Indie Publishing Companies, the good, the bad, & the ugly!

All they basically are is a company that hires your editor, cover artist, and formatter for you, and then they upload the book, and chase reviews, and collect your royalties, plus all the money you paid upfront. Having a company do this for you could be helpful, if they actually know what they're doing and aren't just scamming you. The biggest issue is the ridiculous prices, plus the way they take advantage of newbies by claiming to be experts. When the truth is the people working at/for these companies are typically mediocre at best. Scammy thieves at worst. All these companies want is to make money off of desperate newbie authors with big, unrealistic dreams who have no way to gauge whether they're being scammed or not. This is why I call them predatory.

Don't place the fate of your publishing career in the hands of a bunch of slick marketers, getting rich off of your failure or very modest success.

I would clarify though:

• that I don't personally know of any such business that offers good value and appropriate advice;
  
• furthermore, despite my best efforts, I've never been able to work out a financially viable business plan to offer such services in a definitely non-exploitative way even as an adjunct to a successful business (where only the extra costs would need to be covered), let alone as a standalone business.

The traditional publishing contract uses profits from the successful books to cover losses from the unsuccessful, and all other costs. Typically there are far fewer winners than losers.
Even then, it is difficult to cover the cost of reading unsolicited submissions even when they can be quickly discounted and put aside. That's why publishers prefer receiving MSS from agents or only open submissions in very limited windows of opportunity.
The majority of MSS aren't publishable without an uneconomic amount of work to bring them to the level required. And the majority of MSS that are publishable are a poor fit for the particular skills of that publishing house. That's why they try to be very clear about what sorts of books they publish and suggest that writers get to know their list before submitting.

Which means that any non-exploitative company selling publishing bundle should say what types of books they have expertise in publishing (it can't be everything) and needs to be very up from with submitting writers that sales, if any, are likely to be few and that they should regard any money spent as gone. They should also be honest about the perceived quality of the MSS and the cost of making it truly acceptable. OK to publish without amendment if the writer chooses, but they should be made aware of the reality.Of course, they are unlikely to be able to do that because they wouldn't be able to afford the cost of reading and commenting on an MSS where they deter the customer, any more than a traditional publisher can. There should also be a clear understanding that some costs are one off and fixed, but others (eg marketing, advertising) will vary - and the level should be linked to likely sales benefit. At least in this instance, the writer seems to have achieved a number of sales and a Bookbub. I decided to buy the book in the end (didn't want to support the publisher - but they probably already have their money - but sympathised with the author, and found the concept intriguing).

I do feel sorry for writers who don't have the skills to be publishers themselves and can't find a publisher to take them on. But that's the situation. At least they should be capable of getting their book on the market themselves with ebooks, even if the chances of it finding readers is small.

In a slightly related way, I find forum advice to newbies - buy a cover, get an editor, and a proofreader, advertise! etc, irritating when they haven't read the manuscript and often have no knowledge of that type of work. But then, everyone should know to be careful of advice on any forum.