Online Book Publisher Scam Reports & Reviews

Online Book Publisher Scam Reports & Reviews (4)

- San Diego, CA, USA • Sep 25, 2025

Phone: (442) 446-1407
Website: swanbookpublishers.com
Address: 18 Erie St, Selden, NY 11784, USA
Email: [email protected]
Country: United States
Total money lost: $9,835
Type of a scam: Online Purchase

This is a vanity publisher. They charge a small initial fee, promising to "bring your vision to life," then the additional expenses start coming. An "Author's License," a "Print on Demand" certificate, and more. They will show you forward progress on your project, even promise you there won't be any more expenses, but there will be. They will pressure you to transfer large sums of money via wire transfer. Please don't fall for it like I did. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Useful

- Louisville, KY, USA

Phone: (929) 263-0826
Website: harcourtpublisherco.com
Address: 29 Nancy Place, Massapequa, NY 11758, USA
Email: [email protected]
Country: United States
Type of a scam: Online Purchase

I visited a website listed as the official website for Harcourt on the Wikipedia page for that entry. While at the website for Harcourt Publisher Co. an individual named Shay initiated a live chat to engage with me about helping me get a book published. I am a first time author and know very little about the publishing business. Shay asked about my book and other details of the project during the live chat and offered to set up a zoom call to discuss two possible payment options to get professional editing help, illustration help, marketing help, and eventual e-book and hardcover and paperback printing of the book. We had a zoom meeting where two payment options were discussed and then I was sent a "Service Agreement" to review. It was several grammatical and spelling irregularities-- which seemed alarming for a ostensibly professional writing organization to have in their legal documents/contracts--that first set off alarm bells. I began to do some research into publishing scams and found a very useful article on The Author's Guild website. From this and additional research it became apparent that this "Harcourt Publisher Co." in fact had no connection whatsoever to the original parent company of Harcourt, which was bought up and now exists as part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. I asked Shay to identify recent titles that Harcourt Publisher Co. had published so I could look into them. The titles Shay shared in fact had no connection to any company called "Harcourt Publisher Co." I then investigated and saw that the book covers of books that his website posted to show off their past success in fact were either VERY old books published when Harcourt was still a separate company, or in fact they were published by entirely different companies (Knopf, Harper Collins, etc.) I then found that the physical address given for Harcourt Publisher Co. was in fact a private residence in Massapequa. Closer inspection of the website ticked every box in the Author Guild article's warnings about fraudulent publishing scams: overpromising language about "bestsellers;" 50% discounts for new authors; 100% royalties kept by authors). When I delayed to respond about the Service Agreement Shay reached out twice to try to engage me further, saying that he sensed that I had questions. It felt like he wanted to get me to articulate my concerns so he could try to counter them with more lies. Very shocked and frustrated that scams like this exist in the publishing world. Please take this bozo down.

Useful

Type of a scam: Publishing
Initial means of contact: Not applicable

Amazon Publisher LLC

This Web site is a complete scam.
I almost got scammed with $3,200.

Useful

Phone: (855) 544-2717
Website: amazonpublisherllc.com
Address: 99 Hudson Street, Chinatown, NY 10013, USA
Email: [email protected]
Total money lost: $2,500
Type of a scam: Online Purchase

The scammer pretends to be a publishing company that offers to develop your book project and guarantees that a full and total refund is always granted upon request if the party is not satisfied and the work was not started. We signed up and then the customer service representative tried to scam an additional $4,000 for copyrighting the book. When we refused and got suspicious, we asked to terminate the agreement, as there was never a contract, and asked for our full refund, as the project had not begun and it had only been 6 days since we submitted payment via credit card. The company refuses to communicate and lies about the agreement. We reported the scam to the credit card company and the FTC.

Useful

Online Book Publisher Scam Contacts

Online Book Publisher Scam associated photos:

View Photos

Address:

99 Hudson St New York, NY 10013, USA

Phone:

+1 (855) 544-2717

Website:

amazonpublisherllc.com

E-mails:

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