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Before you sign or pay

Is this publisher a scam?

Use this vanity press scam checklist before you sign or pay. First identify what is actually being offered. An agent earns a commission after a sale, and a traditional publisher pays production costs. A hybrid or a paid service takes your money, so read the fee, the rights, and the contract red flags before you decide.

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Four offers, four first checks

  1. Agent: no reading, representation, or required-service fee.[3][4]
  2. Publisher: they acquire the book and pay production costs.[3][11]
  3. Hybrid: all IBPA criteria must be met, not merely most of them.[5]
  4. Service provider: demand an itemised scope and retain your rights.[5][10]
  5. For every offer: verify independently before signing or paying.[10]

01

Agent and traditional offers

Legitimate literary agents work on commission, normally after selling rights. Traditional publishers acquire rights and fund the publication. Upfront fees, required paid services, pressure, and unverifiable sales records are warning signs.[3][4][10]

  • Confirm the agent's actual sales and the publisher's catalogue.
  • Check commission, rights granted, term, accounting, and termination.
  • Use independent watchdogs rather than the company's own testimonials.

02

Hybrid offers

A genuine hybrid publisher selects manuscripts, publishes under its own imprint and ISBNs, distributes professionally, demonstrates sales, and pays the author more than a standard royalty. Meeting only some criteria is not enough.[5][10]

  • Run all eleven IBPA criteria.
  • Compare the contract with an equivalent set of separately hired services.
  • Confirm exactly which rights return to you and when.

03

Paid publishing services

A service provider may be legitimate and useful, but it is selling work rather than acquiring your book. Assess it as a supplier: scope, samples, references, milestones, ownership, files, and remedy if delivery fails.[5][10]

  • Request itemised deliverables and prices.
  • Keep source files, accounts, metadata access, and rights in your control.
  • Walk away from pressure, vague distribution promises, or guaranteed sales.

04

What is the difference between a vanity press and a hybrid publisher?

A genuine hybrid selects manuscripts, publishes under its own imprint and ISBNs, distributes professionally, demonstrates sales, and pays the author more than a standard royalty. Meeting only some of the criteria is not enough. A company that asks you to fund production while calling itself a traditional publisher is a different model.[5][10]

  • The vanity-press comparison applies those criteria to the offer in front of you.

05

What are publishing contract red flags?

Upfront fees, required paid services, pressure, and sales records you cannot verify are warning signs on an agent or publisher offer. For every offer, check the rights granted, the term, accounting, and termination before you sign or pay.[3][4][10]

  • The contract answer lists the clauses to read before you sign.

06

What if someone offers publishing help after you post?

A message that arrives because you said in public that the book is finished is an unsolicited approach. Writer Beware says a reputable publisher is extremely unlikely to contact you out of the blue, and that solicitation is one of the main ways scammers acquire clients. The answer page describes that pattern and the questions to ask. It does not name a seller.[298]

  • Read it before you send the manuscript, pay, or sign.

07

Is this publisher a scam?

Asking you to pay does not by itself make a company a scam, and a website that says traditional does not by itself make the offer a publisher-funded deal. Writer Beware says a vanity publisher charges a fee or requires a purchase as a condition of publication, presents itself as the publisher, and takes rights exclusively. A traditional publisher pays production. IBPA says a hybrid claim fits only when every criterion is met. Run the checks on this page, then read the comparison before you pay or sign. This page describes patterns. It does not name a company as a scam.[5][211][298]

  • Who pays for editing, design, and production.
  • Who holds the rights, and when they come back.
  • Whether a hybrid claim meets every IBPA criterion, not most of them.

08

What is on a vanity press scam checklist?

Read these items before you pay, buy copies, or sign. Writer Beware lists a fee that is missing from the contract, a price that is not firm, and labels such as co-op, joint venture, partner, or contributory. The same list includes a required purchase of your own books, a sales promise, royalties held back until the company recovers its costs, a profit promise that exists only in email or on a call, and pressure to decide immediately. IBPA expects a negotiable contract with a clear reversion clause. The Authors Guild article of 30 July 2026 says many hybrid contracts are offered as non-negotiable, and that you should ask to strike a required purchase of your own copies.[5][211][212][213]

  • The fee, the deliverables, and the rights grant are in the contract, not only in the sales call.
  • A required copy purchase is still a payment for publication.
  • A perk that is not written into the contract is not a remedy if the company does not deliver it.
  • Email beware@sfwa.org with the company name. Writer Beware will summarize its file, or say that it has nothing.

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