Lesson 44

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis Books
 Lesson 44
 My view on vanity publishers
 Welcome back to another lesson. Did you vote? I did, so let’s get back to class. First I want to apologize if you did not receive last week’s lesson or you received it a few times. I don’t know why, but my computer kept rejecting it, so I had to send each email individually and still some were not sent. Hopefully this one will go through.

Like your Halloween candy there are many choices to choose from. Today is another wonderful day, and I hope your week proved to be just as wonderful. Today I want to rank, or give you some insight on Vanity Publishers, at least what I have experienced. Don’t get me wrong. I wanted my books out, and didn’t know how to, so I paid companies to do it for me, hoping for the best. They said that they needed to read and approved my manuscript, because they were very picky on who they would choose. This was an expensive lesson.
They tell you things over the phone like any salesman would, they lie to get you to buy, or say buy now before the price goes up. When they send the contract, you glance it over, because you are so excited and in a hurry, because you just spent one year and a half, or even more, trying for agents and traditional publishers, and waiting for their rejection responses. So you sign on the dotted line and send it back along with your hard-earned money.
Okay, fine, you send your manuscript in, and naturally, they accepted you. For six months to a year you go back and forth with editing corrections, cover design, layout approval, and final proof reading approval before print. You fill out a questionnaire, and they make up a press release. Your book is now on the Internet, ready to be sold, and will be added in the Ingram Sparks catalog that month like all the others. They may place your book on four Internet sites along with Amazon and Kindle.
Now, Here Is the Kicker. Ingram’s catalog is released only twice a year with all the new updates. They say they send out a general email with your press release to Ingram, and affiliated magazines. But who looks at their emails? Especially when there are 7,000 books released every month. But where will your book show up, on what page?
The promise of the extra ten free books was not written in the contract. It was only a verbal over the phone by the salesperson, which means nothing. If you want to buy your own books, you can, at an author discount, still a few dollars above the print cost. You also have to pay for the postage.
They have you fill out a 1099 form for taxes, and they hold all your royalty money until you reach $100 in royalty sales. Then, and only then will they send you a royalty check. Let’s say your book sells on Amazon, and you get maybe $1 to $3 profit depending on the retail price of your book. If your book sells on Kindle, your profit is about the same, because Kindle prices are cheaper, so let’s stick with three dollars profit. So, with this figure in mind, you need to sell at least 35 to 40 copies before you get a check. Think on how much money they have banked in their company if they maintain a continual flow of over 1000 authors on their two-year contracts.
Now your sales drop after your relatives and friends are all tapped out. Your contract is for two years, and your money sits in limbo. They will ask you to renew your contract for $15-$30, probably the amount that you have in their bank. If you choose not to renew your contract, it will take at least 60 to 90 days for them to release your money. During your two-year contract, they may call you and ask if you want them to showcase your book in the Atlanta book convention, or the New York trade show. It will only cost you $189 for their company to place your book on a table for display at these shows. You on the other hand thought that they were supposed to do this anyway, because that’s what they said, and that’s what they are supposed to do. That’s why you had a two-year contract for them to advertise your book. But no, these were not included. These are special events to help you make more sales. Let’s get back to your book and sales.
Your last royalty check sits in their account with ninety-eight dollars or so until your contract runs out. You called them because your contract is up, and you want your final check. You saw nothing happen after they printed your book. You want to take it somewhere else. They offer you a deal to sign a new contract for thirty dollars a year for them to keep you, and they do what, nothing, except keeping your book on their websites, and keeping your money in their account. You decline their offer, and ask them please to send a check to close out your account. They agree and take your books off the market from their websites. You wait three months for your check and you are just about to call them and it comes in the mail.
Meanwhile, your ISBN number that they gave you is yours, but if you want to self-promote your own book that ISBN number with the book price marked on the top corner cannot be used on other sites. Also, they talked you into an ISBN that makes your book returnable from bookstores. A lot of sites, again will not let you use that number. Now you have to resubmit your book with your own new and different ISBN, or a different one given to you by someone else.
Remember that I said I filled out and gave them a 1099 form with my name, address, everything they needed for the IRS, right? They sent the final check made out to my author name, not my legal name. Guess what? The bank doesn’t know me by that name. I don’t believe it to be an honest mistake, but a dishonest one to keep rolling interest on my small amount for another month or two. But then again, what can you do?
Everyone else makes a living from your hard work. If you sell millions of copies, who cares? But if not, you feel it, along with the disappointment that you have to keep your job in order to continue fueling your passion. Another thing that was strange was that I had two different publishers in two different states, but both checks had the same signature from the same bank.
So with four books under my belt done by vanity publishers, I have since published ten more books by myself using KDP direct publishing through Amazon for FREE. To save money I used Amazon’s free ISBN which is exclusive to them, but they are the biggest bookstore on the Internet, and their marketing is worldwide. With the vanity publisher I was listed in three other countries on their websites. Now I am listed in fourteen different countries through Amazon and Kindle, and my royalty price is locked in at thirty-five percent for a paperback book, and seventy percent for an e-book, even if I put them on sale for three weeks. The royalty payments are divvied out every month whether it is one sale or thousands. It goes straight into my bank account.
A vanity publishing company in my opinion has nothing to offer you that you can’t do yourself. There are plenty of online markets that offer free placement and set up so they can make money from your book. Some may be honest, and some not, but they will all make money from your work whether you do or not. You pay a small monthly fee to be on their site, or you pay them to advertise your book on their site to boost sales and exposure. They make a profit, and you wait, and wait, and wait to recoup your losses.
My wife does vending machines which is a lot of work, but people put their money in for a snack, and she makes twenty-five cents per sale. Three to four sales is not a lot of money, but the quarters do add up, and she works hard in order to make an honest living. These companies do the same thing with 7 million books by 4 million authors. They take thirty percent or more, or maybe twenty-five cents from each sale. The author makes a dollar, but the company makes millions, Print on demand makes millions, and we can only hope that our book will sell thousands of copies.
Until next time, happy writing, and enjoy your week.
 
Bye, from Rickkurtisbooks.com