Vigilante Publishing Group, LLC

Vanity. From the FAQs:

Okay, I’ve paid for social media in my package, how does that work? If you purchased our Diamond package, it entitles you to two weeks of promotions on all fifteen of our channels, where Vigilante Publishing Group LLC writes up and promotes you and your work. (Channels: sites, pages, and media outlets on the Internet.)

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The Diamond Package is $2925. And their mission statement is, um, something else.

Out of the raging fire of injustice a new company rises up from the ashes, spreading its wings like a phoenix in flight. A new day has dawned and Vigilante Publishing Group LLC is born. We have come to avenge those who cannot defend themselves from the predators who lurk in the dark and shadowy publishing world.

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Did someone flash the Bat-Signal?

We are here to right the wrongs committed against emerging authors by bringing them into the safety of our fold; into a company whose excellence in quality and professionalism is rarely seen in the industry. We shall bring forth vigilante justice in the form of loyalty, trust, and integrity in the literary work we produce for each and every client. With Vigilante Publishing Group LLC we dare you to dream big, because we will make it a reality!

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The mission statement is priceless in its (unintentional) irony. The red flags I see are charging publishing fees through 'marketing packages', taking all genres, and using the linguistic markers we all know and love to entice hurt and/or inexperienced authors.

I might check back in a year or so, and research their authors' sales to see if the promotion packages are really doing something. Otherwise, I'll invoke Filigree's Rule (Some authors deserve some publishers, and vice versa) and forget about them.

Honestly, there is nothing wrong with a book printer charging for professional services. I know many authors who needed a book for ego-boost, family or corporate gifts, or hand-selling at specific markets.

But too many subsidy/vanity publishers appear to charge too much, have 'guaranteed refund' stipulations on subsidy fees that cannot realistically be met by most authors, seem to have lower-quality editing for many subsidy authors, offer very low or no publisher promotion, and seem to average double-digit or fewer sales per year.

I'm not saying Vigilante is in this group - but it's going to take time to see what kind of publisher they are.

Oh, dear dog... the melodrama - it burns.

They claim to have a small press arm - but it's conveniently closed to subs right now - except for their contest entries, and I wonder if it will remain that way after their grand opening?

Definitely vanity - good or bad really remains to be seen.

From their submission guidelines:

Non-justified left margin

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Does this mean that the right margin should be justified? They want a ragged left margin? Or what? They want chapter headings left-justified though. And underlined.

Thoughts of characters in Italics without apostrophes surrounding them

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Yeah, enclosing thoughts with apostrophes can really be off-putting. It's bad enough when some writers enclose thoughts in quotation marks, but apostrophes—sheesh!

Perhaps their website needs an editor:

NOTE: If files are not submitted according to the guidelines, authors may be asked to do so then resubmit the file.

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They appear to no longer be a vanity press. I don't know if they're under new management or what, but they seem to have changed a lot.

Here's their new home page if anyone wants to check them out: https://www.vigilantepublishinggroupllc.com/

They still take all genres. They have around 18 or 19 books listed on Amazon, none with current sales rankings better than 1,000,000. So if they are selling, where?

I'm not even doing the Look Inside feature on this one. Folks, if you're interested in this publisher, you'll need to do your own research.

Filigree said:

I'm not even doing the Look Inside feature on this one. Folks, if you're interested in this publisher, you'll need to do your own research.

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I decided to take one for the team the team owes me one and skim the openings of the first half dozen that popped up.

Four didn't hold my attention past the first paragraph. Three might have if the editing had been tighter. The last one wasn't something I'd normally go for anyway.

Two held my attention with no editing issues big enough to pull me out of the story.

That is by no means scientific and could be influenced by my personal taste (the "not for me" factor) or by certain editors there being stronger than others.

That said, the interior look of those I sampled and a number of covers were really nice. Which doesn't mean that much in the scheme of things.