One of my favorite e-newsletters is Denny Hatch's Business Common Sense. Normally his newsletter is filled with great marketing ideas. However, his newsletter published this past week voiced his frustration with the self publisher he had recently signed with to publish his forthcoming book. He titled his article:
Amazon.com: brilliant bookseller, lousy publisher. In his newsletter he shares his personal experience with BookSurge the self publishing unit of Amazon which is in the process of changing its name to CreateSpace. His frustration comes from the way Amazon.com handled the transition from BookSurge to CreateSpace in that his representative at BookSurge did not contact him personally to give him a head's up on the transition. Behind Denny's concern is the fact that the business of self publishing is huge and that the large players in the business (AuthorHouse, Lulu, iUniverse, etc.) are actually big impersonal companies who see authors as a commodity. While there is some merit to what these self publishing companies do many of their promises ring hollow.
In my opinion the reason so many authors are taken advantage of is that they expect their publisher to care as much about their work as they do. In reality most self publishing companies are only interested in selling their services and could care less about the quality of the author's work. Behind all their promises there is one driving force. It is greed, plain and simple. They lure an author with an unrealistic low price offer of some kind and then build a "relationship" over the phone and through email. They know exactly what the unsuspecting author is wanting to hear so they compliment the author on their work, tell the author how much money they are going to make and make the author believe that by publishing with them they will automatically sell their book to a waiting public. It reminds me of the old joke about the unsuspecting tourist buying the Brooklyn Bridge.
So what's an aspiring author to do?
From my experience there are many reasons to self publish a book. However, unfortunately, there are no short cuts to publishing success. A book has to be well written, expertly edited, wonderfully designed, perfectly printed and shamelessly promoted. To do this an author needs to partner with someone who can help them along the way to make good decisions based on facts not fiction.
Publishing a book is not rocket science. That said, publishing well is even more complicated in many ways. Using a formulaic program from a big self publishing corporation does not often end with good results. There is a reason for the "self" in self publishing. As a self published author you are the CEO of your own publishing venture. This means hiring the best for each aspect of the operation. You are not going to get what you intend by hiring amateurs to do the work of professionals.
Take away points:
- Self publishing can be a good thing if done well
- Never hire an amateur to do the work of a professional
- Don't believe what the salesperson at the self publishing company is telling you
- There are small niche custom publishers who can provide hands on professional help
- Always create a marketing plan before publishing so everyone involved understands your goals
