There are sharks out there, guys, and they’re unscrupulous. They want to feed and they don’t care how or who they eat. This article on David Gaughran’s blog is a must read. It will help you make an informed choice when the time comes and you’re in a situation where you want to use someone to help you publish your book:

Regular readers of this blog will know all about Penguin’s purchase last July of the universally reviled Author Solutions – a company infamous for overcharging writers, doing a terrible job of publishing their books, and forcing ineffective and expensive marketing services upon those authors when their books (inevitably) fail to sell.

My posts on the topic have been leaning heavily on the tireless work of Emily Suess – a writer and blogger who has been documenting this racket for some years now.

At the time of the purchase, many in the publishing community expressed a hope that Penguin would clean up Author Solutions, or at least tone down some of their scammier tactics.

You can read the rest here: Penguin’s Solution for Authors: One Racket To Rule Them All.