Warning Signs! These are things to watch for when looking for an online publisher.

 

1) Beware of a publisher who is continually offline because their computer is in the repair shop.—This is a good indication that you are dealing with a one person—one computer company. RUN!!!!!!

 

2) Beware of any publisher who can't decide what types of books they publish. If a publisher repeatedly states that they do not publish a certain type of book and then proceeds to offer contracts for that type of book, it gives you good reason to wonder if the publisher actually knows what they are doing.

 

3) Beware of any publisher whose spelling and grammar are worse than yours. It's normal to find an occasional typo in almost any document, but when reading a website or guidelines that belong to a new publisher, or even some well-established publishers, keep an eye out for numerous spelling and grammar errors. Ask yourself if this is really the type of publisher you want your work and your name to be associated with. After all, reader's opinions of them will have some influence on reader's opinions of you.

 

4) Beware of long term contracts—especially with new, unknown publishers. Any publisher can go out of business at any time, however, there is more of a risk with a new publisher. Many new publishers go out of business before they even get their first book published. If you have a long-term contract and the publisher suddenly disappears it could take years for you to regain the rights to your work. Along with the time, it also takes a lot of money for legal fees.

 

5) Beware of contracts where you give up all your rights—even if it's only for the term of the contract. Many publishers are trying to both save money and earn money by buying all rights to your work for one price. There are some book publishers who will offer to buy your book manuscript outright for a set price. Once you sign that contract they can print your book, reprint it, turn it into an e-book, sell it on CDs, archive it on their website, print it in an anthology, sell it in any form, in any language, and in any country in the world, resell it to other publishers, or basically, just do anything they please with it. They could even sell it to a movie studio, make millions on the sale, and not have to give you a penny, because you sold them the book outright.

 

6) Beware of obviously unprofessional contracts—one or two pages, printed on a home printer, signed in various colors of ink. Basically, fill in the blanks, although, you may want blanks in areas pertaining to contract length and royalty rates. Those are areas where you need to be able to negotiate.

 

7) Beware of any publisher who offers small royalties for electronic or dramatic rights. I've seen electronic publishers who offer very high royalties, depending on the amount of work it will take to make your manuscript publishable. Watch out for any publisher who wants a large chunk of the profits for dramatic rights, after all, you did all the work on the story.

 

8) Beware of any publisher who will not give you a permanent address or phone number and only supplies a post office box number. When dealing with someone online, you only have their word that they are who and what they say they are.

 

9) Beware of any publisher who can send an email attachment but doesn't know how to cut and paste. Email attachments are simple and easy, but cutting and pasting are some of the very first things every novice computer user learns to do.

 

10) Beware of a publisher who starts an online writing group and then locks themself out of it by changing their email address and can't figure out how to get back in. Everyone who runs an email group should be aware that if they change their email address they also have to change it in their membership profile in order to be recognized by their groups.

 

11) Beware of a publisher who starts a restricted group for contracted authors and then can't figure out how to get those authors signed into the group. Every group owner should also know that in order to sign someone into your group all you have to do is go to the add and remove members page, type in the members email address, click on subscribe now, and okay it. Voila! They're in!

 

12) Beware of a publisher that runs contests and never delivers the prizes. Many contests require an entry fee. Check out the prize amounts that will be awarded and decide if it's worth it. Even if you only pay a $5 fee, most of the money could be going into the publisher's pocket. Look at it this way: First prize-$100--Second prize-$50—Third prize-$25. The total prizes paid out would be $175. However, if 200 people enter the contest the publisher would receive $1000 in entry fees. That would mean a profit of $825.

 

13) Beware of a publisher that continually changes royalty rates and word lengths. Magazine publishers sometimes have to change word lengths according to space limitations, but not book publishers. Reputable book publishers set a word count and royalty rate and then stick to it.

 

14) Beware of any publisher who operates basically online and yet is almost impossible to contact by email. When you know for a fact that your publisher does a great deal of their work and emailing from home, then you should be wary when it takes a long time to get a response to an email.

 

15) Beware of any publisher whose credentials cannot be verified. If your publisher gives you a list of stories or books they say they wrote or published, or a list of people and companies they say they have worked with, check them out. If their references can't be verified, there is a very good chance you're being taken in.

 

16) Beware of guidelines that keep changing or don't make sense. If guidelines are continually changing or if they are jumbled and hard to understand, this is a definite red light. There is a very good chance that this is not a reputable company.

 

17) Beware of any publisher whose company website is really a free homepage. This is very unprofessional and looks as though the publisher can't afford a real website. The biggest drawback to using a free homepage is that most people won't even know it's there. The popularity of these types of sites depends on word of mouth advertising. It's fine for a personal web page but it isn't a very good way to sell books.

 

18) Beware of any publisher who continually makes promises and never keeps them. Contracts that are never sent, emails that are never answered, prizes that are never awarded, questions that are never answered: these are all indications that a publisher is not on the up and up.

 

Note: Many of the things mentioned above actually happened to a large group of unsuspecting new writers just a few years ago.