Self Publishing
You Don’t Even Have to Read Between the Lines
I got this email today:
My name is Diana. I was wondering if you’ve ever heard of Morgan James Publishing? If so, what do you think?
All it takes is 30 seconds on their site to discover that they are just another vanity
press — you pay them to have your manuscript printed in
book form. A real publisher pays you.
Once your manuscript has been accepted, our professional staff guides
you through the publication process. We don’t charge a huge price for
services, and our costs are clear so you know exactly what you are
getting prior to submitting your manuscript. After publication, we
offer marketing support that helps you find the audience for your book.
What more do you need to know? That says it all. Get out your credit card and you, too, can be a "published author."
Big Bucks from iUniverse
About a year ago, I shared with you my iUniverse royalty statements for some of my books, all of which were previous published titles that were reprinted, at no cost to me, through programs at the Authors Guild and Mystery Writers of America.
For those of you contemplating actually paying to get your unsold manuscripts printed in book form by iUNiverse, I thought I’d give you a reality-check by sharing with you my latest royalty statement for the period 4/1/06-6/30/06.
TITLE / QTY/ NET $ SALES/ROYALTY %/ROYALTY
MY GUN HAS BULLETS 2/$24.26/25/$6.07
UNSOLD TV PILOTS 10/$89.30/30/$26.79
UNSOLD TV PILOTS v1 7/$120.75/5@25 and 2@30/$31.92
UNSOLD TV PILOTS v2 6/$95.82/25/$23.96
TOTAL: $88.74
Lori’s Ever-Changing Claims
Lori Prokop, online huckster and the originator of the Book Millionaire scam, posts this claim on her website:
“I’ve never seen anything like your four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble in Las Vegas. More than 1,174 people gladly stood in line for hours to meet you, buy your book and have them autographed. The line wove through the aisles of the store. Barnes and Noble
removed floor displays to make room for your book buyers. The Las Vegas NBC
affiliate covered the event and said they had never seen anything like it.
That’s amazing in Las Vegas, the city of excitement and entertainment.”
— Tali Mauai, Co-Author of the audio book
From Zero to Hero
I thought it was pretty amazing too. So, in the spirit of fairness
and accuracy, I checked into Lori Prokop’s claim (made through Tali Mauai) with friends in Las Vegas and my book industry sources and, as far I can tell, there was never any such booksigning event for her at a B&N there in the last five years nor the corresponding booksales that she implies she made. Perhaps she would be kind enough to provide the
exact date of the event and specific store where it took place so we can corroborate her claim?
Oddly enough, Lori uses the same claim from Tali, slightly reworded, to push her "Chiropractic Best Seller Book Program," a scheme to convince chiropractors that it would be a good idea to pay her vanity press to publish their articles and books. Note the significant differences (which I’ve boldfaced and italicized) between the two versions of the claim:
"I’ve never seen anything like our four hour book signing at Barnes and Noble in Las Vegas. More than 1,100 people gladly stood in line for hours to meet us, buy our book and have them autographed. The line wove through the aisles of the store. Barnes and Noble removed floor displays to make room for our book buyers. I felt like a local celebrity and my life has never been the same. I love it. The Las Vegas NBC affiliate covered the event and said they had never seen anything like it. That’s amazing in Las Vegas, the city of excitement and entertainment.” Tali Mauai, bestselling co-author, Zero to Hero
There is yet a THIRD version (again, with the differences in italic and bold-face) of the quote, this time pushing her seminars that will allow you to "discover your powers to heal yourself, achieve abundance and create what you want in your life."
“Lori, I’ve never seen anything like your four-hour
book signing at Barnes & Noble in Las Vegas.
More than 1,100 people stood in line for hours
to meet your authors, buy their books and have
them autographed. Barnes & Noble removed floor
displays to make room for your book buyers.
National media covered the event and said they
had never seen anything like it.” Tari Mauai, Bestselling Author, from Zero to Hero.
I wonder which quote is "the truth." Again, perhaps Lori would be kind enough to clarify for us exactly when which author, selling what book, had this mobbed Las Vegas booksigning that made members of the local (or it was it national? Perhaps even GLOBAL) press corps faint with astonishment.
Chutzpah
Ron Hogan and MJ Rose both beat me to blogging about a press release flogging a new book written by iUniverse execs that reveals how to get your book published…by iUniverse. How did they fill a book on that topic when I can sum it all up in one sentence: "send us your manuscript and your credit card number?" Then again, I’m a professional writer. Ron is impressed by their chutzpah:
The boldness
of the transaction model is actually rather impressive, when you stop
to think about it. Can you think of any other company that charges a
fee just to learn about its services?
Not The Future
USA Today reports that writer/producer J. Michael Straczynski is successfully self-publishing collections of his BABYLON 5 scripts through a P.O.D. company. The article suggests that this represents a turning point for P.O.D. self-publishing:
"There’s always been something of a stigma to print-on-demand, that it
was just a form of vanity publishing that could never produce financial
returns of significance," Straczynski says. "The B5 books are the first
to change this in a big way, showing that a writer can make as much or
more as with a major company."[…] the first seven
volumes of The Babylon 5 Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski appear to be
among the top-selling titles, with fans snapping up more than 18,000
books since October. Each volume — with seven scripts plus production
notes and new introductions — runs about 450 pages.At about $40 apiece ($30 in the first week of release), Straczynski
expects $1.5 million in total sales from the 14 planned volumes.A large chunk will go to CafePress, the company that prints and ships
each book.
I’m not surprised he’s having some success. But does it represent the future of P.O.D. self-publishing? No. But it is an example of one of the rare cases where P.O.D. self-publishing can pay off and I’ll tell you why.
Unlike 99.9% of the people attempting to self-publish, Straczynski essentially has a presold item. He’s selling scripts based on a long-running TV series that he wrote and created and that has been seen by millions of people all over the world. The show is continues to be seen in reruns and on DVD and has a huge cult following that’s primed to buy his book.
The same can’t be said of an average person trying to sell his novel as a self-published, P.O.D. title. His underlying property hasn’t already been exposed and promoted to millions of people. His book isn’t riding on the advertising and promotion of TV reruns and sales of DVD box sets. There isn’t a fan base already eager to buy the book.
Straczynksi has all that. Most people don’t.
There are many writer/producers who could do the same thing and probably enjoy similar success. There’s just one problem…one that the reporter for USA Today glossed over. In most cases, the writer-producers don’t have the right to self-publish their scripts from their TV shows and movies — those rights are retained by the studio. I’m assuming that Straczynski had to license the right to publish his scripts from Warner Brothers, which means the studio is getting a hefty fee and a percentage of any of his sales.
Unfortunately, there are aspiring authors who will be swayed by Straczynski’s unique experience and will get suckered by POD companies as a result.
Tod Finds Self-Published POD Gem
My brother Tod Goldberg has reviewed DANCING ON THE FLY ASH, a self-published P.O.D. book, in his Las Vegas City Life column:
It’s a sad state of affairs, however, that the one book spawned from a
blog that actually succeeds has gone virtually unnoticed: Dancing On Fly Ash by Matt Bell and Josh Maday.The
differences between Bell and Maday and their blog brethren is they are
actually fiction writers, unlike Cutler, who slept with a lot of
people, and Cox, who is a fine journalist but not a fine fiction writer
(it’s not a trait that is easily shared), and their blog (found at
dancingonflyash.com) is a daily splash of flash creativity: Each day,
in 100 words or less, either Bell or Maday writes a complete short
story. Dancing On Fly Ash collects the best 62 of these entries
and the result is both exciting and frustrating — exciting in that the
best of these short-short-short stories packs the emotional wallop of a
novel and frustrating because several stories beg for more than the
form allows.The stories veer from the dramatic to the poignant to the absurd, the best of which contain all three styles.
Naturally, the authors were thrilled by the review:
This is the first review for our book, so I can’t help but be excited,
especially since it’s mostly positive. It’s so hard to get a
self-published book reviewed in the first place, much less by an author
of Goldberg’s stature. We’re very thankful to him for his
encouragement and support.
Why Do Writers Delude Themselves?
I understand what it’s like to dream of being a writer. I understand how hard it is to achieve that dream. I understand how difficult it is to remain in print. I understand it because I’ve lived it.
What I don’t understand is why some writers delight in deluding themselves — even when they know that what they are doing is foolish, costly, pointless and pathetic. I got an email the other day that’s a perfect example of this bizarre phenomenon. Here’s how it began:
I’ve been reading you for a while. I don’t get people who post
their unpublished writing on their blogs or websites. On the other
hand, I feel somewhat guilty because I have a self-published book out
(pretty pathetic, I know, but 27 years ago my first book was published
commercially and I’ve had books reviewed in the LA & NY Times) and
feel really weird about trying to promote it. I don’t quite know what
to do.
Okay, he had a book published 27 years ago and has had his work reviewed by the NY Times and LA Times. That’s great. But what does that have to do with self-publishing his book today? Nothing.
He says he feels "weird" trying to promote the book and doesn’t quite know how to do it. Excuse me? He’s asking himself now how he’s going to promote his self-published novel? Shouldn’t he have thought of that before writing a check to some vanity press? What was he thinking when he went to a vanity press? Clearly, he wasn’t thinking at all. He was deluding himself. But it gets worse…or sadder, depending on your perspective:
Let’s try to follow the logic of that paragraph, one sentence at a time…
"I doubt you’d be interested in my book, but here’s a link to the Kirkus Discoveries review."
He doesn’t think I’ll care about his book, but he’s going to point me to a review that he paid for anyway, because that might convince me it’s good. Huh??
"Yeah, I paid $350 to them so I’d get at least one review."
This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about: a writer deluding himself, knowing that he is, and going along with the delusion anyway. If you paid for a positive review, it’s not really a review, is it? In fact, it’s worthless. What good is a review that everyone knows you’ve bought and paid for? Does it make you feel better about your work that someone you paid to like it says he likes it? You could have saved $350 by simply writing a rave review of your book yourself.
It’s clear from his email that he knows he made a mistake, he feels foolish about it, and yet he can’t stop himself from compounding his error. He paid to be published without thinking about how he’d promote his book once it was out. He paid for a review just for the pleasure of seeing someone talk about his work. Then he sends an email to me, of all people, that basically says "look at me, aren’t I pathetic?"
And he thinks this is a winning strategy?
I’m not telling you about this email to humiliate the guy. I feel sad for him…and yet, at the same time, stories like his infuriate me. He’s not some idiot being taken advantage of by the false claims of a vanity press… he knows better. So why does he do it anyway?
I just don’t get it. Someone, please, explain it to me.
iUniverse CEO Gives Aspiring Authors Advice
Susan Driscoll, the CEO of iUniverse, has a blog. In her initial post, she says:
I’ve been CEO of iUniverse for almost three years and spent over twenty
years in traditional publishing before that. As such, I have a pretty
broad understanding of the publishing business and of the unique
concerns of self-published authors. Through this blog, I’ll share
relevant facts about the industry and provide perspective and advice to
aspiring authors. And, since there are many smart publishing people
that I’m lucky to call my friends, I’ll regularly call on those experts
to answer questions of general interest.
The last person any aspiring author should turn to for advice is the CEO of a vanity press. If she was really interested in helping aspiring authors, her first piece of advice to them would be not to pay a P.O.D. company $1100 to "publish" your novel. It’s throwing your money away. Just look at the stats: In 2004, out of 18,108 titles iUniverse published, only 83 titles sold more than 500 copies and only 14 titles were actually stocked in brick-and-mortar stores.
While I think going to a vanity press with your novel is a huge mistake, I don’t think the same is necessarily true for non-fiction work — especially if you are giving lots of seminars and speeches and can sell your books at the events or are teaching a class where your book can be assigned as required reading.
I have several books "published" by iUniverse… my UNSOLD TV PILOTS books and my novel MY GUN HAS BULLETS. But I didn’t pay a nickel for it. All of books were previously published, out-of-print titles which were republished through special Authors Guild and Mystery Writers of America "back in print" programs. I would never have reprinted MY GUN HAS BULLETS through iUniverse if there was a cost involved…nor would I ever recommend that anybody pay to have an original novel "published" by iUniverse.
You can see for yourself how much … or rather, how little … I’ve made from these books by looking at some of my royalty statements.
Writer’s Digest isn’t for Writers Anymore
I’ve written here before about the unethically close relationship between Writer’s Digest and it’s vanity press advertisers. Now whatever blurry line there might have been between the magazine and the vanity press industry has been completely erased. The transformation of WD into a shill for the vanity press industry is complete. I got this email from WD today:
The 6th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection. This exclusive collection published by Trafford Publishing contains the top twenty-five winning entries of the 6th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition, including the First-Place winner "Brown Pride," by Jeff McElroy. Don’t miss your chance to see these shorts! Visit http://www.writersdigest.com/specialoffers.asp?DMshbklt051806
to reserve your copy of the 6th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection today!
Trafford Publishing is a print-on-demand, self-publishing company. WD can’t claim any journalastic integrity, or that they objectively represent the best interests of writers, while at the same time they are in business with (and lend their name to) a vanity press, which preys on the desperation and naivete of aspiring authors. Clearly, the purpose of the magazine now is to steer writers to these self-publishing companies…and to make the writers think that all it takes to become a successful author is a credit card.
I have nothing against small
presses. I’ve been published by small presses (McFarland, Five Star,
etc.) and so have my friends and members of my family.
I do have a something against vanity presses that pretend to be
something they aren’t to hoodwink aspiring writers out of their cash.
I also am very leery of so-called "small presses" created by an
author to publish his own work…at least until his work is far
outnumbered on the company’s list by books written by other authors.
Until then, it’s not a small press but a vanity operation…though
not in the sense that they are charging other authors to get into
print. It’s a vanity press in that it primarily exists to self-publish
one author.
For instance, Jim Michael Hansen self-publishes his LAWS mysteries
under the moniker Dark Sky Publishing. Those are the only books Dark Sky publishes. If tomorrow he publishes a book
by Jane Doe, I don’t think that makes Dark Sky a small press. In my
mind, he becomes a small press when the business clearly shifts from
being primarily geared towards selling his own work to editing, publishing, and distributing the work
of other writers (and paying them royalties).
On the other hand, Uglytown is an example of a local, small press that was started to serve the needs of
its author/founders and grew to become a legitimate and respected imprint
(which, sadly, is no longer in business).
Hard Case Crime began by publishing the work of its author/founders Charles Ardai and Max Phillips and
has grown to become a highly-acclaimed, respected, and exciting small press with
authors like Lawrence Block, Stephen King, and Ed McBain among their large list of titles.
New Babel Books was apparently established by author Frank Fradella to
publish his own books. Four of the six titles listed on the site
are his own. The company’s FAQ reads:
Meaning, it seems, that Frank couldn’t sell his projects to any traditional publishers so he published them himself. Now he’s publishing books by two others (what’s not clear to me from the site is whether his books are P.O.D or not… I suspect that they are). The company’s mission statement reads, in part:
Not surprisingly, his four books, which make up the bulk of his "list," managed to make it through his own rigorous process…and will probably continue to do so.
None of that means that New Babel Books won’t become a legitimate small press, but I wouldn’t call them one now.