When stories surface about authors defrauded by unscrupulous vanity presses, sometimes for tens of thousands of dollars, the reaction is sometimes unsympathetic.
“It's their fault for being so gullible.”
“They should have done their homework.”
“That was a stupid mistake. Google is your friend.”
It's true that authors have more information at their fingertips than ever before. Why, then, do authors keep falling for scams and schemes from the same exploitative companies?
1. High-pressure sales target author psychology
Vanity presses are notorious for their aggressive pursuit of authors. Once they have an author's contact information, vanity presses often flood the victim with inquiries and “reminders”. One “manuscript referral service” I tested resulted in more than 120 emails from some of the worst vanity presses in the industry.
Throughout, these solicitations push the author to initiate a phone conversation. A sales rep can apply even more manipulative sales tactics in direct conversation. Once a vanity press gets its hooks into a victim, the pressure is relentless.
Learn how to defuse high-pressure sales tactics.
2. Vanity presses provide emotional validation
Vanity presses flatter prospective authors by assuring them that only the best manuscripts will be selected for publication by their “editorial board”. I decided to put that to the test by submitting a manuscript so epicly atrocious that it reduced more than one editor to tears of laughter — or just tears.
Mr. Bumpkins is always the sweetest little frog, and I look forward to our delightful conversations. I had never seen him this excited before!!!
“Croak croak!” he repeated urgently, hopping down the garden path between my organic cucumbers and the compost box where Mr. Slimy and his slug friends live. “Croak croak!”
“My goodness, what's all this commotion about?” I queried querulously.
“Croak!” he croaked.
“Really? There's something you want me to see?” I enjoined skeptically.
“Croak!” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Well, hurry up and show me!” I demanded happily.
I scooped up Mr. Bumpkins off of the ground and carried him to the front yard, where I set him very carefully back down on the ground.
He sat there, blinking his squishy brown eyeballs while he waited patiently for me to connect with the wisdom of the Universe.
And that's one of the better passages.
This forty page “autobiographical metaphysical self-help book for adults” was submitted to eight of the most prominent vanity presses. Unsurprisingly, every single one replied to let me know they were interested in publishing this masterpiece.
To a novice author uncertain of the marketability of their work and eager for validation, a positive response from a perceived authority is powerfully seductive. Unfortunately, it's honesty and practical advice authors need, not ego stroking and half-truths.
3. Vanity presses prey on an author's insecurities
Flattery is seductive, but that's not the only way that vanity presses worm their way into an author's psyche. Many vanity presses will try to persuade authors that they are incapable of producing a professional book without an expensive full-service publishing package. This is particularly effective on authors who may not be comfortable with new technology; the idea of handing off the details of publishing to someone who will take care of it for you is alluring.
Vanity presses tend to bombard the author with the message that they cannot succeed alone, and that the fees are really just a “manageable investment”.
What these authors may not realize is that the “manageable investment” referenced by vanity presses may exceed $20,000.00. As ALLi authors can attest, professional quality is within reach of any author willing to put in the time and effort, and it doesn't require a $20,000.00 publishing package to achieve.
Learn to recognize fear-based sales tactics.
4. Prejudices about self-publishing
Despite a decade of rapid evolution, the self-publishing industry still faces prejudices and unfair assumptions, such as:
- Self-published books are amateurish
- Self-publishing is prohibitively expensive
- Self-publishing requires the author to do everything themselves
- Self-publishing is a last resort for authors who couldn't secure traditional publishing contracts
Vanity presses routinely exploit those prejudices, persuading novice authors that they cannot succeed without the company's help, and that their only other options are years of fruitless queries to traditional publishers or a difficult and lonely self-publishing process that's doomed to failure.
To the author, the sales pitch may confirm their erroneous beliefs. They may have encountered amateurish self-published books and assumed that is the state of all self-pubbed books. They may never see evidence to the contrary, because a professional self-published book is indistinguishable from a traditionally published book. It's only the amateurish books that are a thumb in the reader's eye.
5. Reliable information is lost in the noise
Trustworthy sources of information about self-publishing companies are few and far between. ALLi's Watchdog Desk has evaluated and rated hundreds of services, but that barely makes a dent in the thousands of services out there. Other industry watchdogs like Writer Beware are an invaluable resource, but they are also limited by time and staff constraints.
Authors may not know of these resources, and may lack the technical skills to find them on search engines. That problem is compounded by the volume and the prominence of misinformation on the internet.
Vanity presses purchase highly-visible ads for top searches, snaring unsuspecting authors looking for information. Supposedly respectable publications take ads for substandard vanity presses, legitimizing those companies. Consumer watchdog charities like the Better Business Bureau sell out, whitewashing negative ratings for companies that purchase “accreditation”. (For example, notorious vanity press Author Solutions carries an A+ rating with the BBB, despite hundreds of complaints and a majority of negative reviews.)
Some vanity presses flood the internet with glowing testimonials from authors they have deceived. Others wage despicable smear campaigns against self-publishing watchdogs in an attempt to discredit them.
When searching for reliable information on how to self-publish, the deck is stacked against authors.
You can help arm unwary authors against schemes and scams by sharing watchdog service ratings and alerts.
In the end, it's not the author who should be blamed for falling victim to a rip-off; it's the deceptive vanity presses that have made an industry of defrauding authors.
Over to you
How do you help your fellow authors avoid these traps? Let us know in the comments below?
Why do #indieauthors fall for vanity press scams? - by @johndoppler Share on X
I had a very terrible experience with a vanity publisher who runs a business known as Novel House Publishing. The publisher, Evie Bernal, although manufactures her google reviews based on her “happy” clients, however, Legalshield have found complaints against her where authors spoke about bad quality of editing and the publisher’s egoistic attitude.
In my case, the publisher does not give any editorial feedback or neither did any of her editors and formatters did. Vanity presses only care about finishing the process fast and securing cash into their pocket. TO BE VERY HONEST, THIS EXPERIENCE MADE ME REALIZE THAT EVEN OUR SCHOOL TEACHERS AND COLLEGE PROFESSORS WHO GRADE OUR ESSAYS DO A MUCH BETTER JOB MORE THAN THESE VANITY PUBLISHERS EVER CAN. Teachers actually care about our writing. Disgusting and predatory publishers like her only care about swallowing down money. My book was rather outsourced to some loser in Bangladesh and the publisher suddenly decided to reclassify my payment for platforms as “comprehensive novel editing”.
In June 2025, I was quoted platform prices via email where I wanted my book published in 4 platforms. I blindly trusted her without realizing that it is completely FREE TO UPLOAD YOUR BOOK on these platforms where she has charged hundreds of dollars instead. She then began performing steps out of order where cover design process began. Then my formatting was completed within less than a week. My formatted file was given back to me because her incompetent formatter could not handle my book. In the next 2 months, I performed my own developmental and line editing.
When I called her, she falsely claimed that no publishing process began and her team was only doing editing to my book. I tried to clarify the status, she raised her voice and spoke over me by claiming that I only paid for editing and “publishing package” was not paid yet. She then sent me an ugly pink slip she created after the call where she has falsely bundled all my 3 payments under 1 category of “comprehensive novel editing”.
On December 12, 2025, she pressured me to leave a review in exchange for releasing my completed book cover. In those text messages, Evie Bernal threatened to remove me from her roster if I didn’t decide right on spot and respond fast to her. I terminated the predatory relationship I had with that disgusting publisher. Giving a cold and direct response could have kept peace. Instead, I remained professional and gave her a response with listing her own prices she quoted for the platforms. She retaliated instead by revealing that the price for IngramSpark is $1,299. I virtually met and spoke with an author from Australia who was shocked and said “charging you $1,299 for IngramSpark, that is disgusting!” She completed denied that she did NOT charge me for “the package” and claimed “you only paid for editing”. Attorneys claimed to me that her statements are bullshit where she outright denied her own written emails. Ironically, she calls herself a “Publishing Agent” but repeatedly writes IngramSpark as “Ingram Park.” Her website, emails, and text messages were riddled with sentence fragments, spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typos which proves there is a low-quality communication from someone who offers editing and proofreading service.
Right after I walked away, the publisher immediately began calling me that morning. That got me uncomfortable, so I blocked that piece of shit. It was possibly a way to just aggressively explain herself and go on a defensive rambling. I decided to keep a written paper trail instead to protect myself from her emotionally aggressive behavior.
She was very desperate to pull me back in, despite being the one who threatened to end our relationship earlier. Because authors are funding or paying these predators, they have no income without us. That piece of shit then began sending me unsolicited emails. She thought I was gonna buy her “publication package” and began forcing me to write a review for her business so that she can trade the cover. No matter how desperate she was for a review, I declined to get my own cover and will not be using their product in the future when I publish my book.
After I ended the relationship, she became VERY desperate to retain me as her client. She suddenly became willing to offer discounts on her package that I already paid for. Predators often prey on authors who are willing to invest their money and that is what creates a sunk-cost dependency where they lock authors in. And yes, it is very typical of these vanity presses to sell all these bundled packages. In my case, multiple loosely defined services were bundled altogether. So it’s like when you work with these predators, YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE YOUR MONEY GETS ALLOCATED. I sued her because my money I paid for platforms got reclassified as “comprehensive novel editing” under this ugly pink slip she created. The pink slip had several red flags which was not generated from an accounting software. The reality was actually the team did no developmental or line editing, and instead I had to do my own heavy editing.
Looking back, I learned that publishing independently gives you far more control over your money and helps you avoid hidden costs, predatory price markups, bundled services with no documentation, and the emotional manipulation I experienced with this vanity publisher. Please save yourself from this nightmare of working with salesmen like her.
It has taken almost three years to get a nickel out of Amazon on two self-published books. There were a lot of threats along the way. They ended up parting with $8.61. If a real, traditional publishing company opened shop, they could make a fortune.
Some great advice here. You can self-publish a book today for free. It doesn’t cost a penny. What are your thoughts on Amazon’s pay per click advertising for authors? Do you think its ethical when considering the price points any author makes?
ll the more reason to put effort into obtaining an agent to keep you on the legitimate path toward publication,
Well, that’s just one option Moilli and it’s becoming more and more difficult for most authors. Thankfully, authors now have lots of other options too.
Dear All
Definetely the starting phase of publishing our work creats confusion. Before publishing we have do a lot to refine our work. Then it is safe to go with one like Amazone Kindle Direct Publishing. I had two books with amazone 1. Passing by Corona Days Poetry and 2 Purple Guava and Idol Seller – Poetry available to all. It gives me more confidence and committment in writing.
Great post, John!
Had to laugh out loud at your ‘novel’. Might try something like that in Dutch just to see how the vanities over here react to bad manuscripts. I bet it would be similar.
You have inspired me once again to set up some sort of watchdog campaign here in the Netherlands.
I’ve tried to share the message far and wide: Do not pay someone to publish your book! You CAN do it yourself. Thanks for more support for this claim.
Dear All
Definetely the starting phase of publishing our work creats confusion. Before publishing we have do a lot to refine our work. Then it is safe to go with one like Amazone Kindle Direct Publishing. I had two books with amazone 1. Passing by Corona Days Poetry and 2 Purple Guava and Idol Seller – Poetry available to all. It gives me more confidence and committment in writing.
Thanks, John. I’ve received well-worded emails that piqued my interest. However, a few minutes of research showed that the senders weren’t interested in me. Well, maybe they were. They were interested in my money.
My advice: If you have to pay, stay away.