Balls

I can't say it any better than Ron Hogan does over at Galleycat. Basically iUniverse has come out with a self published (what else) book on how to get published which is in essence a book about the iUniverse model and the best part is they are actually charging authors for it.

(Full disclosure - the authors of this book are two lovely ladies who signed up and paid for my Buzz your Book class. They didn't finsih the class and I didn't have any idea they were going to charge for the book.And I liked them both and think they are very smart.)

But as  Ron points out - not many companies have the balls to charge prospective clients to find out about their services.

From the very beginning, the companies that offer self publishing services have really been, let's say very creative, when it comes to getting authors to fork over the bucks. They offer very expensive marketing plans that rarely deliver what they promise, they use royalty figures to lure authors in to the process without letting them in on the fact that most of the books sold are sold to the authors themselves and so the royalties are in essence the writer paying himself for buying his own book.

One company claimed over a million POD  books sold in one year.

When I did the due diligence they admitted that yes, the average self pubbed book sold 100 copies and yes, the author himself bought those copies most of the time, and yes they pubbed about 10,00 copies a year . Do the math.

Yes, POD companies provide a terrific printing service. And iUniverse is one of the best. Another terrific one is Booklocker.com

But you still have to be on guard.

Some companies do offer  competent editors - who you can hire for a fee - but do your homework on this. Buy a few of their titles and see how well they are done.

Some offer pr/marketing services - Google the titles - see if they got any real PR.

Look at their covers - make sure you like the general feel before you fork over the bucks to have them do yours. There are lots of freelancers out there you can find in other places.

Don't fall for Amazon numbers as any kind of proof a book sold.

One of my books debuted at #5 at Amazon and stayed in the top 10 for four days.

The total books sold were under 600.

And manage your expectations. Self publishing can lead to sales and moving into the traditional publishing arena but not without the same blood, sweat and tears every other author spend to get there. This is not a quick fix to not getting a deal.

Caveat Emptor! Writers have been the new consumers since 2000.

My mom always said if its too good to be true, its probably too good to be true.

Comments

[Eric]

I don't think POD publishing and true self-publishing are the same thing. I wish they could fall under differen terms entirely, and I always cringe when I see the term self-publishing used interchangably with both.

POD scams give true self-publishing a bad name.

[PJ Parrish]

God! This infuriates me! My sister just got back from speaking at a conference and she broke my heart telling me the stories about the writers taken in by these snake-oil salesmen, paying good money to companies that make promises they can't possibly fulfill. It isn't even the money that gets me. It's the false hope they engender, the way they prey on people's dreams.

Yes, there are some legitimate uses for the POD technology. (it will probably, someday, revolutionize traditional publishing). And I concede that self-publishing your book may even work for a few (I'm thinking non-fiction mainly or folks whose ambitions are personally rather than mass market oriented).

But man, people, wise up. Listen to MJ. There are no shortcuts. If you want to merely publish one book, then fine, go this route. But if you want to publish MANY books, if you want to have a career, if you want to be a professional writer and be paid and widely read, there is only one way. And this ain't it.

Thanks for letting me vent, MJ.

[Peter L. Winkler]

I'm glad to see that Susan Driscoll, who was given an oleaginous interview by blogger Poddy Mouth when Driscoll became iUniverse’s CEO, is now taking her lead from PublishAmerica. Almost a year ago today, PublishAmerica co-founder Willem Meiners’s How To Upset a Goliath Book Biz: PublishAmerica: The Inside Story of an Underdog with a Bite was published. That book was a laughable attempt to counteract the bad publicity Publish America had been getting in a series of stories in major periodicals such as the Washington Post.

Now Driscoll, together with Diane Gedymin, editorial director of iUniverse, have published a book extolling the virtues of using iUniverse. Despite the title, their book is not a guide to getting published through a reputable trade publisher. For $9.95, you get a sales tool promoting iUniverse put between covers. You lucky dog! You can get whatever this book contains on the iUniverse web site for free.

I'm betting that Driscoll and Diane Gedymin will sell more than a few copies thanks to the book’s generic title, which will show up in Google searches ("how can I get published?"), as well as the intentionally vague bullet points on the book's Amazon product page, which only once mention that this is a guide to using iUniverse without also mentioning that iUniverse is a subsidy publisher.