The difference between a publisher and a printer.

It's about the direction the check goes.

At a writer’s conference in Montana years ago, the best advice I got regarding all of the self-publishing scams out there, and how to identify them, was this:

If they pay you for your book, they’re a publisher. If you pay them, they’re a printer.

This is also known as Yog’s Law. There’s nothing wrong with the latter as long as you understand, going in, what you’re dealing with.

Recently, another phone call came my way, a now yearly experience from a new company each time, telling me they were interested in some old print-on-demand book of mine. Right away I was suspicious because:

1. Cold call. Persistently.

2. Old book that no one was interested in and was only printed for my own use.

Some of this is pure publishing scam. Some is just printers doing business. Some are printers who have had enough bad feedback that they change their names frequently.

Let me tell you a story.