In July 2012, Penguin, that became Penguin Random House last July after the two publishers merged, acquired Author Solutions Inc. for $116 million in order to capitalize on the rise of the self-publishing market. With all due respect to Penguin, it appears their due diligence of their new partner was based on capitalistic consideration only and no-one thought of glancing at sites like Preditors & Editors to check their credentials in terms of credibility and integrity.

A comment from an Author Solutions’ employee is particularly illuminating

Sales reps will regularly lie to make a sale, and they’re commended for it. Sales reps know that what they’re trying to sell to an author won’t make them any money back, but they could care less- all they want is to hit quota.

It will be interesting to see if the recent merger with Random House will have an impact on Author Solutions’ policy.

Yet, in the meantime, the following article brightly illuminates the degree of absurdity that can be reached with a combination of bad faith and unabashed greed ….