An Evaluation of Publishers, a Post by R. Clint Peters

I recently received the tenth e-mail of the day from the publisher responsible for two of my novels.  The latest e-mail was an announcement, that, for the measly sum of $89.00, they would allow me to revise one of my novels, with no restriction on the amount to be revised.

That’s nice.  In two years, not one copy of either novel has been sold, and now they want me to spend more money to have more of my books not sell.

I must admit, I made a very bad choice when I signed with this particular publisher.

First, I should have checked with the Better Business Bureau.  I would have discovered the publisher has over three hundred unresolved complaints, and has actually withdrawn from the BBB.

Second, the publisher is a vanity publisher, which translates to they will do nothing unless paid in full before they do something.  Granted, they created the covers and formatted the books to the standard paperback size, but that was it.  And they placed a disclaimer in the novel that said the novel was being printed exactly how the author wrote it.

If a book sells, I get the kingly sum of 8% for the first 1000 books, 15% for the next 1500 books, and finally 25% for all the books after that.  Wow, I will move up three or four tax brackets in no time.

Now that I have learned my lesson about vanity publishers, that they will do nothing without sending me a bill, I have found a publisher that does things a little different.  In addition to creating the cover, my new publisher has a professional editor tell me where I went wrong.   In addition, they aren’t taking nearly as much of the sale.

My biggest question about the vanity publisher is this — are they really interested in the sale of my novel, or just interested in the sale of some service to me?  If I give them $49, they will display my novel in some book conference.

However, let’s assume the book sells for $10.00.  The company gets $9.20 (I get $.80).  The publisher needs to sell only 5.3 books to make up the $49 to display my book at the book faire.

Why doesn’t the publisher sell 1000 books and collect $9200?  They’d make a profit of $9151, and the author (me) would get the princely sum of $800.

My first impression is that the previous idea is just too smart for the publisher.  They would rather offer me fifty opportunities to pay $49, for a total of $2450 than collect $9200 for the sale of some books.  And, by the way, I have succumbed to the offers only once in two years.  I actually spent money to buy back the rights for one of my novels (The Pendergast Prerogatives).

The best suggestion I have for new authors is to research your potential publisher.  Use the BBB to discover how responsive your publisher is to complaints.  Use the Internet to see how your potential publisher stacks up against other publishers.  I have discovered several websites that provide information about publishers.  Use the contact information available for many authors to e-mail the author about their publisher.  I am confident the author will relate their experiences.

If anyone asks me, I will be happy to tell him or her that I am happy with one publisher but unhappy with another.

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