Q-
Your stand on outsourcing to third world countries is admission of your being racist. Would you mind explaining why you detest dealing with such a huge chunk of humanity?
– B.
~~~~
A –
Many of our competitors (publishers) exploit cheap foreign labor. We don’t. We have a very small staff and we do have two non-U.S. folks working for us, directly under my supervision. But, we pay them the same wage as we pay our American employees and contractors.
At BookLocker.com and WritersWeekly.com, we don’t outsource to foreign call centers that pay their workers pennies on the dollar. We don’t have any call centers at all. We don’t have an “author marketing department” overseas that employs telemarketers to up-sell our authors on worthless products and services. We don’t have an “author marketing department” at all.
We don’t up-sell our authors in that manner because we know most of those products and services cost far more than any resulting book sales they might bring in. Let’s face it. If those products and services really sold books, wouldn’t those publishers be offering them for free?
At BookLocker and WritersWeekly, we have a personal relationship with every one of our employees and contractors and we pay them all directly, at a fair U.S. wage. I don’t think that makes us racists. If you prefer to work with a publisher who utilizes foreign labor, and whose foreign workers will be happy to upsell you to the tune of thousands in marketing products and services, look at THIS LIST . Some of the firms listed there do business that way. BookLocker and WritersWeekly do NOT.
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Read More "Ask The Expert" Articles
Sorry to say it, but the majority of foreign outsources are quite ignorant in so many ways. Starting with a
language barrier, it just goes downhill from there. Unfortunately, we as Americans have little or no say in
this sort of outsourcing. Big companies do it because it’s cheap plus they get the operators to upsell costly products which have no merit.
Think you got this one right on the head, Angela.
I always thought of myself as the biggest liberal on the planet, but if AJ wants to claim that title, I won’t argue. I’ll gladly adopt 2nd place. In that position, I just don’t see any discrimination in not outsourcing your services to a different country. Your personal touch is one of your many attributes that gives you the success and A+ rating you deserve. If I, as an author, want to ask a question, I don’t want to talk to a call center no matter if they’re in the US or any other country. I want to talk to the immediate staff. That’s what Booklocker offers.
Angela, Your comment was great! The only thing I could add to it would be, America also has a “large chunk of humanity” and being an American means I should, and will, find my labor force in the USA.
I have had very bad experience with foreign call centers. And I am black! Does that make me racist too? What a ridiculous criticism. And besides, I would rather support my fellow Americans. Strange concept, I know, but I am proud to support fellow Americans and will continue to do so. Carry on Angela!!!!
The practice of offshore outsourcing is a ‘double-edged sword’.
On one hand, you have a phenomenal opportunity to include a wide range of excellent talent that can, undeniably, make an important impact on any project.
On the other hand — many times, when a company outsources a service, they do it in all the wrong ways and take advantage of these people by placing them in positions they can not hope to serve at the level expected by the end user (not to mention being paid pennies for their time). Angela has called attention, in this response, to the very obvious reason why an outsourced service can be a very bad experience for everyone in the end.
I personally have had several negative experiences with companies who had outsourced their helpdesk to an offshore site. I have since made it a point to not to work with said companies because of the poor service I often received.
The most recent, and ridiculous example of offshore incompetency occurred with a cell phone company’s help-desk (located in India).
“Why am I unable to get (the X service) in Montana?” I asked.
A very polite gentleman responded, “Because we only provide this (X service) in the USA”.
So when did Montana succeed from the union?
Oh, for Pete’s sake.
From the biggest liberal on the planet to whomever sent this note, STOP.
You are making us look bad.
You don’t need to be offended by everything… But ESPECIALLY not by things that are completely made-up in your own head.
Quit crying about made-up stuff and worry about real issues.
Angela, your stand on not exploiting human beings of any color, nationality, or creed is commendable.