June 2026. This is the first in a new monthly series on publishing scams, bad actors, and how to protect yourself. Every month, we'll cover a different angle. This one starts at the beginning: what ALLi's Watchdog Desk does, how we rate services, and what to look out for in 2026.
More Scams Than Ever, and What We're Doing About It
We're hearing it more and more. Authors telling us they've been scammed. Authors who've lost money, lost confidence, and in some cases lost years of work to operations that knew exactly how to exploit their ambitions.
ALLi has been protecting indie authors since 2012. We've been here through every major shift in the self-publishing landscape, from platform changes to new technologies to the rise of AI, and we've been rating and investigating services every step of the way.
Right now, self-publishing is more popular and more exciting than it has ever been. All eyes are on indie authors. But that popularity has brought a sharp increase in scams targeting our community. The operations are getting more sophisticated, the pitches are getting slicker, and the money authors are losing is getting bigger.
We've always responded to what the community needs. Right now, the community needs this more than ever. So from today, Spammers and Scammers is a new monthly series on this blog, dedicated to ongoing education and protection within the space. Each month we'll tackle a different topic: common scams, red flags, contract traps, and practical advice on protecting yourself and your money. In future posts, we'll deep dive into specific scams (like the AI-powered email pitches many of you have been receiving, where scammers use AI to trawl through your websites and books to make the approach feel personal and legitimate).
We're stronger together. That's always been what ALLi is about, and this series is an extension of that.
This month, we're starting with a reintroduction to the Watchdog Desk. If you haven't heard of it, here's what it is. If you have, here's what's changed and how we're responding to the growing need.
Inside the Watchdog Desk
ALLi's Watchdog Desk is headed by John Doppler, who has been investigating and rating publishing services for nearly fifteen years. He works alongside ALLi co-director Philip Lynch and US ambassador Michael La Ronn, with research support from ALLi team members Sarah Begley and Kayleigh Brindley.
To date, the Watchdog Desk has evaluated and re-evaluated over 1,700 publishing-related services. That includes everything from editors and cover designers to print-on-demand providers, marketing agencies, and full-service publishing packages. The goal is simple: help you find the services that will do right by your book, and steer you away from the ones that won't.
How the Watchdog Desk works for the community
Our Self-Publishing Services Directory is the most viewed page on the entire Self-Publishing Advice Centre (including the homepage!). It rates thousands of services with red, amber, and green flags, and it's free to search. At ALLi, we're always balancing our member offering with our commitment to the wider community. Scam protection is far too important to ever put behind a paywall, so the directory and this blog series will always be open to everyone.
A quick note: If you're visiting the services ratings page, please allow a few seconds for the grid to load as it's pulling a lot of data together. This is something that's changing as part of a wider relaunch of the page.
Of course, if you are an ALLi member, you do get deeper support on top of this: contract vetting (send us any publishing contract and we'll review it for you), direct access to the Watchdog team for personalised advice, priority responses, and ALLi's member magazine, The Indie Author, which features in-depth coverage of service ratings, scam alerts, and interviews with the Watchdog team.
It's not always black and white
It's worth saying: not every poorly rated service is a scam. Some are new to the space and genuinely don't realise their offering could be better. Part of what the Watchdog Desk does is work with partner services to help them improve. We tell them what needs to change, and many of them listen. That's a good thing for the whole community.
But when a service is deliberately misleading authors, taking money for things they can't deliver, or hiding behind fake reviews, that's a different conversation entirely. And that's what this series is here to address.
How we actually rate services
In an upcoming interview for The Indie Author, John described how the process works:
“It isn't simply pass/fail, good/bad. The Watchdog Desk assesses over two dozen criteria, looks into the history of the principals, and seeks feedback from past clients.”
ALLi doesn't just check a company's website and call it a day. The desk digs into the background of the people running the service, cross-references client feedback, and looks for patterns that might not be obvious from the outside. And because not every service provider is upfront about how they operate, much of this investigation has to be done first hand.
Download: How to Spot a Publishing Scam
Our free short guide covers the 10 questions to ask any service before you sign, the red flags to watch for, and quick checks you can do yourself. Keep it open next time you're evaluating a service.
What the Red Flags Actually Look Like
One of the most common tricks in 2026 is manufactured reviews. As John puts it: “It's laughably easy to generate fake reviews on Trustpilot, which is why most scammers rely on it to provide an illusion of legitimacy.”
If a service has dozens of glowing five-star reviews on Trustpilot but you can't find a single independent mention of them anywhere else (no blog reviews, no forum discussions, no social media presence from real clients), that's worth pausing on.
Other warning signs to watch for:
High-pressure sales tactics. Legitimate services don't need to rush you. If someone is pushing you to sign today, offering a discount that expires this week, or making you feel like you'll miss out, slow down.
Vague pricing. If a company won't tell you what things cost until you're on a call with a sales rep, that's a pattern designed to get you emotionally committed before you see the numbers.
Promises of bestseller status or guaranteed sales. No one can guarantee this. Anyone who says they can is not being honest with you.
Victim retargeting. This is one of the more disturbing trends John has flagged. A scammer defrauds an author, extracts money until the author catches on and cuts off contact. Then the same operation reaches out again under a different name, posing as a law firm or law enforcement, claiming they can recover the stolen money, for a fee. The author, desperate to get their money back, falls for it a second time.
Know what to ask before you sign anything.
Our free guide gives you the 10 questions every author should ask a publishing service, plus the red flags that should make you walk away. Based on ALLi's Choose the Best Self-Publishing Services guidebook.
The Real Stakes
It's easy to think of scams as something that happens to other people. But the Watchdog Desk sees the reality every week.
In his upcoming interview for The Indie Author, John shared a story that stayed with us. Shortly after the interview, he found an email waiting from an author he had spoken to earlier that week. They had been taken in by a convincing website and a polished sales pitch, and were about to send tens of thousands of dollars (most of their savings) to a scam operation overseas. One email from John was all it took to stop it.
That's not unusual. The Watchdog Desk handles between 2,000 and 3,000 messages a year from authors asking for help, advice, or a second opinion on a service they're considering.
As John puts it: “The perpetrators of these schemes have years of experience. They know the pain points that authors face. They know what authors want to hear, what reassures them, what lowers their defenses.”
This is not about blaming anyone who has been caught out. It's about making sure you have the information you need before you commit.
What You Can Do Right Now
Check before you pay. Search any service on ALLi's Self-Publishing Services Directory before you hand over money. It's free to search and covers thousands of rated services.
Ask the Watchdog Desk. If a service isn't listed, or if something feels off, contact the Watchdog Desk directly. John and the team are there to help. You don't need to be an ALLi member to ask a question (though members get priority access and contract review).
Trust your instincts. If a deal sounds too good to be true, if someone is rushing you, if you can't find independent reviews, pause. Take a day. Ask someone you trust. That small delay can save you thousands.
Follow this series. Next month, we'll go deeper into a specific scam targeting indie authors right now. Subscribe to the blog or follow us on Substack so you don't miss it.
Why This Series Exists
ALLi has always been about ethics and excellence in self-publishing. The Watchdog Desk is one of the most important things we do.
But protection only works if authors know it's there. Too many writers find out about the Watchdog Desk after they've already lost money. This series is our way of putting that knowledge in front of as many authors as possible, before they need it.
If you've had an experience with a publishing service (good or bad) that you think other authors should know about, get in touch. The more information the Watchdog Desk has, the better it can protect the community. We're stronger together, and looking out for each other is what this community does best.
See you next month for the next instalment of Spammers and Scammers.
Get your free guide: How to Spot a Publishing Scam
The 10 questions to ask any service, the red flags to watch for, and quick checks you can do yourself. Free from ALLi.
Alliance of Independent Authors
The global non-profit association for indie authors
ALLi members get priority access to the Watchdog Desk, free contract review, the full services directory, and the quarterly magazine. If you're serious about self-publishing and want someone in your corner, membership is your next step.
