So we arrived home today to find the contract from Florida Academic Press. Two pages single spaced, a lot of typical stuff, until the very last item, which asked the author to remit $2,500, with another $1,500 guaranteed a month before publication, along with the contract.

After several emails had gone back and forth in which my husband was led to believe his submission had been selected for publication by this press in the traditional manner, this was the first we heard of money changing hands.

Upon further investigation, we found the press on Preditors and Editors, an online site designed to warn writers of vanity presses. Look it up under F in the Book Publishers section on the site.

After more investigation we learned that Sam Decalo, the publisher, appears to be an academic who once published books from Yale University Press. One would think a person with this kind of background would be above such practices.

One would be wrong.