Ok, let me make this clear before we go on: I am an idiot too. I have coined the phrase “first author syndrome” and the meaning is when an author first gets done their book and it is their first time publishing, they are so stupid it drives me up a wall. You may wonder how I am able to give advice and why I am such a hardass about this topic. Because I went through it and I never want to see another author have the same hardship I did.
Red flag number 1: You have to pay them $1,000 (or something around that) for the publisher to publish your book.

What you don’t know and they count on you not realizing and that you pay THEM, but you have to do all the marketing for the book yourself, unless you want to pay them more money. However, if you are a real author you have research this difficult industry you want to be a part of. You already know that just about every kind of marketing idea they want you to pay for is something you can do A) yourself B) find someone for much cheaper.
Red flag number 2: It states in the contract that you don’t set the price.

I’m sorry but I thought I was paying you do publish my book, not screw me by pricing it so high no one will buy it. This is a BIGGIE that most people don’t realize or pay attention to. Now the difference however is if you are putting your book with an anthology or through an actual publishing house. Real publishing houses give advances, but a dollar is not an advance considering how laughable an advance that is. The reason they give you the dollar is so they can say they are vanity or self-publishing house. It’s a horrible, horrible scheme. Don’t fall for it!
Red flag number 3: They get paid for all your hard work.

Do you really want to do all of this marketing, which is a PITA (pain in the arse) most of the time and sometimes costs you money for them to get 50% or more of your book profit? I better hear a HELLLLLLLZ NO!

Remember, these red flags (except for number 1) are normal for contracts with people like Random House, but if your paying them to publish your book you should keep all the copyrights to your book and not have to pay them any profit. Companies like Strategic are known for these schemes. I’m sorry but if you truly want to self publish a book why aren’t you learning how to do so? Like having any job you have to learn how the company works. It is the same thing for publishing a book. Find out all the hardships of this business and THEN decide if you still want in. If you do great, just don’t fall for the self-publishing “houses” that take your money then your profits and you stand there looking like what? An idiot.

Trust me when I say you don’t want their “name” on your book. It is only going to hurt you because readers and bloggers keep up with the scams and when they see a book published by a certain company known for taking on any book with any and all editing mistakes it makes the reader second guess taking your book and adding it to their shopping cart.

Also, if you are ever unsure keep this in mind: YOU CAN EMAIL ME! I write these blog posts for those that want to learn and I’m huge on helping whoever I can with whatever problem they have. I will look over a contract for you and let you know if it’s good or not. But do you know the easiest way to find out if a company is good or not? Type them into google and see all the bad reviews and lawsuits against them. It’s really THAT simple. I wish I had someone like me helping me when I first started but I didn’t and I went through first author syndrome. Everything’s great now, but I don’t want to see this happen to YOU.

<3’s and fangs, Liz ^_^ [email protected]