Deceptive Book Publishers Internet Advertising
Out of the more than 195,000 books published every year, over half of that are not published by our respected traditional book publishers. Many vanity and self publishing companies have cropped up over the last few years to take your money, and then publish your book, but can all of them be trusted?
The internet has become a primary resource for researching all aspects of your book, and can also be a great way to target which of those 5,000 publishing companies is a good fit for your book. As with everything on the internet, though, the advertising you find is often deceptive, and must be read with care.
Advertising, especially through services like Google, appear on thousands of web sites, and many publishing companies do little else to advertise. Publishers relying solely on the authors brought in by these ads have raised the Price Per Click into ridiculously high rates, making it difficult for other companies to advertise effectively.
Here is some advice about what to look out for:
Google Ad:Tate Publishing Get your book published today. The industry leader for new authors.www.tatepublishing.com
Targeted directly at new authors, this ad drives away experienced authors with a history of success and a knowledge of the publishing business. Could this be because of all the additional fees this company charges, getting a book published through them is one of the most expensive we have found - at $4,000! Writers have reported that they use high pressure sales techniques when in the contracting phase, provide 25 free author copies, and seldom do the additional investments they promised from their end. As a relatively new company, they claim to be the "industry leader," but in what? Our research indicates they may be the industry leader in separating writers from their hard-earned savings.
Google Ad:Fiction Publishers We want your book, not your money Publish with Ease for Free.www.publishamerica.com
Publish America appeals that their services are free, and the company "does not want your money." Legitimate traditional publishers do not need to make this claim. Companies advertising like this may use a business model that does not require any initial fees from the authors, and gives them a token $1 advance, only to charge fees later for "additional services," even when these are services that traditional publishers provide for free. In cases like this, their business model is often based on profits from selling books to the author and the author's list of friends and relatives that the company asks to be provided.
Google Ad:Whitmore Publishing Book publisher seeking new authors No publishing fee. We pay you.whitmorepublishing.com
Traditional book publishing companies, such as Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Doubleday, do not need to advertise that they are "seeking new authors," or that there is "No publishing fee," or that "We pay you." That is how publishing is supposed to work. Some self-publishing or vanity-in-disguise companies use an advertising method where a sister company acts as a front which rejects the manuscript, only to use the author's submission information to contact them with a proposal to publish their book from their self-publishing or vanity sister company.
Google Ad:Free Publishing Guide Get your book published & available Worldwide in as little as 6 weeks!www.trafford.com
With statements about the speed of publication times, you can be assured that this is a vanity or self-publishing company that skips the quality control steps provided by traditional publishing companies. Professional editing and proofreading often takes several months. With content or development editors working back and forth with the author, until the manuscript is to an acceptable level. Add to that process a professional copy editor review, custom designed book covers, book marketing planning, etc, the industry average is at eighteen months for a quality book to be published.
The comment, "available worldwide" does not necessarily mean that it is on shelves in stores around the world. Often, it simply means that the publisher has set up a POD, or "Print on Demand," file with a division of Ingram called Lightning Source, and is listed in their database and available to order by book sellers.
Google Ad:Need A Book Publisher? We offer comprehensive publishing, editing, and marketing services.www.iuniverse.com
Many companies provide these services, and you pay a lot for them. By the time you pay their wide distribution publishing fee of around $1,000, and then add on all of their options for basic services that are provided free from traditional publishers, such as editing, book promotion, etc., you could end up paying upwards of $2,000 to $4,000 for your book, which is a POD book often not accepted for stocking at bookstores or libraries. Another deception is that they advertise self-publishing services when in fact they only provide vanity publishing services. It is an important distinction, as they would want to avoid the word "vanity" as it has a very negative connotation in the writers community. If a company provides their ISBN numbers to an author instead of the author providing them theirs, then it is a vanity or traditional publisher. But never a self publisher.
The most difficult contradiction they claim comes from their website: "As the only book publisher backed by Barnes & Noble, iUniverse has the right mix of self-publishing products and services to help you get your manuscript off your desk and into the marketplace." Out of their over 12,000 current book titles, most stores only provide a designated 3 feet of physical shelf space for a handful of the 12,000 iUniverse titles.
Getting published in today's marketplace is a challenging task, and self-publishing is appealing to more and more authors. While there are a number of legitimate routes to self-publishing, you must be careful when choosing the company to go with. You can not rely solely on the advertisements you find on the internet. Instead, you must research the companies thoroughly before making a decision.
For more information, visit the book publisher directory at: www.publisherstandardsboard.org.
