If you are self-publishing a book, then you need to be the person who directly publishes it through your own accounts (Amazon, Ingram, Draft2Digital, Lulu etc).
Regardless of what publishing services (editing, formatting, cover design) you use, it is hugely risky to let a third party finally “publish” the book for you.
- you will almost certainly not get full royalties
- you will have no transparency over how your book is faring
- if the company folds, your book may become unavailable and impossible to remove or update
- trying to republish your book in future may cause you to be flagged for copyright/plagiarism by Amazon and you may even run into legal issues, depending on what contracts you signed
Even some of the more reputable small presses may eventually go out of business. Around 1,000 small businesses close their doors every year in Australia.
We have advice and information on our site about actually self-publishing your work on our site, and there are also many people who can help in our Facebook group.
Just remember: it is 100% free to publish your book on a site like Amazon, or a negligible fee on Draft2Digital. They do not charge you to set up an account or to list your book with them. You do not need to pay someone else to do this for you, let alone through their accounts.