UPDATE: After we published this article, the scammer deleted their website.

I received the following email from an author last week:

I have a finished manuscript and am delving into the publishing world, both traditional and self-publishing.

Recently, I was contacted by someone claiming to represent a hybrid publisher, and I think it was a scam. Hoping you will look into this. The person’s email address ended with macmillanpublisher.co. That’s right. It looked like he was with the big publisher, and he sounded like their self-publishing arm, except the email ended with “.co” instead of “.com” which is used by the traditional publisher.

He was evasive when I asked questions. His answers sounded like he represented them, but the answers were never quite right. He tried to get me to sign up immediately and quoted a price that was too low to be reasonable for what I wanted.

His website was one page with no links to any more detailed information, and it had pictures of books from famous authors. I questioned him about this, and he was evasive. I asked for links to books that had been self-published by his firm. The links he sent were for books traditionally published by Macmillan Publishers. I’ve tried to find out more about this, but can’t get anywhere.

My first question is: Does MacMillan Publishers have a self-publishing subsidiary? If so, why can’t I find them anywhere on a list? Why can’t I find a link to their company and not just (what looks like) a phony website?

I’ve definitely decided not to pursue his offer, but I’m also concerned that this may be a scam that should be exposed.

Here was my response:

Thank you for letting us know about this!! Your caution was certainly warranted and you clearly have an eye for detail. I wish more folks were as savvy as you!

Macmillan’s official website is:

https://us.macmillan.com

The scammer’s site is:

https://macmillanpublisher.co

They look very similar (the scammer clearly copied the real publisher’s site, but did a poor job of it). But, if you look closely, you can see subtle differences.

Real site (top left of screen): macmillan Publishers

Fake site (top left of screen): macmillan Publisher

The scammer is not located at the real publisher’s address.

Macmillan (the real one) has a warning on their site about companies pretending to be them, and using variations of their name in URLs:
https://us.macmillan.com/publishing-fraud-alert