The screenshots below offer a firsthand look at publishing scams and what those websites look like. You’ll note that the websites look the same. They attempt to give the impression that they are an affiliate or Amazon website, they have a number of popups, “free quotes” and chat boxes ready to serve you. This is not the standard practice of a legitimate book publisher, whether it is a traditional publisher, hybrid publisher, or even a self-publishing platform. The arrows in the first image point to a number of red flags. Another huge red flag are ghostwriting services. Legitimate publishers do not advertise ghostwriting services. In the first series of screenshots, the publishing  scammer was caught red-handed. Note his shocked reaction when the scam is brought to his attention. You may need to click the link to view a larger version of the image. 

Many of the scammers own multiple websites so this one is likely connected to several others. The websites are mostly new, created or registered within the last three years, between 2021- 2024. When looking for a book publisher, try to find a publishing company that has been in business for five years or more. You can visit WHOIS.COM to check the dates for when a publishing company registered its website. If the website was registered between 2021-2024, do not proceed. This is when many of the spammers and publishing scams emerged. For details on how to avoid a publishing scam, you can visit our article here: http://newbookauthors.com/index.php/how-to-identify-publishing-scams/

Image one: http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam1.jpg (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam2.jpg (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam3.jpg  (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam5.jpg (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam6.jpg (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/scam6.jpg (Large image)

http://newbookauthors.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Whois-page.jpg  (Large image)

We received these screenshots from a person blowing the whistle on another publishing scam. Note that some of the books do not have an author listed on the cover. That’s because the books either don’t exist or they were published by the author or a different company.

This company below claims it cannot show any of the books it published because they have a signed NDA with the author due to self-publishing books. They are likely self-publishing through a platform like Amazon. Amazon’s free publishing services seems ripe for these types of scams. It is unlikely that they are legitimately self-publishing books as it is odd that they would need or want to have an NDA allowing them to conceal the names of the books they’ve published. The book on its website uses a template. Note where it is circled, it says “This is a book template.” If you search for the title and the author it brings up a different website that lists a different publisher, and the publication date of 2015, 7 years before this self-publisher was in business. It is likely a fake book and fake title. All signs point to a scam.