Thank you James for the links!
I'm a brand new member and obviously will need to search through the messages more thoroughly.
You would be well advised to read our Newbies Guide, which will guide you round AW and give you some very useful information about how it works.
At this point however here is my dilemma: if two of the higher rated self publishing services look like scams, how am I supposed to publish a first book when agents show no interest
The term "self publishing service" is a bit contradictory: if someone else is self-publishing your book for you, then you're not self-publishing it. There's a very good argument to say that these services are vanity presses, and have nothing to do with self publishing. If I were you I'd do a lot more research into the various publishing methods before you do anything else.
I would need good copy editing and marketing. Dog Ear and Friesen Press both offer such services.
I review self-published books and in my experience, the editing services supplied by self-publishing services are not worth using. They might correct grammar and punctuation, but they don't provide proper editing; and they don't provide good copy editing either, as I've noticed numerous contradictions, errors and inconsistencies in the books which have supposedly benefited from these services.
Do you, or others have suggestion to this ever resurfacing "Catch-22" of would be first writers?
Easy. Write a new and better book. And keep doing that.
