Whew. It’s like the wild west out there. 

I’m talking about self-publishing, small publishing companies, vanity presses, etc. With the endless diversity there is now available in the publishing universe, it is becoming harder and harder to pick out the black hats from the white hats. 

We writers are a needy lot, and want so desperately to have a book out there (I should know as I don’t have one yet and I am gradually getting that glint of terror in my eyes that says I’d better get published or I will have to resort to playing Bingo for entertainment and thereby crush my creative soul into a small box of letters and numbers…). We want that validation. We want to have something to give to people who say, “So, have you got anything published yet? Anything I can READ?”

Mind you, that’s just galling. But maybe I’m over sensitive (see parentheses above).

And out there in the publishing world swim the sharks, the ones who promise publishing contracts, who sing you songs of “supporting you through this wonderful experience” for only a smallish fee such as one could use to buy a small car…

They go about, they take advantage, they hurt and bankrupt authors. Diane Tilbert has been fighting the good fight, trying to identify and check one of the companies that is being less than helpful. She’s running a risk; the person involved is lawsuit-positive, as they say in politically correct speak, but I applaud her efforts to cast some light on the murky side of things.

That said, she’ll squash this one (with any luck) and it will spring up again, under a different name, Like mushrooms, these little companies spring up in the dark dank undergrowth, and fade away whenever the sun is shone on them…

So be careful out there, writers! Choose pblishers carefully, Read the contracts carefully. Don’t be too desperate to get something out there (advice to me…). Make your book the best it can be and someone NICE will want to publish it, presumably.

Or not. 

But at least you won’t be bankrupted…