Author Mills, another form of vanity press

[Denise Tanaka]

This blog post from Victoria Strauss (Writer Beware) has a very enlightening description of Author Mills - a subtle and harder-to-identify type of vanity press scheme. Even smart writers, who know what a vanity press looks like, can have trouble spotting one until it's too late.

As Victoria explains, "Unlike vanity publishers, or self-publishing services such as AuthorHouse or Lulu, author mills present themselves as “traditional” publishers. They don’t charge upfront fees, and claim to be selective. Some... even pay a tiny symbolic advance. In reality, though, the business models are much the same."

The whole article is here: http://www.victoriastrauss.com/advice/author-mills/

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

That's a very good and informative article.

It's always seemed to be that the most obvious red flag is when a company presents themselves as a "traditional" publishing house, yet all efforts at promotion appear to be aimed at attracting more writers instead of more readers.