- Do you moan and groan that you’ve been screwed?
- Do you spend countless hours in phone and email hell trying to get to someone who’s going to fix whatever needs fixing on your book?
- Do you cave in, with book tail between your heart and soul and just slink away
- Do you make a variety of excuses as to why you are in the mess you are?
- Do you ignore that you’ve been treated like a piece of yesterday’s trash?
- Do you …
How about: let's kick in "your better
judgment" “Do you …” and get the heck out of dodge. Stop working with the
people and group that have zapped you.
Just stop. Lick your wounds; you made a mistake that is costing you
time, energy and money. I know, it’s the money thing that keeps people in the
book and author abuse cycle.
If you don't, it will suck the passion out of
your book and you. Tell everyone you know who they are, what exactly has been
the pits and engage with someone who knows what they are doing. And listen to them;
dump your ego, not your vision.
There is too, too much information out there
available with a few clicks to weed the publishing predators out. Google the
names; add "scams", "problems", "cons", "complaints"
after their names—read every one of them. Predators
& Editors should always be checked out. Ask, Ask, Ask. I had someone
who called me last week who admitted after I asked him why he signed with
Xlibris--he was sick of being hounded by all the phone calls and just wanted
them to stop. He signed a contract, gave them money … because he wanted them to
stop calling him!
Authors—the boiler room operations of Author
House, Author Solutions, Xlibris, iUniverse, etc., have hundreds of people
"hounding" naïve authors-to-be around the clock—it's their
"job"—they are author hounders,
lurking in the shadows, ready to root into your creative juices, and yes, your
personal vanity, to get your wallet and book.
And Amazon, with all its bucks, needs to kick
up its quality control. The results are hit and miss on printing and layout
quality for its CreateSpace program. CreateSpace is a pay to publish method, let’s
call it what it is. The choice for cover presentation—gloss or gloss—is dismal.
Lightning Source is leap years ahead of it. Certainly OK for a
"galley" and ARC strategy or to “test” the grounds for a book ... but
to sell in physical quantity/quality—to compete what books that authors and
publishers of any size are putting thought and money into—not so hot. If you don’t
care what the physical presentation of your book is, then it doesn’t.
When I look at the finished results of the
vanity, pay-to-publish, subsidy crowd, and hear the author tell me in writing
or in person that they are OK/happy with the results ... just what are the
results being comparing to? If he or she doesn't know better ... well ... is
that really OK? Your choice, you choose … and look in the mirror when you do. I
would choose to get out of dodge and start over. Yes, you are out some money
and time. And yes, you will get your book and author life back. The book-buster is in the mirror. Your choice, you choose.
Judith Briles is known as The Book Shepherd (www.TheBookShepherd.com), an author and book publishing expert and the Founder of Author U (www.AuthorU.org), a membership organization created for the author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 30 books. Her latest, Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms is just out. Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Your Guide to Book publishing on thewww.RockStarRadioNetwork.com. Follow @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a “Like” at AuthorU and TheBookShepherd on Facebook. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact her at Judith@Briles.com