I'm sure a lot of this won't be new to anyone who's read this thread, but I feel like I ought to share it because every person expresses their experience differently.
In the summer of 2007 I was writing a book called "The Dragon Kaseraak". It was a book I was writing for my kids, and a friend of mine created some illustrations for the book. It was a good little project. It kept me focused, and it gave me a hobby when I needed one. My kids loved the book.
Around September of that year I had finished the second draft of the book. I was searching around, and found services like Lulu.com or Cafepress that would take what I had written and put it into an actual physical book that my kids could hold and read. It was about that time that I ran into PublishAmerica.
I'm sure a lot of people were taken unaware by PublishAmerica's marketing techniques, but I don't think I was one of them. I knew that any book they printed wouldn't end up in bookstores. I knew that there wouldn't be any extensive editing of my book. I knew that they would try to sell me copies of my own book. I knew all of these things and signed with them anyway for a few reasons. One, I wanted to have an actual physical book in my hands. Two, they would print the book at no upfront cost to me. Three, the other options of publishing at the time seemed so impossible that I figured this was the only way I could get this into a book form.
So, off it went, until April of 2008 when the book was published. I was happy to see it on Amazon.com. The book itself looked good. In my exuberance about the book, I took advantage of their "introductory author" offer to order 50 copies of the book at 50% off. (I have since been e-mailed much better opportunities to purchase my own book. For instance, they've offered 3 for the price of 1.) I spent $80 printing up bookmarks to promote the book. I organized a talk at my kids school about the book. Enough kids and parents went to the local bookstore (which had agreed to sell the book on consignment) that they sold out of the four copies of mine that they would take. I was furiously writing the next book in the series, and the one after that.
That's when things started to go sour. PublishAmerica decided in its wisdom to increase the price of my book, from an already steep $19.95 to an exorbitant $24.95. Every bookstore other than the one a half mile away would not take copies of the book -- not even on consignment. I resigned myself to my lot, realizing that was the bargain I made. All I wanted was a book in print and PA was a means to get there. I couldn't sell the book at $24.95, so I just concentrated on my next one.
Time passed. My first royalty check was for around $45. My second one was for about $5. I gave up any hope I had that the book would catch on.
Then something funny happened. I was speaking online with a new friend. I showed her the website I had made for the book. What she said stunned me. "Oh yeah, I've seen that site. My kid has that book. Why are you showing this to me?" From my royalties statement, I knew that there were perhaps five people that had bought the book without being specifically solicited by me to buy the book. I had just met one of them.
The things she told me really warmed my heart. She told me of how her kids ran around "playing Kaseraak". She told me that her daughter made a boy her age play Tybilt, the antagonist of the story. She told me that they were running around pretending their fingers were on fire, and other play scenes from my book. She told me that her nine year-old daughter was writing a paper on the book for a statewide competition, a competition which she had won the year before. She offered to help me do some marketing of the book.
I really felt good about the book then. That was my very hope in getting it published at all. Someone I didn't know would buy the book, and it would spark her imagination.
Then I received my latest royalty statement. I had sold one book in the last six months.
Something about the meeting of those two events clicked for me. I realized that I had sold myself short. I thought to myself that there should be hundreds of kids out there "playing Kaseraak". That's when I realized I had sold myself short. My story was too good for PublishAmerica. I could have, and should have, done better. Except now the story, and my name, is in PublishAmerica's hands, with all the baggage that entails.
That, more than anything else, is what I hope people can take away from my experience. If you find yourself just wanting to have something in book form, rethink that. You may want more later. Your book probably deserves more.
In the summer of 2007 I was writing a book called "The Dragon Kaseraak". It was a book I was writing for my kids, and a friend of mine created some illustrations for the book. It was a good little project. It kept me focused, and it gave me a hobby when I needed one. My kids loved the book.
Around September of that year I had finished the second draft of the book. I was searching around, and found services like Lulu.com or Cafepress that would take what I had written and put it into an actual physical book that my kids could hold and read. It was about that time that I ran into PublishAmerica.
I'm sure a lot of people were taken unaware by PublishAmerica's marketing techniques, but I don't think I was one of them. I knew that any book they printed wouldn't end up in bookstores. I knew that there wouldn't be any extensive editing of my book. I knew that they would try to sell me copies of my own book. I knew all of these things and signed with them anyway for a few reasons. One, I wanted to have an actual physical book in my hands. Two, they would print the book at no upfront cost to me. Three, the other options of publishing at the time seemed so impossible that I figured this was the only way I could get this into a book form.
So, off it went, until April of 2008 when the book was published. I was happy to see it on Amazon.com. The book itself looked good. In my exuberance about the book, I took advantage of their "introductory author" offer to order 50 copies of the book at 50% off. (I have since been e-mailed much better opportunities to purchase my own book. For instance, they've offered 3 for the price of 1.) I spent $80 printing up bookmarks to promote the book. I organized a talk at my kids school about the book. Enough kids and parents went to the local bookstore (which had agreed to sell the book on consignment) that they sold out of the four copies of mine that they would take. I was furiously writing the next book in the series, and the one after that.
That's when things started to go sour. PublishAmerica decided in its wisdom to increase the price of my book, from an already steep $19.95 to an exorbitant $24.95. Every bookstore other than the one a half mile away would not take copies of the book -- not even on consignment. I resigned myself to my lot, realizing that was the bargain I made. All I wanted was a book in print and PA was a means to get there. I couldn't sell the book at $24.95, so I just concentrated on my next one.
Time passed. My first royalty check was for around $45. My second one was for about $5. I gave up any hope I had that the book would catch on.
Then something funny happened. I was speaking online with a new friend. I showed her the website I had made for the book. What she said stunned me. "Oh yeah, I've seen that site. My kid has that book. Why are you showing this to me?" From my royalties statement, I knew that there were perhaps five people that had bought the book without being specifically solicited by me to buy the book. I had just met one of them.
The things she told me really warmed my heart. She told me of how her kids ran around "playing Kaseraak". She told me that her daughter made a boy her age play Tybilt, the antagonist of the story. She told me that they were running around pretending their fingers were on fire, and other play scenes from my book. She told me that her nine year-old daughter was writing a paper on the book for a statewide competition, a competition which she had won the year before. She offered to help me do some marketing of the book.
I really felt good about the book then. That was my very hope in getting it published at all. Someone I didn't know would buy the book, and it would spark her imagination.
Then I received my latest royalty statement. I had sold one book in the last six months.
Something about the meeting of those two events clicked for me. I realized that I had sold myself short. I thought to myself that there should be hundreds of kids out there "playing Kaseraak". That's when I realized I had sold myself short. My story was too good for PublishAmerica. I could have, and should have, done better. Except now the story, and my name, is in PublishAmerica's hands, with all the baggage that entails.
That, more than anything else, is what I hope people can take away from my experience. If you find yourself just wanting to have something in book form, rethink that. You may want more later. Your book probably deserves more.
Leslie