Publishing Fraud Alert

It has come to our attention that third parties continue to target authors to solicit money and personal information and that some of these schemes have involved the fraudulent use of Macmillan Publishers’ company and imprint names. Macmillan understands how important your work is and how much time and effort you invest into its creation, and the last thing we want to see is authors having their work stolen and exploited.

Specifically, third parties who are not affiliated with Macmillan Publishers have been impersonating our employees, as well as literary agents, editors, and providers of other literary services via phone calls, email, and social media, and requesting money, manuscripts, and personal details in exchange for assistance in having their work published. They even create fraudulent documents using our logo. Please do not trust these types of documents, especially if they are sent to you in the form of screenshots. Communications like these are fraudulent.

Please be aware that Macmillan does not work with or have any relationship with the following:

  • Author’s Tranquility Press
  • Brilliant Books Literary
  • Literary Press Agency
  • PageTurner Press & Media
  • Spark Literary
  • Stellar Publishing
  • Tyler Literary
  • Tyler Literature
  • Word Talk Press
  • Writers Press LLC
  • Writers Press Publishing House

This list is not exhaustive.

We suggest prospective authors and illustrators submit their manuscripts through a professional literary agent. Although we cannot recommend specific agents for your work, the Association of American Literary Agents, Literary Marketplace, and Publishers Marketplace are good resources.

Please pay close attention to the sender’s email address in any message that purports to be from Macmillan. Scammers often use misspellings or other variations of our domain name and email address in their solicitations. Please be aware that the following are not legitimate Macmillan domains:

  • acquisitionmacmillan.com
  • celadonbooks.info
  • compliancemacmillan.com
  • macmi11an.com
  • macmillàn.com
  • macmillan.com.co
  • macmillan.net
  • macmillanacquisitiondepartment.com
  • macmillanbooks.net
  • macmillanebookpublishers.com
  • macmillancomplianceteam.co.uk
  • macmillanpublication.com
  • macmillanpublisher.info
  • Macmillanpublishers.com
  • macmillan-usa.com
  • Macmillanusa.co
  • macmillanusa.info
  • us-macmillan.com

This list is not exhaustive.

Tips

  • If you receive a message from someone claiming to represent Macmillan on social media, ask them to send you an email from their Macmillan address and pay close attention to the domain.
  • Macmillan does not ask prospective authors for payment or bank account information as part of the manuscript submission process.
  • If you are unsure of the identity of the sender of a communication, do not click on any links.
  • Macmillan will not request a book trailer or promotional video as part of a manuscript submission.
  • If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of an email appearing to be from a Macmillan employee or claiming a connection to Macmillan, please email [email protected].
  • Seek legal advice before signing any contracts with a literary service.
  • If you are the victim of a scam, we encourage you to contact law enforcement immediately.

We have become aware that third parties are impersonating Macmillan representatives and posting fake job openings on various platforms to phish for personal information, solicit money, or trick people into applying for fake freelance jobs. These scams may use a fake Macmillan email address and Macmillan’s logo on fake employment letters. Please be aware that Macmillan will never ask for any payment as a part of a job application or as a condition of employment.

Tips:

  • We do not currently offer employment opportunities on freelance sites like Upwork, Fiverr, SolidGigs, etc. For our most updated job postings, please visit the careers sections on our website.
  • If the offer is too good to be true (e.g., they offer you several thousand US dollars for a few hours of work) – it usually is!
  • Macmillan does not ask for fees during the onboarding process. Look out for any requests for advances, including, but not limited to, the payment for the use of laptop equipment, linking accounts, employee portal setup, etc.
  • If you are unsure of the identity of the sender of an email, do not click any links in the email.
  • Look out for misspellings in the job posting or in the email domain name.
  • Macmillan does not ask for bank account information or passwords as part of our recruitment process.
  • We strongly recommend that you DO NOT reply to or click on anything they send, but DO report them to the platform where they contacted you.
  • If you believe that you are the victim of a scam, stop communication with the bad actor, report them and their account to the platform you have been communicating on, and contact your local law enforcement agency.
  • If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of an email purporting to be from a Macmillan employee, contact us at [email protected]

United States

  • The Authors Guild: https://authorsguild.org/resource/reported-publishing-scams
  • Better Business Bureau: https://www.bbb.org
  • FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): https://www.ic3.gov
  • Federal Trade Commission: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov
  • State Attorneys General: https://www.usa.gov/state-attorney-general