David Gaughran has written an excellent post called Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers that describes the shady tactics used to trick unwary authors into paying them (sometimes) enormous sums of money just to see their books in print. If that wasn’t helpful enough, read Emily Suess’s take on the matter called Sure You Don’t Want to Name it Simon & Schyster?
Excellent reads and fair warning to all writers who want to get into the business.
