Forewarned is Forearmed

What is a Vanity Publisher or Vanity Press, and why exactly should you avoid them?

The term was coined in 1959 and describes any publisher or press that doesn't profit from book sales, but rather profits from charging authors for provided publishing services.

The question to you is, once these vanity publishers get their money up front, what is their incentive to help the author succeed?

The answer is, they have no incentive.

They have already made their money.

They have already succeeded.

Period. Full stop.

Here is a short list of publishers you may want to pay due diligence.

(Disclaimer: This list is by no means an accusation and those listed are only allegedly vanity presses or publishers. Do your own homework and ask questions).

Author Solutions (currently subjected to multiple lawsuits in the US)

Adelaide Books

Avro Basim Yayin (Contacts authors and offer to buy Turkish rights to their books and then fail to pay for those rights.)

Amazon Digital Publishers (Claims to be affiliated with Amazon, but actually has no connection to Amazon or Kindle Direct Publishing)

Archway Publishing (Claims to be an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It makes empty promises that authors could have a chance of getting their book to the S&S board. However, this imprint is actually outsourced to above listed Author Solutions, who are themselves on the watchdog list).

Balboa Press

Book Agency Plus (Claims to have offices in London, New York, California, and Texas, yet no addresses or phone numbers for those locations are available).

Christian Faith Publishing

Commonwealth Publications

Dorrance Publishing

Ideo Page Press Solutions (Claims to be headquartered in New York, but is actually operating out of the Philippines)

Minerva Press Ltd.

Newman Springs Publishing

Northwest Publishing

Partridge Publishing

Outskirts Press

Partridge Publishing

Press-Tige Publishing

Sovereign Publications

Tate Publishing

Tate Publishing & Enterprises

TellWell

Trafford Publishing

Vantage Press

Westbow Press

At Broken Keys Publishing & Press we believe the publisher's and author's success should go hand-in-hand. In fact, it's our 7th "we believe" statement.