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Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Bookfuel You may or may not have heard of Bookfuel , a self-publishing services provider with a unique (as far as I know, anyway) twist: you don't pay upfront, but over time, with a monthly fee. Your fee gets you a basic suite of services; there are additional services you can buy a la carte. There's nothing unique about any of them, and Bookfuel is definitely on the high end, costwise : between $2,500 and $4,100, all told, depending on which package you choose. Like any self-pub service provider, Bookfuel wants customers, and one of the way it apparently hopes to get them is by referral. To sweeten the deal, it's offering something many people find hard to resist: a kickback. A freelance editor forwarded me this solicitation she received: Do I need to say that it's unethical for an editor (or any other professional) to refer a client to a paying service in exchange for money? Especially if she doesn't disclose the fee?...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware Raider Publishing International , the focus of numerous author complaints over the past few years and one of the companies on Writer Beware's Thumbs Down Publishers List , is trolling for victims under a sort-of new name: RPI Publications . I know this thanks to an alert Writer Beware reader, who forwarded Raider/RPI's solicitation email: Note the email address. Further evidence of the connection: while RPI's website never mentions Raider or its owner, Adam Salviani, the packages it offers are basically identical to those offered by Raider . Ditto for the two companies ' "Why Work With Us?" pages. Here I have to laugh at Salviani's unintentional honesty in predicting the wretched sales that authors who use his services can expect: This isn't the first time Salviani has attempted to dodge widespread online complaints about his companies (Raider currently has an "F" rating with the Better B...

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware In the course of my work with Writer Beware, I see a lot of publishing contracts (for the most part, these are from small presses). One of the red flags I'm encountering more often these days is early termination fees: a penalty that must paid by the author if s/he wants to get out of a contract early. A few examples of early termination clauses, taken from contracts in my possession: The Author may terminate this agreement before the end of the term by means of a contract buyout....The Author will pay to the Publisher the sum of $500.00 (five hundred dollars) to exercise this contract buyout option. This fee must be paid to the Publisher by the Author at notification of intent to exercise the buyout option. The Author will be responsible for full payment of damages and customary legal fees as a result of legal action stemming from failure to pay this buyout clause. The Author may petition the Publisher to terminate the Publishing Agre...