Evaluations, opinions and characterizations on this page are those of Michael N. Marcus, but not necessarily anyone else. Disagreements and additions are welcome.

S**TTY PUBLISHERS

Unless someone has kidnapped your child or is aiming a gun at your back, DO NOT pay these companies to publish your book. You'll probably be lied to and pay a lot of money for s**tty books that few people will buy.

 

Outskirts Press

PublishAmerica

iUniverse

Lulu (the vanity press side, not the printing side)

Author House

Xlibris

WordClay

Trafford

Leonine Publishers

WestBow Press

Beckham Publications

DellArte Press (formerly Harlequin Horizons)

Mill City Press

Virtual Book Worm

Unfortunately, we'll probably add to the list.


 


S**TTY BOOKSELLERS


Hot Book Sale

Discount Book Sale

Tower Books

Books-A-Million

Vanity Publishers that overcharge their customers (Wheatmark, Xlibris, Outskirts)


S**TTY PRESS RELEASES

 

Romancing A Mystery

 

Outskirts Press


S**THEADS


(left) Outskirts Press founder  Brent Sampson wrote that Roget's Thesaurus was published by Peter Mark (actually, Peter Roget published it), confused a foreword with a preface, and misspelled "offset." Brent advises that "Errors in your writing cause readers to question your credibility."  He's right about that.

 

(center) Lulu founder Bob Young told Publishers Weekly that

"We publish a huge number of really bad books." If Bob knows they're really bad books, he shouldn't publish them. Bob also misspelled "misspell" and confused "less" and "fewer." A publisher should know better.

 

(right) Thomas Nelson Publishers CEO Michael Hyatt operates a blog that automatically blocks comments from people who have disagreed with him in the past, without any human being reading the comment. Nelson recently formed a "Christian" vanity press division, WestBow Press. Westbow lies about being a self-publishing company and lies about providing "free" books. What would Jesus do?