Q –

Dear Ms. Hoy,

I have been entertaining (an expensive print on demand publisher) for a work of historical fiction. (The company) attracts me by their marketing at book fairs/trade shows, and distribution to thousands of (specialty organizations), as well as placement on Amazon. I am sure you are busy from the storm and I hope you and your family and friends are well. When you have the opportunity, would you be so kind as to tell me some of the pitfalls of going with (that company).

Respectfully,
P.

A –

That firm, which appears on THIS LIST, can’t guarantee any book sales, no matter how many book fair or trade show “appearances” they tout to (ahem – SELL to) authors. In all likelihood, they’re making the author pay for those copies to display at book fairs/trade shows, etc., either through author purchases, or with their incredibly high setup fees. Please avoid getting sucked into the hype. Book fairs and publishing industry trade shows are almost always a losing proposition for new authors. Read why HERE.

And, (that company) is NOT going to “distribute” your book to thousands of organizations. They’re going to make your book available through Ingram’s system (Ingram is the largest book distributor) and any firm with an Ingram account can then order your book. All the print on demand publishers do that! The phony “distribution” language is very deceptive and, unfortunately, very common in the industry.

When a publisher writes, ‘we’ll make your book available to (insert a number in the thousands here) bookstores worldwide,’ that simply means anybody can order your book from Amazon or any other store because your book will be in Ingram’s database. Again, ALL the print on demand/vanity publishers do that, as well as traditional publishers. Don’t fall victim to creative sales nonsense that might make you think they’re doing something awesome and unique for you…when they clearly are not.

They might “market” your book to some organizations (as well as their other books), but what does that mean exactly? In all likelihood, it means they’re spamming those firms, or sending out junk mail and/or junk faxes. Making you think they’re going to “sell” your book to thousands is just another questionable marketing tactic they use to try to get authors to pay their insultingly high fees. Oh, and those firms that use spam and junk mail/faxes to “promote” books are greatly frowned upon. Their spam/junk mail/faxes almost always end up in the trash because the recipients of those communications are tired of seeing repeated pitches for poor-quality, self-published books.

For like services, (that firm) charges thousands while BookLocker only charges $875. If you contact me through THIS FORM, as a WritersWeekly reader, be sure to ask me for a $100 discount code if you plan to use BookLocker. I’m always happy to give those to our readers.

And, at BookLocker, we don’t use deceptive sales tactics like those described above, nor do we upsell authors on garbage that doesn’t sell books. You can read our philosophy HERE. Also, please read the first link below.

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• HELP! MY PUBLISHER IS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!!  How Can I SAVE MY BOOK Without Going Broke?!
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