A VANITY PUBLISHER TO AVOID

WARNING OVER VANITY PUBLISHER

The August edition of the Writers’ News carries a front line story, courtesy of Private Eye who ran the investigation, into vanity publishing company Writersworld.

The company describes itself as ’the gold standard’ of print on demand but there are a number of out of pocket wannabe authors who beg to differ. Private Eye reports that there is a list of county court judgements against the company totalling more than £20,000 owed to authors and former contractors.

There are in excess of a dozen authors who paid upfront for books that were never completed. Alongside dissatisfied authors are illustrators, editors and IT contractors all complaining of non-payment for their work.

Company owner Graham Cook who runs the business from his Oxfordshire home was called before the Oxfordshire Trading Standards to discuss the experience suffered by these authors and to clarify the company’s position. The meeting took place in May but the contents of the meeting were confidential and at present the company is still trading.

Acting on the advice of both Private Eye and Writers’ News, authors would be wise to avoid Writersworld.