>>4240787Oldest trick in the book - literally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanity_press#Vanity_publishing_scamsSimplest example I've seen is the old-as-dirt poetry scam. The scammers send out letters inviting aspiring poets to submit their work to a poetry contest. The "prize" is that their poem will be published in a book of poetry if it is good enough to be selected.
PROTIP: They don't even read them, and ALL submissions are 'selected', (quality doesn't matter). They just compile them into a book and then the authors of the poems will inevitably want copies for themselves and to show their family and friends, so they will buy several copies each, but they will be the only ones who buy it.
Bear in mind, the average vanity author will buy on average something like 70 copies of their own book even if left to their own devices, (guess what all their relatives are getting for Christmas that year). So depending on the number of suckers you could sell about 10,000-20,000 copies without doing any kind of promotion, (which of course they don't).
The revenue generated is enough to publish the book and walk away with a tidy profit at the expense of wannabe authors, (who then have an embarrassing case of Unwarranted Self-Importance afterwards and run around telling everyone they are a 'published author'. Any real publisher is going to see this shit exactly for what it is if they try to use it in their resume, and half of their friends will see it too when they try to use it for cred, (and be laughing behind their back, or just not have the heart to tell them they were scammed).
Similar scams in all industries/artforms, painting, drawing, comics, writing, modelling, singing, etc. Even if not merely a scam, the legit companies are wise to how they can use an artist's own vanity/desire to be famous to their advantage and put most or all of the financial risk on the would-be artist.
