At my presentation on writing and publishing at the Orwigsburg Library, the question came up as to who we can trust in the writing realm. As I spoke with fellow writers afterwords, the horror stories started to come out. One gentleman got an agent who sold his book to a publisher, only to have the publisher go out of business three months later. Now, years later, the book is unpublished but the question remains as to who owns the rights. His agent was later blacklisted for having mishandled other authors’ work. Another lady sold the Audible rights to her novel, only to never see a dime of royalty. Point being, especially in this market where everyone is writing a book and services to “help” authors abound, who can we trust?

I warned at the presentation that we all need to do our homework before we sign on with anyone. Search for reviews on the company or person you are considering. A great place to check is Reddit, where people speak pretty freely. Usually businesses will have reviews elsewhere, like Google. As I thought about things post-presentation, I realized I have a more specific answer as to what I look for. Its a simple three points.

• 1. What do their book covers look like?  They should look like something you’d want to buy in a bookstore.  People really do buy books by their covers, so unless you are maintaining control over what cover you can use (using your own cover designer), they better be putting out awesome covers. 
• 2. What fees are they asking for, if any?  Remember, real publishers should charge you $0.  Agents will usually charge 10% of any publishing deal they’ll get you. Editors will charge something in the realm of 1-2 cents per word. Higher than that is pricey, so weigh your cost-benefit ratio. An editor charging less than 1 cent per word may be just starting out their career, which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not good at what they do. Developmental edits usually have a price per 1000 words. As with any business, if you’re hiring a freelancer, you usually get what you pay for. That said, you better stalk their work, which takes us to point #3.
• 3. Look inside the books they published or edited.  Do you see typos? What is the quality?  Is the book easy to read or are there major plot or character development issues? Do the books they’ve published have any reviews (Zero reviews is a big red flag, especially for publishers). You can use Amazon’s Look Inside feature to do this.  When I was editor shopping, I bought a book edited by each of the editors I was considering. Keep in mind, if you’re self-publishing, the final editing decisions are up to you as the author. Authors don’t necessarily take every single suggestion an editor makes. Allow for that in your judgment of the editor. If you’re publisher shopping, the publisher’s website should make you want to buy their writer’s books. If the first thing you see on their website is advertising to publish with them, that’s a red flag. You want someone that’s selling books, not selling publishing.

Do your homework folks! If a company looks professional and keeps the focus on selling books, their reviews are good and you like what they’re putting out, then they’re worth considering. Judge them by their product, which is how business is done.