Wheatmark Books Review
Wheatmark is unique among self-publishers: it’s a kind of hybrid self-publisher/publisher. Not that they turn anyone away – which is the main dividing line between a traditional publisher and a self-publisher – but they do give each author more personal contact. So Wheatmark acts as a traditional publisher would: they try to help books get sold. As a business model, this makes sense – if books get into the hands of more people, more new authors will want to sign up for the press.
Otherwise, self-publishing is kind of an isolated process. On the one hand, this is good news: […]
Creating a self-publishing imprint can reduce the stigma of self-releasing your own book. Instead of having your book on one of the major self-publishing sites (Lulu, AuthorHouse), you can instead choose to print up your books independently under your own company brand. Alternately, you could use a major self-publisher like Lulu to handle the printing and processing of your book and create your own separate imprint – possibly with its own website and list of authors. A self-publishing imprint really depends on how it’s marketed: as an independent entity or part of a larger self-publishing site.
There’s a phenomenon particular to the arts, where people don’t realize their degree of talent. Call this the American Idol phenomenon. On the first few shows of American Idol, people gawk and laugh at the contestants who have so little clue how little talent they actually have. Self-publishing is full of the same types of writers. (Note: this is not in reference to anyone who has contacted the site, so don’t be worried).
Self-publishing seems to be a place that is tailor made for scam artists. The combination of money changing hands and people desperate to see their name in print can lead to writers being taken advantage of. On forums you can read about people gleefully saying, “I got published!” only to find out that they were contacted by a site like Publish American saying that they’ll put out a book. Publish America – one of the least scrupulous self-publishers – begins correspondence using words like “Congratulations!!!” knowing full-well that this will dupe people into thinking they’ve been selected by a traditional […]
Getting book reviews is one of the harder parts of self-publishing – and truth be told getting a lot of book reviews by no means guarantees book sales (unless it’s an Oprah review, which isn’t going to happen). However, it can be gratifying, so long as the reviews are good, and instructive if they’re not. It’s important to keep in mind that even if you publish a book with a traditional small press it will likely be up to you to bring in reviews and interviews, so it is a good skill set to have for any writer.