If you have been the victim of a book publishing scam you can report it on this website. Scroll down to the end of this page to view the list of scams and reports. If you are unsure of whether you are the victim of a publishing scam, please see our list of red flags below before proceeding. Unfortunately, some publishers don’t have review pages and may have an opportunity to scam many victims before the scam is finally exposed. This page is to provide a space for authors to alert the public and end the cycle of fraud. Report Publishing Scam (click here) *Note: Spam reports will not be read or seen.
Websites that advertise discounts, provide instant chat boxes to communicate with visitors, or offer ghostwriting services are typically not real, experienced, or authentic book publishers and will use their limited skills to publish your book to a self-publishing platform with many errors or mistakes made due to their lack of experience in the publishing industry. They may boast cheap publishing prices due but beware. They buy ads through advertisers and feature prominently in search engines.
Important note:
We do not accept reports from publishing companies attempting to smear competitors and if we find that you are from a company who is attempting to use this platform to defame legitimate companies, we will consider it an act of deceit and will add your website to the list of companies to avoid. Any company listed on this website via a complaint may also leave a statement.
When to report a publishing scam:
Non-Delivery after Payment: You paid the publisher, but they never published your book and have refused to refund the amount. Or you paid to have your book published but can’t reach the publisher after making the payment.
Unfulfilled Promises: The publisher makes unrealistic guarantees of bestseller status or specific sales figures. For example, the company claims it can get your book on the NYT Bestsellers list or claims your book is a guaranteed bestseller.
Deceptive Practices: The publisher misrepresents their services, claiming in-house printing when in reality it is publishing your book using their own self-publishing account on platforms like KDP or Lulu.
Pricing: The publisher advertises a different price than the actual cost. In other words, they claim the cost to publish is $399 but you must pay an additional $250 for a book cover. Note: the company may offer other services but if they claim it will cost only $399 to publish a book then that is the amount it should cost to publish the book. Any other services should be optional and should not be required in order to publish and place your book on sale. The company should be honest about all of its costs without any “surprise” payments that must be paid to the company later.
Unprofessional Results: The published book has poor formatting, design, and doesn’t meet industry standards.
Missing Royalties: You haven’t received royalties despite meeting sales thresholds and timeframe to receive payment outlined in your contract.
Unsolicited Contact: A publisher reaches out with a guaranteed publication offer.
Unreasonable Fees: The publisher charges excessive fees for editing, marketing, or other services.
Misleading Statements: You have discovered the company has made numerous misleading or fraudulent statements and you opted not to move forward and now you would like to warn the public that the company is perhaps engaging in fraud.
Bad Actors: Other scammers can include companies who offer to market your book to their thousands of social media followers, who all happen to be other authors also trying to promote their work.
Reviewers Who Don’t Deliver: If you have had an experience with a book review company that failed to read or properly review your book, let others know.
To pay or not to pay a publisher
Whether you pay a publisher to publish your book is a personal choice. Some writers choose to self-publish on their own without assistance from a publisher. This not only takes a considerable amount of time and effort but requires design, formatting, and marketing knowledge (or skills). Other authors may not have the time or luxury to self-publish without assistance so they choose to find a publisher to help them achieve their goals. This is perfectly fine.
Some writers submit their manuscript to publishers who do not require a fee to publish the book. Instead, the publisher is paid from the author’s book sales. Unfortunately, it can be incredibly difficult to find this type of publisher since they often receive thousands of submissions each month (that they will likely never read) or they require an established literary agent to submit the book on the author’s behalf. Literary agents are also often difficult to obtain. Some writers seek one or the other for several years before choosing to pay a reputable publisher to publish their books.
Paying a publisher is fine as long as the publisher can deliver the services they are advertising.
Here’s how to avoid publishing scams:
- Avoid companies that make grand or exaggerated promises about book sales or results to get you to pay them.
- Avoid companies that exclusively publish through KDP. KDP books are non-returnable and as a standard, are not usually accepted into local brick-n-mortar bookstores, if that’s your goal. Your book will, however, be available via many online bookstores so it’s not totally a bad thing.
- Avoid companies who force you to sign an NDA. This may indicate that they are hiding something.
- Avoid companies who require you to share your copyright.
- Avoid companies who require a different fee than the price they advertised.
- Avoid companies that require you to make monthly payments for 12 or more months before you can receive a published book. These companies charge very high fees to publish and market books. One company charges $14,000 for marketing.
- Avoid companies who claim to publish your book for $199 – $399. Many of them are fake KDP companies or they are using a personal KDP account to publish books. KDP is a free platform. Check their current list of titles and look for 90000 on the barcode instead of a price. This indicates that the book does not meet the standard for inclusion in brick-n-mortar bookstores, which often requires a wholesale discount, returnability, and a price on the barcode.
Ask Questions
- Ask questions. Confirm the costs.
- Check the publisher’s website for signs of marketing if the company is offering marketing services.
- Check the publisher’s website for previously published titles.
Submit:
Please leave your name, date when the fraud or scam occurred and the name of the company. All submissions are moderated and must be approved. Unsolicited advertisers will be deleted unread.
9 responses to “Report Publishing Scams”
Thank you for making this page. The latest and most dangerous publishing scam is Vanilla Heart Publishing and Vanilla Heart Publishers, which I believe is owned by the same ghostwriting company. I’m sad to report that Vanilla Heart Publishing is taking credit for books it did not publish to lure unsuspecting authors into publishing with them. It’s a complete scam! Screenshots of the scam can be seen below.
On April 11, 2024, I found an ad by vanillaheartpublishing.com and went to the website hoping to get my book published. The first thing I noticed was a number of book covers on display. They looked nice at first, but among them, was a poster from a popular TV show, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which they were obviously trying to pass off as a book they had published. I clicked the chat box and spoke to someone named Kenneth. While talking to him, I was googling and researching information about the company at the same time. I looked for the books they claimed to publish, and I also went to the WHO IS website. Vanilla Heart Publishing is not located in the United States. WHO IS Lookup shows that the company is located in Reykjavik on Kalkofnsvegur 2 and the website was “created” in 2022.
The company promised to publish books for $299. When I asked which titles had they previously published, since the books listed on its website did not actually exist (after an extensive search for the titles online). Vanilla Heart Publishing sent links to three best-selling, self-published books. I was excited so I looked at the Amazon page for the books and noticed that the books they sent were published by an “Independent Publisher.” This means that the books were published on KDP by the author rather than by Vanilla Heart Publishing. It dawned on me that the company was trying to take credit for popular self-published books that they had no hand in publishing. I also noticed that one of the books was published in 2021, before company’s website was created in 2022. “Kenneth” offered excuses about why the self-published titles predates the creation of their website, but they were superficial reasons. After I ended the chat, I sent an email to the author of one of the books and he confirmed that the company did not publish his book and states that the claim by the company was fraudulent. He wanted to know how to report it. Even though I suspected as much, I was shocked by the company’s dishonesty.
I went back to the website before coming here, and a different set of book covers returned. Vanilla Heart Publishing listed The Violations of a Moral Code book cover without the author’s name. I searched for the title on Amazon, and it turns out The Violations of a Moral Code was written by Camille Pierce M.MSC and was published by Xlibris and not Vanilla Heart Publishing. Vanilla Heart Publishing is taking credit for books it did not publish. Vanilla Heart Publishing also listed Child Lost, Child Found by Patty Renfro, which was published by BookBaby.
Twenty-four hours after I confronted Vanilla Heart Publishing about its dubious claims, the entire website had changed. The fake book covers disappeared from the company’s website and the company now claims that it is a PR company that specializes in branding with barely a trace of the company’s previously advertised publishing services. Only a small link remains. They were busted and they knew it. A search for the company’s published books pointed to only three books that are currently on sale via Amazon. The books are poorly formatted and amateurish to the point that it was baffling. The books were also outdated, with release dates dating back to 2009 and earlier so I am unsure if there is a relationship although it appears to be from the same company. What I found unnerving was how they revamped the entire website in less than 24 hours to hide their guilt. I don’t know if any of the authors who signed up for them will get their book published or if the publication will be published correctly.
Links to chat conversation here:
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IMO, Defiance Press and Publishing is a vanity press, whatever it pretends. If you have no marketable public profile, or some kind of established market from which to draw readers, they offer 7K, 10K and 15K publishing “packages.” I saw a movie in which an aspiring writer ended up with debts and a garage full of stacks of his books.
This publisher has the same stink.
Kindledirectpublications.com is another scam. Please beware of this company, they are also based in Reykjavik on Kalkofnsvegur and use Amazon’s trademarked name.
This complaint is about writersofUSA book publishing. A 6 month contract was signed with a $2000 requested fee. We also had a 100% money back guarantee with a certain percentage of return in 4 months. We were assigned a project manager by the name of Monica Brooks whom have desrespected us several times in the process. Once they built an website that took over 1 month, they disappeared. Also, their website number changed on us in the middle of contract process. Their website number often takes you to another book publishing company called Book publishing Lab. They took our money and then disappeared. Monica Brooks, Warren fisher and the head of our project posed as coordinators and project managers. They make sure to drag out the contract and doesn’t return calls, emails etc. Before the job is done they also request reviews in the process without the work being done. They steal your money then disappear. They also are not professionals. There is no evidence of them being in New York either. They give you false promises.
Address: 224 W 35th St Ste 500 PMB 33 New York, NY 10001
Their website: https://www.writersofusa.com/
Their website has all of the red-flags for a scammer. When you see the word “ghostwriter” or “ghostwriting” or #1 company, it is a scam. If they make promises or guarantees, they are a scam. If they offer “Book writing services” they are a scam. Real publishers don’t offer book writing services, they publish authors who have already written books.
Don’t be fooled by a $299 price tag offered by some of these companies. The $299 thing is a new trend. They will raise the costs on you later. For example, they will give you a plain white book cover and up the price for a real design. Then they either disappear with your money or publish your book using a free publishing platform like KDP with mediocre to awful formatting. The book won’t sell and no one will see it. They have no idea what they are doing. The only thing they’re good at is building a website.
Ask for all of their costs up front, before you begin. Honest companies will list all of their costs on their websites. The nefarious ones will wait until they have built a relationship with you before revealing their real fees. They wait until you have invested time in them and have your loyalty. Always check https://who.is/ to see how long the “publisher” has been in business. If less than five years, it is likely a scammer.
I’m a retired federal special agent and certified fraud examiner. I just can’t stop seeing fraud!
I’m now a lifetime member of the Atlanta Writers Club and a novice publicist for my wife’s debut novel LEAP. I post on LinkedIn and Facebook about fraud prevention. This site should be required reading for ALL AUTHORS!
Let’s protect the writers out there from the scammers!
Companies calling themselves Amazon KDP Publishers, Amazon Book Publishing Central, and Amazon Publishing Group are falsely advertising themselves as subsidiaries of Amazon to deceive authors.
Thank you for warning the public. You’re doing a service for us all. Please add http://americanbookpublishersinc.com to the list of scammers / publishing companies to avoid. They claim they are American Book Publishers but they are not in the U.S. and they are owned by the same people who own the other scam publishing websites. Following your advice I checked https://who.is and it shows that they are in Reykjavik Kalkofnsvegur.
List of publishing fraud websites from the network of scams run out of Reykjavik Kalkofnsvegur – many of them claiming to be “American” publishing companies. Some of these companies are getting savvy about hiding their location. If they don’t have a location, go by the year of registration on https://who.is/ . If they were active from 2021 to 2024, that’s a BIG RED FLAG so beware. We’ll keep adding to the list as we identify them. If you identify any publishing scammers from the network of scams out of Reykjavik Kalkofnsvegur, please let us know.
Update: Vanilla Heart Publishing has purchased domain protection to hide their location since their scam was exposed. Beware of the ghostwriting publishing, KDP publishing, AMZ publishing registered between 2021-2024.
List of publishing scammers operating in Kalkofnsvegur Reykjavik while pretending to be U.S. companies:
VanillaHeartpublishing.com
Vanillaheartpublishers.com
self-publishinginc.com/
http://americanbookpublishersinc.com
amazonbookpublishers.com
digitalbookpublishersllc.com
self-publishinginc.com
Other scam sites include the companies below:
amazonbookpublishers.llc
digitalbooklabs.com
writersofusa.com