AuthorHouse / WordClay / Words of Belief / Author Solutions, Inc.

AuthorHouse

Does anyone know anything concrete or had any experience with AuthorHouse? They are a vanity press, I believe. Last month they were OK on PnE. This month they are "Not Recommended". What happened?

AuthorHouse is in fact a vanity press, no matter how it tries to evade that categorization by distinguishing itself from old-line vanity presses.
(1) As the books come off the press, the legal title is in AuthorHouse, not the author; therefore, it's not self-publishing.
(2) As the first book comes off the press, capital flow is away from the author; therefore, it's vanity, and not commercial, publishing.

Without commenting on their validity, I have seen many complaints regarding timeliness of publication, printing errors, and inaccurate/late sales data from AuthorHouse over the last few years. I have also seen many complaints concerning what is technically called "fraudulent inducement"—an unfortunate term in contract law that really isn't all that close to what most people understand as "fraud."

To me, this is sort of like recommending which limb to lose if one has to choose, but if one wants something from the "mid-line" vanity presses, one can do a heckuva lot better than AuthorHouse without digging very deeply, and a heckuva lot better than a heckuva lot better with a moderate amount of research. Of course, some of this may be colored by privileged information provided to me; but I think P&E is too generous in its overall assessment of AuthorHouse's suitability for authors.

Authorhouse

Okay then, thanks. I was almost once again thrown under the bus. This forum is a God send. Please, some of you more expeienced writers, Recommendations--I need recommendations. I have put off the Self-publishing aspect simply due to the stigma. However, should I choose to go that route, where should I go and why?


Thanks so much!

edfrzr said:

Okay then, thanks. I was almost once again thrown under the bus. This forum is a God send. Please, some of you more expeienced writers, Recommendations--I need recommendations. I have put off the Self-publishing aspect simply due to the stigma. However, should I choose to go that route, where should I go and why?


Thanks so much!

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Head over to Yahoo! and check out the SelfPublishing group. There is a lot of great information and there are many people there who have gone the self publishing route who will give you some pointers in the right direction.

But why choose self publishing?

Edfrzr,

I can't help but wonder why you want to self-publish at all. Since you say you have narrowly avoided Authorhouse (good for you!) why not go the traditional route? It would help to know your subject matter, so we could advise you one way or another. If your subject is nonfiction with a very narrow audience, self-publishing may be the way to go. If it's fiction, get Writers Market 2005 from your library and start reading. WM will tell you all the basics of the industry you need to know to get started. Contrary to some popular belief, commercial publishers will publish unpublished authors. You just have to look for the right one that matches your subject matter, and who is open to unsolicited manuscripts. Unless you have an agent, which you can also consider.

I advise reading everything that pertains to your situation on Preditors and Editors. Dave has many great articles on writing and publishing on that site. If you find a publisher or agent you wish to contact, cross reference the lists on the P&E site first. Any questions, come back to the AW forums and post whatever's on your mind. Also, start reading the Publish America thread for information on what to avoid with POD companies.

Just my two cents.

underthecity

One other thing about AuthorPress - they charge an absolute shitload of money. I saw one of their price sheets a while ago (a friend of mine had wound up on their lists and sent me a copy to take a look over. I returned it as confetti).

look around

There are red flags going up everywhere on this...

~~Tammy

The skinny

Once again, I can't thank all of you enough. But to answer a previous question (trying not to be redundant). One MS is an identity theft thriller set with the real estate finance industry as the background. The other is about a high school athletic hazing gone terribly wrong and the retribution that follows years later.

With what limited knowledge and experience I have, I would classify both as "commercial fiction".

Both have already been copywritten, so if anyone knows of anyone else who is willing to read and render an honest opinion, I would be grateful. Or if there are services out there that I am unaware of, please enlighten me.

I have already gotten the WM 2005 edition and have sent out about 40 query letters. I realize that isn't much but I thought I had targeted some of the proper agencies.

Also, is anyone aware of the procedures involved in submitting to independent publishers or should I just start smiling and dialing?

Thanks guys--keep the helpful info coming.

You're already going about this all wrong. First off, it's copyright, not copywrite.

Second, if you registered the copyright, then you already baited the water for every scam shark to come after you. They cruise the copyright registry for newbies to scam.

Third, if you registered the copyright, you've slapped agents and publishers across the face because you're stating that you don't trust them. This is even more insulting since copyright status is automatically given to most writings upon creation. Real agents and publishers aren't going to steal your work. Scammers generally won't, either, because they don't know how to sell that work. Instead, the scammers are after your money and will promise you everything but deliver little or nothing.

Fourth, you do not want to go with self-publishing for commercial fiction because that is one of the worst venues for that. Self-publishing is more suited to other types of writing.

There's lots to learn about the business side of writing edfrzr and sometimes the lessons can sting. But stick to it. CaoPaux referred you to a good site and there's lots of info tucked into the nooks and crannies of our Cooler. Hang in there.

edfrzr said:

Both have already been copywritten, so if anyone knows of anyone else who is willing to read and render an honest opinion, I would be grateful. Or if there are services out there that I am unaware of, please enlighten me.

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Do you mean that books have been copyedited? That's when someone goes through and edits for spelling and grammar, inconsistencies, etc.

Are you using the 2005 Writers Market or a guide to agents? The two are not the same.

Finally, I'm not sure what you mean by "independent publishers." What I think you mean are publishers who accept unsolicited (often meaning unagented) manuscripts. You should be able to find out which publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts and their guidelines in the Writers Market (although the information can often be out-of-date) or at various online resources. You don't call up publishers for submissions, unless you want to find out to which editor you should address your submission.

The right steps

Thanks for the correction Dave. My skin is thick. There was never any intent to embarrass, insult or mistrust anyone in the publishing business on my end. Being new, I "assumed" that is what one had to do. Yes, I already know about "assume". I never at any time thought that anyone--agents, publishers, editors or otherwise were in the business of ripping off writers.

Aka eraser is right, these life lessons do sting--like a 6 hr sunburn on an albino. But, I guess that's how you learn to apply the sunscreen.

CaoPaux, thanks for the website, I'll definitely spend some time there.

Dave, you seem to be fairly knowledgeable (as are the others). If there is never a favorable response from an agent or publisher, and one wants to get into print, do you have any other suggestions?

Remember, I'm new. Don't assume that I know anything.

Thanks, all.

If you just want to see it in print, and nobody's interested, I'd suggest www.lulu.com. They're a POD company, but they don't make any attempt to claim they're anything else, there are no fees to pay at all (at least, nothing mandatory - there are a couple of optional ones), and you retain total ownership of your work. The books are fairly pricey, and you're probably not going to sell many at all - but they're okay quality, and you're not going to get reamed if you take that route.

That said, POD fiction is the absolute last resort. If you look at most of the catalogues, from PA to Lulu, you'll see that most of the people idly ambling past are there for the publishing service, not something new to read. You'll have to do a whole ton of marketing to sell more than a handful of copies. And before even thinking about it, make sure that no publishers/agents are interested first - don't throw away a good manuscript after just a couple of rejection notes ;-)

Hi folks,

I have one book with AuthorHouse (my other two are with established traditional publishers). Unlike my professional projects, my book with AuthorHouse was a personal project for which I knew the potential audience was no larger than 1000 people. So basically I needed some sort of vanity outfit that could publish the book and look after distribution for me.

I chose AuthorHouse back when they were 1stBooks because some of my friends with similar private/personal writing projects had gone with them. Their experience had been okay, so I thought I would go with them as well.

Basically, they resorted to all the usual hype that vanity publishers use, they tried to sell me a bunch of extra services, cut me deals on buying copies of my work, etc... More than once I had to tell them to cut the sales pitch, publish the book, and fill orders. And no, this is not gonna be a best-seller so quit pretending it might be.

Additionally, I harbor no illusions about the marketting or about this book helping my career as a writer. The only reason my AuthorHouse book and those of my friends succeeded financially is because each of us already had an established readership to whom we could market this book.

In retrospect, I would not say this was a negative experience, but I wouldn't call it a positive experience either. It was a neutral experience that simply made a book of extremely limited interest available to those with a credit card and an email address or telephone number. Actually, upon further thought I take that back; there were some negative experiences in that AuthorHouse attempted to hit me with some added costs that were not explicitly listed in the contract. Things such as footnotes, heading layouts, etc.

Regardless, if I had to do the same thing over again, I would probably go with LuLu. I think LuLu could have better fit my needs, would have been less expensive in so doing, and is more upfront in my opinion about who they are and what they do.

Basically, there are so many legitimate publishers that you shouldn't run out of choices too easily or too soon.

Also, is anyone aware of the procedures involved in submitting to independent publishers or should I just start smiling and dialing?

Hi there,
Just an FYI from an editor at a nonfiction house: please don't EVER call a publishing house, independent or not, with a book pitch, regardless of how great it is. Calling and pitching over the phone shows only that the author isn't respecting the guidelines a publisher has set for manuscript submissions, it marks the writer as a complete novice, and it shows that the caller either doesn't know enough about the publisher to submit correctly, or doesn't care enough to do it properly, both of which are red flags to editors. Who wants to work with someone who can't be bothered to learn what the publisher wants and how it should be submitted? It also won't make anyone more likely to read your manuscript and could make the person you're trying to pitch so irritated that he or she won't read your book at all.

Good luck to you--just wanted to give you a heads up to avoid a mistake.

Thanks Nomad

Thanks Nomad for the heads up on the "smiling and dialing" question. I was using it just as a figure of speech, but I get what you are saying.

I do however have one more question for all of you and I really feel that I know the answer even before I ask, but here goes. I am what I would consider "computer illiterate" (but, I am learning). Having said that, if I have submitted anything single spaced--when double was requested, (but, only out of ignorance of no knowing the difference between the two)--would that be an automatic flag for rejection without any consideration or would they continue to read and evaluate.

Also, would any of you recommend the "book doctor's" that I am reading about?

edfrzr said:

I do however have one more question for all of you and I really feel that I know the answer even before I ask, but here goes. I am what I would consider "computer illiterate" (but, I am learning). Having said that, if I have submitted anything single spaced--when double was requested, (but, only out of ignorance of no knowing the difference between the two)--would that be an automatic flag for rejection without any consideration or would they continue to read and evaluate.

Also, would any of you recommend the "book doctor's" that I am reading about?

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Hi! You've come to a good place to get an education. Keep asking questions!

Single-space is hard on editors' over-worked eyeballs. I'd say they'd keep reading if your submission is so outstanding they can't help themselves. (And that's exactly the kind of submission you want to have!)


As for a book doctor - buy yourself the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. Read it, study it, then take a red pen to your own ms. Really, you don't want to pay someone else to do it. You need to learn to do it yourself. (Not to mention the fact that book doctors can be very expensive. I suppose that's why they use the term doctor. <G> Also, many of them may not be qualified to do what they say they do.)

Good luck!

Susan G.

edfrzr said:

Having said that, if I have submitted anything single spaced--when double was requested, (but, only out of ignorance of no knowing the difference between the two)--would that be an automatic flag for rejection without any consideration or would they continue to read and evaluate?

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Rejection, especially for an unknown writer. The publisher might receive thousands of submissions a year. They pile up against walls, on tables, in the basement. First readers (or junior editors at smaller houses) go through them on an 'as time permits' basis. Reading the slush is considered secondary to their day to day duties, so they may only have 1 hour to reduce the pile after staying until 11pm on a Friday night. They are faced with hundreds of manuscripts (at a minimum) while their schedule may only permit 200 novels to be published that year (Tor for example, http://www.tor.com/schedule.html). You'll notice how many reprints and famous authors are on that schedule. Maybe 20 (if that) of these books are from new writers, and they came from that slush pile of thousands.

The first dicate of the reader is not to find a great book, but to reduce the pile. It bears repeating: The first rule is reduce the pile. They are looking for a good reason to toss your manuscript into the rejection box. And a HUGE reason is single spaced mss. They are harder to read, true, but the biggest problem is that there is no room for notations by the editor. If they cannot edit, they won't bother reading one sentence into your masterpiece.

To be fair, I'm sure there might be exceptions to this, but I don't believe there would be too many. Ignoring the submission guidelines is not the best foot to put forward.

Now if I could get some more acceptances, this advice might be worth more than what you paid for it... :horse: