The Word Cloud

I have published 2 books on POD basis. The first as paperback (January 2006) and the second (October2009) as paperback and an e-book. Both publishers turned out so-called “vanitypublishers”. Books printed by Lightning Source UK, US and Germany and also by Amazon UK, US and Germany.

My first book is still offered and in trade but I have received royalties just for 24 books. BTW the publisher has gone into liquidation. The book is still being sold as new and used copies (even on eBay) and I don't have any profit from this. I have tried to get a clue about sold copies and Nielsen BookScan sent me an offer but on my acceptance of theirs terms and conditions ignored all my admonitions.

For the second one the publisher hadn't paid me at all and after 20 months I terminated the agreement with them for both formats of my book. In spite of my notice to quit, there are still some internet booksellers trading in both formats of my books.

In view of the above practices and infringement of my intellectual properties, I think that there should be implemented control of trade in book in any format along with notification of the author as as it appears a jungle law is ruling on the publishing market.

Does anyone have a similar case?

Hi WH,

Welcome to the cloud!

Your post could not have come at a better time for me; I'm also in the process of self-publishing and currently looking for a medium to do so.

If you don't mind me asking, how much have you invested in your books? (nothing exact, just a ball park figure will do) I'm currently fretting about how much money I'm expected to put into my novel.

Hope you get your issues resolved soon!

Hi Damien,

Thanks for that!

Lulu was one of the publishers I looked into, but as of yet I haven't been able to decide who I am going to go with.

I'm stunned at how much you have invested into your books. I never really considered the amount of money I'd have to invest, but now you've opened my eyes a bit. I can invest as much time as needed, but at the minute I barely have any money at all!

Thanks for the list, I'll look into these as well

If you self-publish on Lulu, you pay per copy and the cost is a tiny fraction of what you have paid. You then have to do all your own promotion, sales etc. Matador do come highly recommended as one of the few ethical companies who are clear about what they offer. The general advice if you're self-publishing is not to get the different services from one place but to shop around. Much of what vanity publishers say they offer is meaningless.

You can find more advice here. http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/Writing-tips-self-publish.html

There are a lot of sharks out there who promise the world. Make sure you do thorough Google searches on anyone you come across and look for any negative feedback. Sorry to hear about such negative experiences here. Hard way to learn ...

Hello people , perhaps you'll could check out the services offered by an Indian Self-publsihing firm.

I would obviously recommend the Writers workshop for advice on everything, they have never let me down! May I also recommend Bubble Cow, who offer a self publishers editing package also, they may be able to help?

All publishers are nice until you are not interested in royalties and lay no claim to your money.

I have been self publishing my books for almost ten years and, to be frank, I make a lot of money. The trick is to do it yourself. Basically, I write the books, a few very intelligent fellows I know edit them, I design every page, design the cover, PDF everything and then send it off to a printer. This may interest you to know, but if I print off 1500 books (TOR Assassin Hunter, hardback, dustjacket, 208 pp, with illustrations) I get them for less than £1.40 a book. They retail for £14.95.

You see, all these companies who offer all these services to you i.e. proofreading, jacket design, ISBNs etc etc, basically all of them only want to make dosh. And, basically, they don't want to give any back to you.

Many self published authors do not know this, but if you buy a set of 10 ISBNs, when you register your new book, they will automatically pop up on Amazon and on the database every bookshop in the UK looks at to order books. And, any time a book is ordered, the order will pop up in your Inbox. Simply pop in it the post with an invoice!

And then there's ebooks! Yes, I also sell my books on Smashword and Amazon in the form of electronic books, but the problem is so do a few million other unknown authors and half of the idiots sell them for 'FREE!' basically detroying the market for everybody.

I sell approx. 6000 books a year at a gross profit of approx £8 per book. I do this not be spamming every literary chatroom I can find (which is a complete waste of time) but by visiting schools (I write children's books by the way) and selling direct to my readers.

So my advice to newly self published authors is this. Work hard, do it yourself and don't pay anybody anything. Or, get greedy vanity publishers to rip you off and get nothing in return.

Self publishing is basically as simple as that.

Thank you BBB for very interesting tips.

Matador's name pops up often as a serious self-pub option. They have open days too where you can book to hear short chats from the various departments and see presses at work. I went last April and was impressed but I have not reached the stage yet of publishing my novel.