Aspiring authors in Australia are amongst those that have been scammed by a worldwide network of publishers using cloned web sites and AI tools. Some boast pictures and names of real authors of their testimonials, or cite real books they didn't publish as their very own. Several goal the Australian market and operate under names reminiscent of Melbourne Book Publisher, Sydney Book Publishing, Aussie Book Publisher and Oz Book Publishers.
I'm a publishing skilled, and once I take a look at what happened, I can see red flags in the best way these publishers have operated and targeted aspiring authors who’re vulnerable to exploitation of their pursuit of success.
David Tenenbaum, owner of a trusted publishing company Melbourne Booksfounded in 2000 (and specializing in non-fiction), was the primary to accomplish that Sound the alarm. He had received calls from authors who thought they were dealing along with his business – but were actually chatting with the similar-sounding Melbourne Book Publisher (which even published his ABN).
One of the deceived authors, “Andrea,” an aspiring fantasy romance writer recovering from cancer, told the Guardian She had a video conference with a publishing executive, “Marcus Hale,” who laid out detailed publishing and promotion plans for her novel, right all the way down to a “presence on TikTok” and a publication in her local bookstore. When she called Melbourne Books, she realized what had happened.
Both Andrea and one other Australian writer, Peter Ortmueller (who was also related to Marcus Hale), found Melbourne Book Publisher on Facebook. Ortmüller, who lost A$150 he believed was an initial down payment on a publishing package, said he considered it a standard publisher. Andrea lost A$88, which she was told would give her an ABN.
Red flags and AI people
An expert from Deakin University's Cyber Research and Innovation Centre, Ashish Nanda, identified some warning signs also via Melbourne Book Publisher. They told the Guardian that they included “various logos, claims on the web site that the corporate was founded in 1999, a website search revealed that it was only registered last month, and a fake 4.7 star review on Trustpilot (the corporate has no reviews).”
The “Meet Our Team” page on Melbourne Book Publisher’s website used “AI-generated images of immaculately groomed white executives,” as did First Page Press. None of those persons are known in Australian publishing circles, the Guardian reported. Some of those sites also list real books on the market on Amazon (most of that are self-published).
Other web sites, Aussie Book Publishers and Oz Book Publishers, have fake testimonials that use images and names of real authors, reminiscent of Australian children's writer Katrina Germein, who becomes “Sarah” on the Aussie Books testimonial page.
Katrina Germain
A representative for Melbourne Book Publisher initially responded to the Guardian's questions, but later stopped communication, removed a few of its web sites and adjusted elements of others.
The publishing network appears to have a global reach, including First Page Press with offices in London and Melbourne and BookPublishers.co.nz in New Zealand. The true extent of the operation is unknown.
Do you should self-publish or “traditionally” publish?
The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) recently issued a warning entitled: “AI makes publishing fraud more sophisticatedThey offered the next advice: “As a general rule, the low-profile approach of an organization offering services to publish or promote your work needs to be fastidiously considered when requesting payment from you.”
But what about aspiring authors who’re searching for a publisher? What must you be careful for to avoid falling for considered one of these scams?
To answer this query, a distinction have to be made between traditional publishing and self-publishing. In traditional publishing, all upfront costs are borne by the publisher. The writer is predicted to speculate time and energy in promoting the book, but doesn’t pay for services reminiscent of editing and design. The writer also doesn’t pay for the printing or production of an e-book.
The fundamental income of traditional publishers is book sales, which only occur after the initial investment: the publisher covers all upfront costs. This implies that traditional publishing is a financially dangerous business. Most books you discover in brick-and-mortar bookstores are published by traditional publishers.
Self-publishing now includes any publishing activity to which the writer contributes financially. Many self-publishing corporations offer a variety of services that could be tailored depending on the writer's needs, including editing, cover design, marketing, e-book production, and printing.
Melbourne Book Publishers packages offered from the “Advance Worldwide Plan” for A$1,495 to the “Premium Worldwide Plan” for A$1,799.
Terms like “vanity publishing,” “subsidy publishing,” and “hybrid publishing” are sometimes used – but these could be difficult to tell apart from self-publishing.
There are not any generally accepted definitions of those terms. For example, some so-called hybrid publishers function exactly like predatory vanity publishers, while the term “hybrid publishing” is usually utilized by traditional publishers who allow a little bit of self-publishing on the side. Some may require authors to commit to buying a certain variety of copies to subsidize print circulation.
My top 5 suggestions for avoiding scammers
My suggestions for helping aspiring authors avoid publishing scams vary. They rely on what you're searching for: a standard publishing agreement or a self-publishing service. Of course, there may be a certain gray area between these categories, and there are roughly ethical actors in each.
1: Know what you're searching for
Are you searching for a standard publisher or a self-publishing service? For me, if a publisher asks for financial support in any respect, it’s a self-publishing service. If you're searching for a standard publisher, that is the best sign to walk away!
2: Ask your bookstore about your publisher
If you're still unsure whether it's a standard publisher or a self-publishing service, ask your local bookstore in the event that they've ever stocked books from that publisher. If the publisher's books are repeatedly on sale, this can be a sign that it’s a standard publisher. Or if it's a standard publisher that also does a little bit of hybrid publishing, it's a good provider that may get your books into bookstores.
3: Check a web based registry of shady publishers
Maybe you're an aspiring writer who's open to the concept of working with a self-publishing service. How do you distinguish between legitimate operations and scams?
Be careful, writers is a web site sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association which documents every kind of unethical activities within the publishing industry. Searching for a business name on this website could be an insightful task.
However, it’s price noting that this might not have helped expose frauds just like the one perpetrated by Melbourne Book Publisher. The increasing availability of AI tools implies that scam web sites could be quickly created with latest AI-generated text and pictures, making them difficult to discover.
4: Evaluate the publisher's other books
In the case of Melbourne Book Publisher, they claimed to have published books that were actually published by one other company.
Look for bookseller web sites that supply the publisher's books and clearly credit the publisher by name. Some bookseller web sites mean you can preview the inside a book. This is a possibility to judge the standard of the publisher's editorial and design services.
Even higher, search library catalogs for book titles, including the National Library of Australia Catalog.
5: Work with someone local
If you're working with a self-publishing service and even hiring a contract editor, it might be safer to work with someone local than with a big online agency.
There is a sense, no less than amongst someone locally, that that person's status within the local publishing industry is at stake. You also can check their credibility by checking with other members of your writing community. Melbourne Book Publisher's executives aren’t well-known within the Australian publishing community: this can be a red flag.
Some state writers' centers even have one Database of reputable local service providers for the writing and publishing industry.
