What Publishers Won’t Tell You

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Book Pile

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Eager looking forward to get a publishing contract or happy your received one?  Finding a publisher who will consider your book idea and getting your manuscript published is time-consuming and can often be a frustrating experience. Going with a big publisher is not easier than author-publishing. You will be surprised to learn about the following facts, sometimes the hard way:

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Your book has three months to fly off the shelves.
If your book does not sell in the first three months of its bookstore life, it will be remaindered and disappears from bookstores and could end up at “A Buck a Book”.  90 to 95% of books don’t pay back their advance. Royalty will only be paid if the advance is paid back. What you get upfront as an advance is usually all you will ever get.
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If you screw up on your first book, you’re out.
If you do well with it, publishers will be eager to see your next title. But if you don’t sell a lot of books, your agent or publisher will not want to read your manuscript when it comes time to offer your second book.
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Traditional publishing is very slow.
Unless you wrote a political tell-all, your book is going to ”be in the making” for two years or longer until it goes into the bookstores. You need to be sure your topic is timeless and that you will be interested in publicizing it years from now.
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Most likely your book will not be published in foreign countries.
Unless you have a savvy agent (preferably speaking several languages) who is trying to sell your book abroad, there is little chance that your publisher actively tries to find buyers in foreign markets.
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Your advance will be the only money you will see.
You can get as little as $5,000 or as much as $500,000, but either way, you’ll pay 15% of that to your agent, and the remainder will be paid in thirds or quarters over the next couple years.  So you first need to “earn out” the advance, before any royalties will be paid.
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Publishing is the slowest possible get-rich-quick scheme.
Breaking into big money publishing is like becoming a movie star - being talented definitely helps, but luck plays a big role and the odds might not be in your favor.
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Sorry, no publicity.
Until a decade or two ago, publishers did some marketing for books. Now they might send out some galleys and wait to see if anyone is interested. Then they focus all their publicity on the books they expect to be a bestseller. If you want your book to be a success, YOU will have to do all the publicity yourself!
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Books don’t sell themselves, as most writers sooner or later find out – often too late.  If you are interested in making money or selling your book for a long time, better consider e-books and self-publishing.  But in any way, marketing skills or at least the willingness to learn about marketing and PR to promote your book, are essential for an author. 

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites:  We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 750 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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Pros and Cons of Print-on-Demand

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“Currently unavailable.” When you read this on Amazon’s website you can be sure it is a POD Book.  Amazon assigns many of those out-of-stock books an availability status of 2-3 weeks. And no one wants to wait that long when ordering on the internet…
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POD (Print on Demand) services call it “self-publishing” – but there are important differences between a POD service and true self-publishing. They are in fact VERY EXPENSIVE PRINTERS – NOT PUBLISHERS!  POD printers are producing the book only when ordered. What are the differences?
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Rights
TRUE self-publishing:  all rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of her work, including the ISBN number.
POD services:  mostly owns the ISBN and the author has a very limited claim on digital and/or electronic publishing rights.

Control
TRUE self-publishing:  the writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, cover art, print style, pricing etc.
POD services:  choices are typically limited to their service package

Book Sales
TRUE self-publishing:  the author keeps all proceeds from sales.
POD services:  they keep most of the sales proceeds to cover printing costs, and pays the author a small percentage of royalty, usually from the books NET price.
The POD Cons:

• Books from POD services are expensive and may be of poor physical quality.
• There are lots of extra fees, such as renewal fees, distribution fees, extra charges for non-template cover designs, charges for proof corrections etc.
• Royalty income may be less as it is mostly based on the books NET PRICE,  the retail price less discounts and/or all the publisher’s overhead.
• Your book will receive only wholesale distribution, and mainly sold online, Booksellers don’t like dealing with POD services.
• You do not get an advance – YOU have to pay an advance to the POD company, it just doesn’t make sense economically
• Marketing consists often only on listing on the company’s website and with various online booksellers, sometimes in a wholesaler’s catalogue.  Many POD services offer “marketing packages or media kits” for an extra (high) fee – a total waste of money!

POD Pros:
It is only recommendable if you:

• need galleys, or for short-run publishing and specialty markets
• want to print small non-fiction projects such as lectures or workshops
• want to create a recipe book, a family memoir, genealogy etc.
• bring back out-of-print books into circulation
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Who is the publisher?
It is the one who owns the ISBN for a book. If the author applied for and paid for the ISBN in his or her own name, then no matter who produces and sells the book, the author has become the publisher of record, an authentic self-publisher!
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Listen to the truth behind POD “publishing” or read more articles about this topic:

http://www.writersandeditors.com/self_publishing_and_print_on_demand__pod__57417.htm

http://beforeyoupublishyourbook.com/2011/07/22/the-truth-about-print-on-demand-publishing/

http://www.writergazette.com/content/pros-and-cons-self-publishing-print-demand

http://fonerbooks.blogspot.ca/2005/08/printing-offset-vs-print-on-demand.html

Do you have any experiences with POD publishing and how much was each soft cover book you ordered from them?

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 740 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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MUST READ for Authors to Avoid Pitfalls

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Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. If you want to sell your book(s) and not just write for your own fun, better get a thorough understanding of the publishing business and what to look out for when making decisions how to get your book to readers.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote a fantastic blog – a warning to all authors, who are thinking about having a service provider (who call themselves publisher) to handle e-book formatting and posting the e-book to all online retailers – for 10 – 15% of your royalties.

Seems convenient to the author… So convenient that they don’t even bother to read the agreement, which can be VERY COSTLY in the long term.

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The essence of her warning: “If you don’t have the time to self-publish and you don’t have the
money to pay someone up front, then don’t do it. That’s so much better than signing with one of
these scam artists.

Please, please, people. Be smart. Don’t sign with any company to design your e-books and handle
your social media for a percentage of royalties. And please, please, please read all the
agreements that concern your books before you sign or click “agree” on anything.

Make sure you understand what you’re agreeing to, and if you don’t understand it, ask an
un-involved third party like a lawyer to help you understand. Don’t call the e-service and ask them to
explain their agreement to you. They’ll tell you not to worry your pretty little head about it. And if you
listen to them, the mistake is yours.”

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Read her blog post and if you have signed up with any of these “service” companies, take out your contract (if you printed it out) or go to their website and read it line for line to learn what you gave con sense to – and self-publish your next book by yourself – real self-publishing by you, the author!  Get more help in reading publishing contracts from us in individual book marketing sessions with you.
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Kristine wrote a lot more articles, each one giving authors insights into the publishing world, along
with lots of warnings:

Trust me – Whenever you hear this – RUN

Royalty Statements

Use common sense

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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@111publishing
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http://bit.ly/VmtVAS        111Publishing @ Google+

If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help.

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Traditional Published Authors Interested in Self-Publishing

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A third of traditionally published authors are interested in self-publishing their next book,
according to a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest. The survey, “What Authors Want: A Comprehensive Survey of Authors to Understand Their Priorities in the Self-Publishing Era”, queried nearly 5,000 aspiring, self-published, traditionally published and “hybrid” authors (authors who have both self-published and traditionally published). It was presented at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo.

This trend should be worrisome for traditional publishers, which are struggling to demonstrate to the marketplace that they add value to the publishing process in an era where anyone can publish a book.  Perhaps of even more concern is that two-thirds of hybrid authors are interested in self-publishing their next book. It’s not surprising given the context of the rest of the survey: Time and again, hybrid authors had relatively negative opinions about publishing companies — that they keep too much money, don’t “get” digital and, generally, don’t add much to their publishing process.

At the same time, when offered the opportunity to publish traditionally, nearly three-quarters of hybrid authors are interested and — also good news for publishers — about two-thirds of self-published authors are interested. The prestige of a traditional publisher, the wide distribution a publisher can generate and help with marketing were all reasons cited.

Read the whole article by Jeremy Greenfield: 
What Authors Want: A Third of Published Authors Interested in Self-Publishing Next Book

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My thoughts on this excerpt, especially the last sentence: 
Both ways of publishing have their positives and vice versa. However the perception of traditional publishing is often not up to date in public , as the way of book marketing has totally changed. Only celebrity authors get the full PR treatment, other writers have to fend for themselves, and they often do not realize that their books have only a maximum of three months to survive on the bookstores shelves until they will be pulled out and returned to the publisher or discarded. 
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The prestige of a traditional publishers is also dwindling, as some of them, such as Penguin / Random House ally with dubious POD’s, establishing a subsidiary in an attempt to jump onto the self-publishing bandwagon and find a way to fleece unsuspecting writers.
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Even the wide distribution a publisher can generate is something, authors can organize these days by themselves: as soon as they have at least three print books (not necessarily their own, they can also partner with other writers) they can establish a publishing firm and work with Lightning Source / Ingram and have their print books distributed worldwide.

E-books can easily be uploaded at Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Apple and a dozen more online retailers. Proof-reading, copy editing, editing, book layout, cover design, translations, printing… just about everything can be outsourced by the author – including book marketing and PR.

Best advice for any author is to familiarize themselves with every aspect of the publishing
process, to consult a professional to get a clear picture of the time/financial involvement and
advice from a contract lawyer before they sign up any publishing contracts including those of
Print on Demand Publishing.

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Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers

Author Solutions are in the business of ripping people off – that’s how David Gaughran says it bluntly.  Maybe I was to cautious in my article.  Read the sad truth how they take advantage of writers from another source too and please: BEWARE!

via Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers.

 

First Penguin – now Simon & Schuster Wants Your Money

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… or how reputable publishers turn into “Vanity Publishers”
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They will not publish authors in the first place – and then they try to fleece them and charge them for “self-publishing” which is also called “Vanity Publishing”.   Simon & Schuster, four largest English-language publishers, through its Archway Publishing seeks writers who “self-publish” fiction, nonfiction, business and children’s books and let them pay for author services.

Archway Publishing will be run with help from Author Solutions and includes “editorial, design, distribution and marketing services” for authors.  The cost for these “services” range from $1,999 Author package to $14,999.   Read about their pricing / royalties in the FAQ’s.
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Their royalty samples :

Book Retail Price $17.95
- $9.87 (55% Wholesale Discount)
= $8.08 (Net after Wholesale Discount)
- $4.97 Printing costs
= $3.11 Net
x 50% (Royalty Rate)
= $1.56 Royalty Earned from a retail sale
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Book Retail Price $17.95
- $4.97 Printing costs
= $12.98 Net
x 50% (Royalty Rate)
= $6.49 Royalty Earned from their website sales
(My comment: If ever anyone buys from their un-known website)
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When do they pay royalties? After five! months… e.g. First Quarter: January 1 to March 31 (checks are mailed in late May)

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Here are more snippets from their press release:
The following services will be Archway Publishing exclusives:
Concierge Service – Authors will have the option to work with a dedicated publishing guide who will coordinate each step of the book production process.
Bookseller Catalog – Archway titles will be included in Edelweiss, the leading, industry-wide online catalog available to major retailers, wholesalers, libraries, bloggers and thousands of industry professionals.
The Archway Speakers Bureau, powered by Speakerfile, helps authors connect to a world of potential speaking “opportunities” and establish themselves as credible voices in their fields.
Premier Video Production and Distribution – Archway authors will have the “opportunity” to create high-quality videos and book trailers for distribution to major online video networks.
All these “services” can easily done by an author – they don’t need to employ a vanity publisher for it.

Another press release from Penguin tells “150K writers have used the services of Author Solutions” and sold total of 190K books, which means a little bit more than 1 book per author.  Go figure…

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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10 Signs, Showing You Vanity Publishing TRAPS

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Here on this blog I wrote several times already about vanity publishers and warned:  ”Writer Beware, Beware and Beware Even More!” and I also blogged about POD services “Don’t be fooled by POD Services”.

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The “Independent Publishing Magazine” explains their readers / writers in a great  article how to identify a vanity company:

• Reputable trade and independent publishers don’t advertise for authors in newspapers and writing magazines. Publishers are inundated with submissions. They don’t need to look for authors!
• Reputable trade and independent publishers don’t ask the author for money, ever, for any part of the publishing or marketing process. However, don’t always expect an advance (or a large one) on royalties from a small or niche publisher. The industry might not like to admit it, but the size of advances is reducing quickly and some small publishers cannot afford anything more than a few hundred dollars in an advance.
• Trade and independent publishers sell books [mostly!] – not only author services.

They help you How To Avoid The Vanity Publishing Trap  - don’t miss to read it!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 570 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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AMAZON Deletes Readers Reviews

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Bestseller author Rayne Hall originally shared this post on Google+

Petition: “Amazon: Stop Arbitrarily Deleting Reviews!”

“I’m glad someone has taken the initiative and started a petition. Amazon deletes masses of customer reviews, without giving a reason. Presumably, this is to stop the mushrooming of fake reviews (the kind where you pay someone $5 and they leave a gushing 5* review without ever reading the book).
Unfortunately, many thoughtful, sincere reviews get deleted in the process, while the fake reviews from sock-puppet accounts continue to flourish. I have lost many thoughtful reviews from genuine readers.

Some readers have emailed me, deeply unhappy about the deletion of their reviews, not understanding what’s going on. Any requests to Amazon for explanations have yielded nothing but bot-generated unsympathetic uninformative brush-offs. Several readers emailed me to say they will no longer leave reviews at Amazon, because their time and effort has been wasted when Amazon deleted their previous reviews. I can understand their position.

This petition demands that Amazon provides clear criteria for what makes a review deletable, and when deleting a review, gives a reason why. I think this is a sensible, modest request.”
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The Petition organized by Author Derek Blass, Denver, CO Amazon: Stop Arbitrarily Removing Customer Reviews From Indie Author Books

He explains: “Amazon is currently removing customer reviews from books published by indie authors without any notice, and without any explanation. This petition demands that Amazon explain for every author that loses a review (good or bad) why that review was removed, and set forth clear guidelines as to what will and will not be removed in the future.”

“Hi all, I just sent the first email to Amazon, informing them regarding this petition, the success we have had in a short period of time with respect to this petition, and asking that they initiate contact to address the demands made in this petition. I wanted to paste the content of the email in this news update, but posts are restricted to 900 characters. Thus, I have posted the entire email on my blog which can be found at derekblass.wordpress.com
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My own advice: Best thing would be to copy your reviews as soon as posted (just in case) and then paste them in the author page as statements with date and name of the reviewer.

P.S.  Just read an article, the Guardian wrote now too:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/05/amazon-removes-book-reviews

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 590 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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Warning for “Self-Publishing” Aufhors

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The reason I started this blog initially, was to warn authors of vanity publishers including most of the POD service companies who call themselves “publishers” – and are in reality often unutilized print shops.

The statistics are mind-boggling, but still too many writers fall into their traps: the average Author Solutions customers – writers – spend around $5,000 with the company, but only sell 150 books. Even their press releases tell it all: “150,000 writers have used the services of Author Solutions, but they have only published a combined total of 190,000 books.” This comes from Penguin’s press release who just bought Author Solutions including their subsidiaries Author House, Xlibris, Trafford and iUniverse.

$100 Million in annual revenue comes roughly at two-thirds from the sale of services to writers, and only one-third comes from the royalties generated by books sales. Which means that most of the money they made (and unfortenately will make in the future) comes from fleezing writers.

Read more about their schemes and a litany of complaints at IndieReader.com  and on Let’s Get Digital. See also Mark Levines book: “Book Publishers Compared”

I just wish that writers read articles like these and study the “Writer Beware” website, Emily Seuss’ blog article or Marcia Yudkins blog “how to sniff out scams”.  There is no shortage of warnings out there!  Read them BEFORE you make decisions about self-publishing.

What steps are necessary in self-publishing a paper book:

• Marketing
• Manuscript Editing
• Book Layout
• Cover Design
• Printing & Binding
• Distribution

Why I put Marketing on top of the list? Because it is the most important one and should start long before you finish your manuscript. When you followed this blog you realized that almost all of my marketing tips don’t need involvement of service providers and are free. They involve only time, but no money.

An example: How much time does it take to write a terrific press release and email it out? Two, five, eight hours? You just saved more than $1,500 plus tax, that’s what Author Solution and the like would have charged you for this task. Being on Goodreads, Wattpad, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, FB, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc. and creating a platform and a name as a writer doesn’t cost a dime. Listing your books on Bowker worldwide is free. The list how you can promote your book for free goes on an on.

Another example: How long would it take to write a query and approach these reviewers directly: Kirkwood, ForeWord and BlueInk? One hour, two or three?  Author Solutions sells these three reviews from Kirkus, ForeWord and BlueInk to writers for a whopping $ 1,155 (or $1,405 for expedited) to a package price including
“evaluating the possibilities” by MVP for $3,000 in total (all plus tax) “for writers to be discovered and have their works optioned for film or TV”.

There is more: To set up four accounts on social media, they charge authors $700. How long does it take to open an account on Twitter, Facebook etc.? Their pricing is just absurd!

You can become your own publisher and not fall into the trap of “self-publishers”, just find information how to obtain and evaluate quotes on these services. The internet is full of advice on how-to…, service provider listings, offers for all of these services – starting with the 500 posts I wrote on this blog. One third of these articles is about self-publishing and two thirds “How to Market your Book on a Shoestring” – which is also the title of an upcoming e-book I am publishing soon for independent authors. Really independent ones!

And to publish a digital version of your book, the same is true: It takes time and dedication and a willingness to put yourself out there, but if you want to write a book there’s absolutely no reason to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars getting it into the e-book market.
If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

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Writer Beware: Literary Contests – Read the Fine Print!

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Some Tips on Evaluating Literary Contests, by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

 

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She wrote: “Since I so often get questions about the legitimacy of literary contests, I thought it would be helpful to post some suggestions for evaluating any contests you may be thinking of entering.

Who’s conducting the contest? If it’s an organization, magazine, or publisher you don’t recognize, be sure to verify its legitimacy. If you can’t confirm this to your satisfaction–or if the contest doesn’t name its staff or sponsors–don’t enter.

You may have to do some digging–for instance, this contest, which on the surface looked like a collaboration between a writers’ magazine and a publisher, turned out on closer inspection to be one writer attempting to promote his self-publishing endeavor. Or another one, which appeared to have several sponsors but was actually all the same (less than reputable) company.”

The list goes on and on … read the whole blog post at Writer Beware

Bottom line: thoroughly research any contest you’re thinking of entering, always read the fine print.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out previous posts (there are almost 500 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “Like” next to it.

Follow us on Twitter: @111publishing

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Author Beware: Unauthorized Resellers of ISBNs

An Important Message Bowker which is the exclusive U.S. ISBN Agency source of publisher prefixes and ISBN numbers for eligible publishers:

“Please be aware that there are unauthorized re-sellers of ISBNs, and that this activity is a violation of the ISBN standard and of industry practice. Only companies you designate as your publisher should assign ISBN’s to your publications from their block of ISBN’s.”

“Bowker provides information and advice on the uses of the ISBN System to publishers and the book trade, and promotes the use of the Bookland EAN bar code format. In addition to their ISBN prefixes, publishers also register their titles with Bowker for inclusion in the “Books In Print” databases (worldwide). See also:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/important-expose-your-book-to-the-world/

You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices. Companies that provide limited services such as distributing, retailing, bar code services, printing, and/or marketing should NOT assign ISBN’s from their company to your publications – unless you allow them to also hold publishing rights. If you use one of these reassigned ISBN’s, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in “Books in Print” or many of the book industry databases. The result may be extensive costs to apply for a new ISBN and the application of stickers to books already printed and in circulation.”

For the correct address to obtain your ISBN number in the USA and Great Britain & Ireland, Australia or Canada (where ISBN numbers are free!) go to:

http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/isbn-numbers-and-how-to-get-one/

“If you are a new publisher, you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix from the US ISBN Agency. Assigning ISBNs from your own ISBN publisher prefix will identify you as the publisher of your titles, and link your contact information to the specific publisher identifier. This will ultimately aid in circulating your books properly in the industry supply chain.
If you have any questions about re-sellers of ISBNs, do not hesitate to contact the US ISBN Agency for further advice. If you are a self-publisher who has already purchased an ISBN from a re-seller, and you are experiencing problems or need advice, please contact the US ISBN Agency at isbn-san@bowker.com.”

My comment:
There are “aggregators”  or “POD publishers”, how they call themselves, that are purchasing ISBN numbers in bulk for $1 a piece! and sell them to authors for a “special” of $25! for one ISBN – a mark-op of 2,000 percent!  I wrote about this unethical practice already month’s ago, just search under “Writer Beware” on this blog.
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