 Here are a couple more reasons why self-publishing is not for wimps. The world is full of people who will lie to you. Most of them want to charge you enormous amounts of money to handle the problems we mentioned yesterday. Publishing is no problem, they say. Your book is wonderful. It doesn't need any editing. They have slick salespeople who promise worldwide distribution, thousands of sales, fame and fortune. If you hire their services, what will you get? Ten thousand copies of a ratty book, all delivered in a driving rain storm and left on your front porch. What's worse? Many of them have links to legitimate publishing houses, which makes you think you're getting their "A" team, when your book will really be handled by the equivalent of a totally unexperienced summer intern.. One group of predator book publishers seems to be particularly active recently. There is what one critic has called "a stealth relationships of Author House/Solutions with Hay House/Balboa, Thomas Nelson/Westbow, etc. Now that Penguin has bought Author House, God help the authors--it's a vanity press and upselling everywhere with mostly mediocre to crappy results." These publishers emphasize two things -- their "connections" to a big publishing company that might just step in and snag your book if it's really, really good (and only when pigs fly!) -- and the implication that they are faith-based companies, only interested in good Christian writing (most likely because good Christians are innocent, trusting souls who aren't used to dealing with crooks.) The basic advice remains the same. If you are a new writer, looking for a company to produce your self-published book, go with CreateSpace or Lightning Source. Once the book is available in print, Smashwords will do a fine job of distributing your e-book. These are companies that consistently produce a nice-looking book, help you where you need help, and don't make you pay for anything you don't need. And don't let anyone put you off of CreateSpace just because they are an arm of Amazon. Without Amazon, you're not going to sell many books. And while Amazon may hold a giant monopoly on the e-book business, they are nowhere as evil as the companies listed above. |
