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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Self Publishing or the scammed author.

A lot of people might have their reservations about self publishing. However, if nothing but one good thing comes from the movement let it be the fact that vanity publishing companies can no longer prey on victims. Over a year ago, I went public with a book called The Fairies of Tythian. This book was written and inspired by a book that I wrote while living in Germany. After my mother died I started writing. So, the story was full of emotions bundled into the form of a children’s book. I wanted to make my mother proud. In my dreams she came to me, and talked to be about my writing. We sat in the living room and looked online, and I asked her where my book was located. She told me it would never get there if I didn’t finish it. I went on to finish that story and it turned out to be over seventy thousand words long. After we moved from Germany we were stationed in Savannah, GA. While I was there I sent in my book The Mythical Creatures of Milshem to different literary services. One picked me up by the name of Eaton Literary Services. However, after talking to numerous people I decided it wasn’t in my best interest to sign any contracts with them.
 One day I was online researching how to send money to the Christians in Iraq. On that day, something horrible happened. An awful virus attacked my computer, and because I didn’t save The Mythical Creatures of Milshem to another device …it was annihilated. I cried, and I gave up writing for a while. All those years of work went down the drain.  I just didn’t think I had it in me to try anything again until I had another dream about my mother. After that I sent out my children’s story The Fairies of Tythian which was created around the characters from The Mythical Creatures of Milshem. Now, my book sits lonely and discounted more than 80% on Amazon because of the company I went with and my inexperience dealing with the publishing world. It has a few mistakes that I just wouldn’t give any more money to fix. I figured my family could use the money more than their editing team. 
I made so many mistakes when I signed off on corrections, and other things. I thought the editing team would make sure everything was perfect, so I didn’t do a check on my own. Big mistake on my part. I caught one mistake, and paid money to have it fixed .  However, after the book came out I saw three more mistakes. I was angry at myself  because I knew I didn’t have any more money to give them to fix it. I paid them almost a thousand dollars just to get the book out.  Honestly, I was quite baffled . I really thought editing meant editing.  Self publishing might not be easy. Lord knows I have had to do my share of revisions. However, I did them for free. Every cent that I make goes to me, and not some vanity press that might trick me into signing my rights as an author. Not only does every cent go to me, but I can make my book available in the UK, Germany, and other countries . I didn’t pay another 250 dollars to get eBook rights for The Fairies of Tythian. My books have sold in both the UK and the US. So far I have sold over 260 books and I published them in late March, or April.
 I think the most dangerous part of these scams...is the fact that they can lock the budding artist up with contracts. The literary contract was worded so that it held my creative rights over anything that I created, and sent out..with the exception of poems. Had it not been for my husband’s Major at his old unit … I would have walked into that trap. Actually, I was lucky with The Fairies of Tythian. I was lucky it was just a joint project, and not something that held me down as an artist. When I got the email about two other contract offers…you better believe I hit the delete button. So, if you are willing to pay someone thousands of dollars to put together a book for you…think about this. If they aren’t a reputable publishing company you could be risking a lot more than your money. You could be risking anything great that comes out of your mind for the next seven years… If you feel like writing runs in your blood ,and you don’t want to go the traditional route…please think about self publishing with Amazon Createspace, Smashwords, or Pubit.ect.. Seven years is too long to be held to a bunch of bull.

Even now as I type this to you The Vampire's Salvation is ranked higher in the UK ...and it was because I worked hard to get the word out.. I'm in Texas...So, don't fear that you can't do it...Just try.

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