Comments on: Do Self-Publishing Services Take Advantage of Writers?

By: Gracie Alison

Gracie Alison — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:02:38 +0000

I’m reading all the comments that people are saying on here, I have my whole mauscript now and was well written by a ghostwriter. He done such a wonderful job he only had 3-4 errors of spelling that was it! He is very compassionate and caring person. He told me this…For a less expensive publishing option than Authorhouse, check out http://www.iuniverse.com. And my company doesn’t do query submissions, but these guys are very good:

http://www.publishersandagents.net/com/

This is my ghostwriter’s URL http://www.ghostwords.com/

and his artist done a great job for my front cover of my book..

I thought about going to authorhouse not sure now.. I am trying to figure it out at this time.. I hope this helps!

By: Mick Rooney

Mick Rooney — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:21:30 +0000

I’ve actually been in contact with Michael at Unibooks over the past two months or so and he seems genuinely committed to making a service that is of benefit to self-publishing authors without many of the author solution service ‘trappings’.

Like all services which are ‘free’, makes your book listed and a physical on line product to readers – it is about the promotion an author is prepared to do themselves and what their own expectations are, and how a publishing service matches those.

By: Hayes

Hayes — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:48:06 +0000

If your budget is tight (or non-existent like mine) UniBook.com released in the last week or so that they will publish your book and list it in their online bookstore for free. They used to have an obligation to purchase 5 copies but even that is gone now. From what I can tell there are no hidden costs or obligations and their prices look very reasonable. Their hard covers are cheaper than lulu’s.

By: Bernie Malonson

Bernie Malonson — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:06:14 +0000

Everytime I see a post like this one I cringe. For 10,000 you could buy both the InDesign or Quark software, plus all the training and learn to layout books to your hearts content! Then you just have to find a printer. Definitely not a cost-effective way to fly. Time is money and energy. If you are going to spend the money, better to invest in yourself and walk away with a valuable self publishing skill such as cover design and page layout. It is not as hard as most people think.

The marketing always falls to the author, so you may as well do it yourself, unless you are an exceptional talent and will get picked up by a publishing house.

First things first, don’t let desire to get in print bust your budget. If you are willing to learn you can be in print for well under $500 (closer to $300 if you start from scratch).

Cheers,

Bernie Malonson

By: Mick Rooney

Mick Rooney — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:53:08 +0000

The bottom line remains that authors looking to use an service need to educate themselves as much as possible before self-publishing a book. Just as in any business, there will always be companies whose primary aim is to extract the most from the person paying for the service. Likewise, there are many reputable self-publishing services out there who are happy to guide an author in a frank one-on-one exchange before the author parts with a cent. The key will always be for the author to match their expectations, requirements and budget to a suitable service.

By: RJ Keller

RJ Keller — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:40:14 +0000

Like a pinhead, I forgot to include the actual point I wanted to make. I was too busy pounding out exclamation points.

My point was that it’s an author’s responsibility to educate themselves.

By: RJ Keller

RJ Keller — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:31:08 +0000

I just had about 70 coniption fits while reading this post.

$10,000 (!!!!!!!!!!) out of pocket???????????

Maybe I’m naturally cheap. Maybe I’ve been beat over the head too hard with New England Do It Yourself-ism. But I can’t fathom paying $10,000 out of my own pocket – or $3000 for that matter – to publish any number of my books. Hell, I complained for a week when I had to buy a second proof of my book from CreateSpace to correct a glaring typo I’d overlooked in the first one…and that cost me less than $13 (including shipping.)

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:30:33 +0000

It is really important for authors to carefully read their terms of agreement with POD services. It is very true also that PODs are only printers. They are not publishers. When an author self-publishes a book, the author becomes the publisher and is the one responsible for the marketing aspects of publishing.

I once published a book at Lulu and I did not pay a dime for my book to be prepared. I also did not buy my own book as suggested by Lulu. What I did was to promote the book through online press releases, blogs, online classified ads, and social networking site. Carol is also correct that word of mouth is a powerful marketing strategy.

By: Carol Buchanan

Carol Buchanan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:31:04 +0000

PS. I just wish I could remember that this reply page has no “edit” function and when I make one change on the fly I should make the other. “This sort of situations” — indeed. Yuck.

By: Carol Buchanan

Carol Buchanan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:28:44 +0000

It is to help prevent this sort of situations that I wrote the series of articles on the questions to ask when thinking of self-publishing, and it’s part of the reason why I’m teaching a class called “Successful Self-Publishing” at Flathead Valley Community College this fall.

People thinking of self-publishing should assess their skills first and decide what they can reasonably do for themselves, then think of self-publishing as a business, because that’s what it becomes.

I don’t advocate traditional advertising, because I’m not convinced it works. The best advertising is word of mouth, someone telling friends “You gotta read this book.” That takes time to build, but it’s the most reliable.

Some books I recommend are written not specifically for self-publishers, but they are good for us as well as their more closely targeted markets. Guerrilla Marketing on the Internet, Guerrilla Publicity, and Guerrilla Marketing for Writers, all by Jay Conrad Levinson, Mitch Meyerson, and Mary Eule Scarborough. Marketing on the Internet by Jan Zimmerman. The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.

I did very well on a low budget by figuring out what I could do and what I wanted someone else to do for me, and BookSurge had the right solution for my particular situation. I’m still happy with my choice and have no regrets whatever.