Joanna G.
Author Beware!
Author Beware! ***Update based on reply by Stellar: I made it very clear that it was my Mother In Law who was scammed by this company and for the amount she was scammed for. She's not a happy customer, but has been extremely stressed out by the whole situation. I stand by what I said, because this is exactly how this company works and has worked. I have email proof of their lies promising huge contracts with a traditional publisher as well as email proof from the actual publisher stating they've never done business with them.**** This company works in the following way to scam authors out of their money and control access to their books. 1. A genuine literary agent will never request any money up front. They work with traditional publishers to secure a publishing deal for you and receive part of the profit from that deal. 2. This company pretends to be an agent who works with traditional companies, but they tell self-published authors (typically those who are already self published on Amazon or who have gone through a vanity publishing company) that they need to spend money "re-publishing" through them in order for a traditional company to take them on. 3. After acquiring the author's book content and copyrighted material, they proceed to convince the author that they need to redo artwork and reformat the books all under the author's name. They charge exorbitant fees for this "necessary" reworking promising that it will attract a traditional publisher and get them a huge million dollar deal. 4. They go through the motions of doing this work even offering proofs, etc. To the trained eye, it's obvious that the artwork is completely subpar, and minimal money was actually spent. After all, it's completely free to publish the books on Amazon. 5. Now, they have the author's name and are publishing as them, however, if any royaltees come in they go directly to this company and the author sees nothing. Meanwhile they convince the author to purchase other packages to promote their books to traditional publishers...radio interviews, turning the books into motion pictures, and other marketing scams. They've followed this exact process with my elderly mother-in-law to the tune of $15,000! Beware!
Response from Stellar Literary Press and MediaJul 29, 2025
Thank you for raising this concern. We would like to clarify some misinformation mentioned in the review: 1. Stellar Literary Press and Media is not a literary agency and does not employ literary agents. 2. We are not affiliated with traditional publishing companies and do not offer contracts on their behalf. This is clearly stated in our official disclaimer, which can be viewed here: https://stellarliterary.com/disclaimer/. 3. All royalties are paid directly to authors through their personal publishing accounts. Authors maintain full access to and control over their royalties. 4. Stellar Literary Press and Media is a service provider that supports authors in publishing their works. Authors retain full ownership of their books, including authorship, publishing rights, and copyright, even after the book is published with the assistance of Stellar Literary Press and Media. We have received several reports of individuals falsely claiming to represent Stellar Literary Press and Media, distributing unauthorized contracts, and making misleading promises. These individuals are not employed by or affiliated with our company. To properly investigate your concern, we kindly ask that you provide more details regarding your mother’s account by emailing us at [email protected]. We take matters like this seriously and are committed to resolving them with transparency. Stellar Literary Press and Media remains dedicated to delivering excellent service with integrity to all our authors. —The Stellar Literary Press and Media Team



