Book Publishers to Avoid: 5 Types of Shady Companies

Becoming a published author is a dream shared by almost every writer. Unfortunately, there are plenty of unreliable companies out there looking to make a quick buck by exploiting those dreams — from notorious pay-to-publish vanity presses like Author Solutions to brand-new fake writing contests.

Many companies will try to overcharge for their service, use high pressure sales tactics, and make vague, unverifiable claims about their success. To avoid falling prey to publishing scams, you should learn about their methods and warning signs, and treat every unsolicited message with extreme caution.

There are five major types of publishing companies to avoid (though many companies fall across multiple categories):

❌ Type of publishing company to avoid	🚩 How they scam authors	⚠️ Examples
Vanity presses	Vanity presses charge authors thousands of dollars for publishing services, then release them with little to no editing or marketing, as they profit from author fees rather than book sales.	Author Solutions, Page Publishing
Big Five impersonators	Big Five impersonators use names, email addresses, and branding that closely mimic legitimate “Big Five” publishing houses (e.g., Penguin Random House) to trick authors into paying fees that the real publishers would never charge.	Penguin Authors House, PenguinPublishers.com
Companies charging for free services	These companies charge authors hefty fees for services such as ISBN registration and copyright filing — which authors can actually do themselves for little to no cost.	Publisher Services, LT-Writing.com
“Guaranteed bestseller” phonies	These companies guarantee to make you a “bestseller” for “only” a thousand dollars or so — but don’t promise any actual sales or fans. Instead, they game the system to get meaningless results.	Leavitt Peak Press, Next Phaze Media Group
Fake writing contests	Scammy writing contests make authors pay for the privilege of winning, and often have as many winners as possible.	IACP Cookbook Awards, Global Ebook Awards

Let’s look at each of these types in more detail, exploring examples of known scams and tips for identifying new ones.

1. Vanity presses

Who doesn’t fantasize about securing a publishing deal and seeing their book in print? Having to pay some fees to get the ball rolling may seem like a small sacrifice to make. 

But that would be a big mistake. No legitimate traditional publisher would ask you to foot the bill. In fact, when acquiring your book, they will pay you an advance. To understand why publishing with a vanity press is a terrible idea, head on over to this post, which discusses the dangers of “paying to publish.” In short: the publisher profits whether or not your book sells, so why would they spend time and money giving it the best chance of success?

Don’t confuse “publishing services” with “editing and design services.” The former are always a scam, whereas the latter are things you do need on your self-publishing journey — but only from reputable sources. Make sure you do some research before signing a contract with an editor or designer. Or, search for professionals on Reedsy, all of whom meet our rigorous selection criteria.

Some prolific vanity presses you may wish to avoid include: 

• Page Publishing
• Xlibris
• Author Solutions 
• iUniverse
• Austin Macauley Publishers
• Inprint Publishing
• Author Choices
• Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie
• Olympia Publishers
• Morgan James Publishing
• Page Publishing
• Christian Faith Publishing
• Newman Springs Publishing

Sadly, it isn’t enough to simply learn the names of unreliable publishers. New vanity presses seem to set up shop each month — and with no “bad press” associated with their names, they’re able to convince many authors to pay for their services.

“Hybrid publishers”

Be particularly wary of vanity presses masquerading as “hybrid publishers.” True hybrid publishers charge authors for publishing services but also profit from book sales, meaning they’re not quite as scammy as vanity presses (though we’d still choose self-publishing any day).

Austin Macauley Publishers, Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie, Christian Faith Publishing, and even Page Publishing all claim to be hybrid or “partnership” publishers, but don’t be fooled: they’re actually vanity presses through and through.

If you’re unsure about whether a publishing company is a vanity press or not, here are some red flags to look out for:

Submit suspected scams to us

You can submit the details of a potentially dodgy company to our support team via this form and we will get back to you on whether the publisher is a scam or not.

Alternatively, you can find reliable indie publishers by browsing our catalog of independent presses, all of which have been thoroughly vetted already.

Pro-tip: Wondering whether to self-publish or traditionally publish? Take this free 10-day course to understand your choices. 

2. Big Five impersonators

To make things even harder, some scammers impersonate reliable publishers, most often Big Five imprints.

For example, here are just a few of the many fake company names scammers use to try to convince authors that they are affiliated with Penguin Random House (you can find more impersonators on the publisher’s website, but bear in mind that their list may not be exhaustive):

• Fringe Penguin Publishers
• Penguin Authors Experts
• Penguin Authors House
• Penguin Book Writers
• Penguin Books Publishers
• Penguin Books Publishing Center
• Penguin House Publisher
• Penguin Literary House
• Penguin Publishing Agency
• Penguin Publishing Experts
• Penguin Publishing House
• Penguin Publishers Hub
• PenguinPublishers.com
• Penguin Writer House
• Penguins Classic Writers

The “best” scammers use a convincing email address and mimic the real imprint’s branding, but you can usually find a misspelling or an incorrect email domain (e.g., @penguinrh.com, not @penguinrandomhouse.com).

There are also scammers who impersonate specific literary agents. If you google the person, you’ll find that they are real and legit — but again, see if you can find their real email address and compare it to the sender’s.

Many literary agents, such as Whitney Ross, even have a section on their website explaining how to recognize that someone is impersonating them. Whitney writes:

It has come to my attention that someone has been impersonating me. This is a scam. Please be advised that my email address is associated with the High Line Literary domain and I do not ask for payment for my agent services. If you are engaged in a conversation with an “agent” who is asking for money in exchange for representation, you are not speaking with me.

Remember: As exciting as receiving an email from a publisher or agent might be, you should always treat it as suspicious until proven otherwise. It’s highly unlikely that publishers or agents would ever send you unsolicited messages — unless you’re already very famous, perhaps.

If you’re genuinely unsure whether an email you receive is an impersonator or the real deal, check for the following red flags:

• The email does not mention your name or your book title(s).
• The praise is very generic and/or over-the-top.
• The message is full of typos or is excessively formal.
• The “from” and “to” email addresses are the same, meaning the email has been sent to lots of people at once.
• The message is from a personal, rather than company, email address. Or the format differs from the one stated on the company or person’s website, for example name@celadonbooks.info instead of name@celadonbooks.com.
• The sender is asking you for money or bank details.
• The sender promises you an amount of money that sounds too good to be true.

3. Companies charging for free services

Our next type of scam may be more difficult to spot. As a self-publishing author, it is advisable to invest in certain services, such as editing and design (which you can find on Reedsy), to ensure your book is high quality.

However, there are other services you don’t need to pay someone for — but if you don’t know which is which, you’ll be very vulnerable to scammers.

Here are some “services” to avoid.

Getting your book an ISBN

The acronym may make it sound more complicated than it is, but getting an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is not like joining the Illuminati: you don’t need a special introduction or to be someone’s important grandchild. For $125, any author can buy an ISBN directly through Bowker in the USA or Nielsen in the UK: agencies that issue ISBNs and cannot profit from their sale.

However, plenty of companies, among them Publisher Services and Independent Publishing Network, will make a big deal of securing you an ISBN. They’ll charge you hundreds of dollars on top of the actual cost when you could just spend 10 minutes on Bowker and do it yourself.

And you might not even have to do that. Most online retailers for indie authors will supply their own identification codes these days. If you’re not planning to distribute to brick-and-mortar stores, you’ll probably be fine without an ISBN. But if you simply must have one, check out our guide on how to get one without paying more than you need to.

Copyright registration

There’s also a common misconception that if you don’t register the copyright of your book, literally anybody can claim it as their work and profit from it.

We’re here to tell you that’s complete nonsense. Authors own the copyright to their works before and after they publish them. In the US, registering that copyright is optional and simply provides a few statutory rights when it comes to claiming damages. It should only cost you a maximum of $65 to register your copyright online (as of October 2025). Yet, LT-Writing.com has reportedly charged $3,700 for this service!

Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of paying someone hundreds of dollars to “protect” work that you already own.

Uploading to Amazon KDP

Another service you don’t need to pay for is uploading your manuscript to Amazon KDP. It’s free and fairly intuitive; there are loads of guides and videos out there to help if you get stuck.

Anyone who claims to be Amazon KDP and asks for money is a scammer. Likewise, anyone who charges a fee to upload your manuscript to KDP is taking advantage of you. You’ll find lots of individuals offering this service at what seems like a low price on Fiverr or People Per Hour — but it’s still a much higher price than doing it yourself for free.

4. “Guaranteed bestseller” phonies

One service you might legitimately want to pay for is book marketing. However, trustworthy marketers will never promise to make your book a “guaranteed bestseller.” It’s simply impossible to promise such success, and anyone claiming otherwise should be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, authors are regularly targeted by scammers offering marketing services. Since promoting a book is sometimes harder than writing it, it can be very tempting to send money to someone who “believes your book can become a bestseller with the right marketing strategies.”

Here's an example of an email making these sorts of claims that a Reedsy co-founder received with respect to his own book (which, ironically, is titled How to Market a Book — very meta):

If you read something like this, it should set alarm bells off in your head. There are three major problems with people who try to flatter authors in this way:

1. They have almost certainly not read your book, so they have no idea whether it has what it takes to achieve wide acclaim.
2. The marketing strategies they suggest are often unachievable or sound a lot better than they really are. For example, a predatory company might offer to display your book at a well-renowned book fair for a fee — only to pile it with countless other books on a table in some unseen corner. Or, they might pay a screenwriter to turn your book into a Netflix pilot which never gets picked up.
3. The label “bestseller” hardly means anything these days. It’s dead easy to become an Amazon #1 Best Seller through nefarious means, such as choosing a very niche category and buying several copies of your own book. Brent Underwood managed to get the coveted badge after just 5 minutes and $3 — and his book didn’t even have any content! If you really want to claim this meaningless accolade, at least play the system yourself rather than overpay someone else to do it. And know that the status doesn’t equate to sales or fans at all.

Here are a few of the many companies that offer untrustworthy “marketing packages”:

• Leavitt Peak Press: offers to republish your old book for a lower price and 100% royalties, then charges publishing and marketing fees
• Next Phaze Media Group: charges upfront fees to represent your book for potential movie deals (which never emerge)
• Book Publishers Ink: claims to be interested in purchasing 2,000 copies of your unpublished book

Of course, new scams pop up every day, so you’ll have to do your due diligence before paying for marketing services. Stay away from any company or individual that:

• has extensive bad reviews;
• has no testimonials or reviews at all;
• features books on their website which you cannot find elsewhere;
• cannot provide verifiable evidence of previous marketing success; or
• contacts you out of the blue with generic praise for your book.

You should also research other providers of the same services to see whether you have been quoted a competitive price. Find out how much various marketing services typically cost here.

5. Fake writing contests

The final publishing scam to avoid is dodgy writing contests. While legitimate competitions are a great way to reach an audience, solidify your writing credentials, and even make a little money in the form of prizes, beware of competitions that are little more than money-spinning enterprises. You can usually sniff them out by the fact that there are loads of winners and you have to pay to receive your prize.

You might have to cover the cost of a physical prize like a trophy. Or, your entry might be published in an anthology alongside all the other “winners” — but only if you pay an “editing fee” for the privilege.

In short, read the fine print. A small entry fee is fine, but any additional costs are a big red flag. 

Here are some examples of writing contest scams:

• IACP Cookbook Awards: winners must buy a license to display an IACP Award seal for $500–1,000
• Global Ebook Awards: winners must pay $25 to receive their certificate

Always google a competition before entering. If it’s a legitimate contest, it will probably be listed on reputable websites. Plus, you should be able to find the details of any previous winners and the names of this year’s judges — if not, it’s probably not a contest worth entering. 

To browse contests that have already been vetted, you can look through this directory of the best writing competitions.

We hope this guide has helped you protect yourself on your publishing journey. Stay safe, avoid scammers, and we know you’ll find the right professionals for your book soon enough!