Many of us authors set out into the world of independent publishing full of frustration with traditional publishing’s very real limitations. We also have a belief in ourselves as artists, a desire to oversee our own fates, and a willingness to roll up our sleeves and do what it takes to “make it.”

At some point, many indie authors hit a period of panic. After pouring sweat, blood, and tears into our passion career, we see disastrously low sales numbers. This is the moment when indie authors learn that it’s not just about hard work: it’s also about luck and having deep pockets. There are indeed ways to boost yourself—but they are going to cost you.

That’s what unscrupulous companies are waiting for. These companies have one vital thing in common: they are trying to make money off your desperation. Authors who are panicking about keeping their businesses from failing are authors who will forget that “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” For authors who are having trouble spotting the red flags, here are scams to watch out for.

The first you probably already know, but this article would be remiss without mentioning it: the vanity press (also termed a subsidy press) offers publishing services for a fee—which can grow to thousands of dollars as services are tacked on.

For an author concerned about how much work independent publishing is, vanity presses seem like a possible solution: they do the work you don’t know how to do yet, and you just pay them for doing that work, right?

Not right at all. You’d be paying an outrageous fee for minimal (and often low-quality) effort on their part. For this dubious privilege, you assume all the risk while giving up the rights to your work. Their first communication may promise you literary glory and a deal for a Netflix series, but, after they have hooked you, the costs will just keep mounting and the results will not.

Here are some red flags to help you spot vanity publishers:

  • They will charge you both fees and royalties. A real publisher will never demand that you pay to publish.
  • They charge a “reading fee” just to review your manuscript.
  • They reach out to you with excessive praise and promises that are too good to be true.
  • Despite glowing testimonials on their site, you can’t find those books in bookstores.

A vanity press may do your Amazon listing for you, but it’s not worth the cost on any level. No matter how difficult it is to be an indie author, it’s infinitely better than being scammed by a vanity press.

For authors who are already published, one huge red flag is companies that offer to help you grow your social media followings. One such company promises: “Affordable, Accelerated, Organic Instagram Growth. No bots. No fake users. Guaranteed results or it’s free!”

Except, after they have charged your credit card, you discover that they have highly particular definitions of “bots,” “fake users,” “organic,” and “guaranteed results.” Their definitions are so wildly divergent from yours that you end up with thousands of fake “followers,” which can mess up your algorithm so terribly that you have to delete your account and start from scratch. And that’s only if Meta (which also has very different definitions of “bots” and “fake users”) doesn’t shut your account down first.

Because of those wildly diverging definitions, the company will insist that it has delivered the promised guaranteed results and absolutely refuse to give your money back.

Another red flag is companies that offer “Amazon bestseller programs.” This is exactly what it sounds like: you pay your way (one company offers this service for $6,000, though many won’t list the price on their sites at all) to get one of those nice little orange banners on Amazon.

What these companies deliver is you being a bestseller in one obscure Amazon category for an hour or so. You drop your book to 99¢ beforehand, so you don’t even make much money in the process. They push just enough sales to get you to hit somewhere high enough in Amazon rankings to be considered a “bestseller” (one of the top 100 sellers in any category).

That little orange badge may be on your listing for an hour, and then it’s gone. Your listing looks like it always has. If you haven’t grabbed a screenshot of the magic moment, you can’t even prove it ever
happened. You paid $6,000 for that. The company is laughing all the way to the bank.

Paid reviews are also a risky proposition. If you choose the wrong company, you get a bunch of garbage reviews, where people have clearly not read your book.

The best practice for choosing paid review sites (because reviews are indeed vital to sales) is to look at the reviews already on those sites, which books tend to get reviewed, and how much the review will cost. Also instructive is to search online for other writers’ experiences of the review site.

Some predatory companies include the service of submitting your book for review to a reputable organization. Only, the fees they ask for are often hundreds of dollars more than what the actual review platform would ever charge. It’s a scam that also unfairly affects the companies that provide reviews at fair and reasonable rates.

Literary organizations such as the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, the Authors Guild, or professional associations for your genre—the Western Writers of America or Horror Writers Association, for examples—can provide real support. Rely on groups that have existed to help authors since before you started dreaming of writing your first book. Look for people volunteering their time coordinating tedious lists of resources and communities.

Success as an indie author is going to be not just hard work, but it’s going to demand that you learn a lot of skills you never expected to need. One way to make it less hard is to be suspicious of companies trying to sell you services that promise to make this challenging and demanding goal easier.

Don’t let greedy, unscrupulous people take advantage of your yearning to succeed. Watch for red flags! If you are offered a short cut, choose the reliable road. It’s the only way you’ll actually get where you’re trying to go.