people above profits in your organization. There are a lot of different ways that credentials, quote unquote, show up when it comes to publishing professionals, but they should exist.
Stacy: Also along these lines is I generally advise not working with a self publishing coach or company or a hybrid publisher that is brand new. They should have a few years under their belt. They should have some proven work history. The thing is that these types of companies rise and fall quickly. And so you don’t want to be left with working with some company that just started and then fold a couple years later. And now you have to go through the process of moving to another company, going back through publishing your book or taking back the publishing rights and having to deal with distribution. If you’re working with a hybrid publisher, if it’s a self publishing company, the risk is not as high.
Stacy: But if you’re working with a hybrid publisher who is supporting you on distribution and other aspects of your book and it can be a huge headache. I worked with an indie publisher on my first book. It was a traditional deal, but they folded and I took that book back and I had to go through self publishing. Do not recommend. It was not my favorite thing. So a little time under their belt, Anywhere from the 2 to 5 year range is probably a safe bet. Next is do a gut check your intuition. Your gut is so wise. Do not underestimate whatever your inner voice is telling you. So if you get off of a call with somebody and you’re like, ugh, something is off, they said everything right, but it just feels not like a good fit for me. There’s something off.
Stacy: Listen to that inner voice. Now sometimes that can be fear talking. There can be some inner work that you need to do, but generally your gut is very wise. If you get on a call with somebody and you’re like, wow, they really got me. They really saw me, then that is probably a great sign that’s somebody worth pursuing and exploring more as somebody to work with. Next. Pay attention to the follow up. One of my team members recently said to me, stacy, you love a good follow up. And I was like, yeah, I do. I love a follow up. If I interview somebody for the team and they send me an email thanking me for the interview, you’re hired. No, not necessarily. We have a whole process for that. But, but legit. It is really important to me.
Stacy: It’s something that I, I really value. And so this is something I pay attention to when I’m considering working with somebody. And it’s really, I think, undervalued. The follow up is Undervalued as something that is a signal of whether or not this person is going to be great to work with. So here’s a few questions that you can ask yourself to help determine whether this person is really serious about working with you and supporting you. First, did they send an email follow up to you within one working day thanking you for the call? So be reasonable. If you talk to them on a Friday and you hear from them on a Monday or Tuesday, that’s within the range of what I think is reasonable. But when I meet with people, I generally usually send an email to them the next day.
Stacy: On my side, I meet with people quite late here in Portugal, so I usually am off. When I’m off with calls, I’m off work. So I usually send it the next day. But generally, this person, this company should get back to you pretty quickly. And if so, did they touch on all the things that they promised? So if they said, I’m going to follow up with you tomorrow with a proposal or I’m going to send you a one sheet, did they do that? Did they send a proposal within the time frame they promised or whatever it was that they promised was in the window that they promised it? Did they check back in with you if you didn’t respond? So you know, this is also on you professionals watching this.
Stacy: If somebody, if you have a call with someone and you send them the things that you promised, it’s actually on you to follow up. Now, future authors, you need to nurture the relationship, of course. So being really silent, not getting back to people, it’s not going to foster a good working relationship. But ultimately, the person that’s trying to support you professionally, they should follow up and check in with you now, not aggressively, not every day, but do they care enough to check in? Is their communication prompt clear and complete? Are they communicating in a way that is effective for their working relationship? You can learn a lot from the way they communicate early on. If there was a delay in the communication or follow up, did they apologize and clarify?
Stacy: So if they said, I’ll get back to you on Monday, but it’s Wednesday, did they mention that? I know I, I meant to get this to you on Monday, but unfortunately we had some things come up. I hope that you’ll accept this now, you know, maybe that’s a little too much. But something along those lines where they’re acknowledging, I’M sorry for the delay on this. I really enjoyed connecting. Probably that’s. If you’re a salesperson watching this, you’re probably like, don’t say sorry. But I think you get the drift. There should be acknowledgement, There should be a respect for your time and how important this project is for you. If the answer is no to any of the above, that’s worth considering. Whether this is the right partner for you. And keep in mind, if you had to chase them, I don’t know.
Stacy: I don’t know if that’s going to be the right fit for you and your book. Next is to look for a niche and Elaine in demand. High level professionals have clarity around what they’re best at. They know their niche. They know where they work best in, what their skill is and what they’re not suited for. So you should really listen for the person or company that you’re connecting with to understand their niche and their lane. So when I say niche, this is a specific group of people that I work with, the topics that I work with, the genres. And when I say lane, this means, for example, I think I’m a good example of this. I work in publishing, but I work on the creation side of publishing. I work helping authors write their books.
Stacy: And then I have amazing partners that I hand off to. But I know where my lane is now. It doesn’t mean that lane couldn’t expand in the future if I were to add on to my business and hire more people to support. But this is the lane that I work in at this time. I really support authors on the transformative journey of authorhood. You can ask a potential partner, what type of fill in the blank books clients, authors do you specialize in? And if they don’t have answer for you and they just are like, well, I love to be multifaceted. Well, that’s probably a sign that they’re not the perfect fit for your book. Somebody who is amazing at marketing a romance book or editing a romance book might not be the right fit for your social impact nonfiction book.
Stacy: There is a difference there in how those are marketed and how they’re edited. Now that’s not universally true, of course. There are some people that work well in many spaces. So again, if you’re a professional watching this and you’re like, but I like working across fiction and nonfiction and I’m good at it. Amazing. You’re unique. Most of us really are better if we focus in a specific niche and a specific lane and frankly, our businesses grow faster and are better for it because we’re able to skill up and stay sharp in those specific areas. Okay. And lastly, if it’s too good to be true, it is. You knew this already, didn’t you? So that person that you connected with that said, oh, come to my retreat, you’ll write your book in a week. No, you won’t.
Stacy: Maybe you’ll write something, but it’s not going to be good. And it’s definitely not going to be the best work that you can put out in the world. If you reached out to a publisher that said, oh yeah, we can design your cover, we can edit your book, we can do some marketing for $700, there’s some AI in that’s going to put you at risk. Two, it’s not going to be good, it’s just not. And you’re going to waste a lot of time, money. And again, you’re going to put your book at risk because if they’re using some AI in their process, which they will be at a price point like that, you’re in trouble. That book is getting uploaded to who knows where. So be really mindful. If you hear something and you’re like, wow, that’s amazing.
Stacy: I talked with this one coach that said six months to write my book and you’re saying 30 days, sign me up for that. No, don’t sign up for that. That is not a good idea. Generally now I have written a book in less than 30 days. It was not my favorite experience, although I really liked my clients. But it was very intense. But I was a skilled writer, I knew what I was doing. Especially if you’re a first time author, you have to learn a new skill also. How long have you held this goal? A long time probably. So why rush it? Why not actually do your best work, Enjoy the process, learn from it, grow, transform. Create something worthy, valuable to offer the world. I really encourage you to consider sometimes why these fast and cheap options are attractive.
Stacy: And there’s something suffers when it’s fast and cheap. Always. And it’s usually you. Of course there are many, many more things that I could add to this. I think just a couple other things to flag. If you already have published a book. There are a lot of scammy, icky, ugh, don’t do it. Book clubs going around, there’s awards, scams, there’s collaboration scams. Always do your homework. If you get an email from something, somebody, an organization that seems out of the blue and too good to be true, find them. The real one. The real website and write the email address on that website to ask them. Never send money to strangers. I mean, isn’t that just a general truism? Never send money to strangers?
Stacy: If you are working with a high level professional, they won’t be a stranger because you’ll meet them, you’ll read about them, you’ll hear about them from their happy clients. In general, don’t get scammed. I really hope that this is helpful for you on your author journey. Thank you as always to Rita Dominguez for her production of this fine podcast, my YouTube channel, all of it. She is truly the reason that I can show up in the way that I do and serve you, because she gets it out of my camera and computer into the world. And I am so grateful.
Stacy: And if you’re still listening or watching, please take a moment to subscribe to Rate to Review I cannot tell you what a massive, massive difference it makes for me in expanding my platform and reaching more people with the message of living a life that’s not just better, but beyond better. With a book, with authorhood the catalyst. And I will be back with you before you know it.
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