Newbie Author's Guide

Helping new and aspiring authors navigate the publishing wilderness

Looking for an Out

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Continued from “My Horrible Xlibris Xperience”

This part of the story takes up at my last and final heated phone call with Miguel, the Marketing Consultant from hell at Xlibris, and my continuing research at Mill City Press and other publishers. I will talk about how I found Mark Levine’s The Fine Print of Self Publishing and the 30 min call that helped me figure out how to turn things around.

Investigating Mill City Press 

At this point and time I was through with Xlibris. I was ready to try out a new publisher, but my publishing finances were scarcely low at this time due to Xlibris’ pillaging and no books sold. My books had only been out a couple months and I was already ready to leave them and go elsewhere. It didn’t take me very long to learn I had been stuck with a lemon—a green one at that. I didn’t cancel out yet because someone may want a copy of the book and I didn’t know how long it would be before I could republish. I almost felt stuck, and I would have to wait a year before I could start again. I decide to look at the Mill City Press website a bit closer and start planning my next move. I was happy with my free phone consultation with Rosey Cashman the Marketing Coordinator at Mill City Press and what I had seen on the website so far.

I flipped through the site and found a comparison of printing costs and royalties with several companies against Mill City Press—Xlibris included. It reminded me of the Progressive insurance commercial with the remote control and screen with Progressive’s price compared with other top insurance companies. They also include the source of the information which you can go to and see for yourself. I remembered that an order for 25 books for Escape from Ancient Egypt cost me $300 which I thought was steep. I had to place an order because Xlibris cheated me out of my “free” books that came with the package. That also ticked me off—definitely after I saw this!

I can see that MCP’s printing costs were really low and their royalties were really high—the highest you can get: 100%. Their printing costs are wholesale and Xlibris marks up the printing costs at 150+%. It didn’t take me too long to figure out this was a total ripoff and I thought back to my expensive order for just a handful of books. Furthermore, my royalty percent at Xlbris is only 10-25% and that depends on where my book is sold. At MCP it’s 100% across the board. Now I found somewhere I can receive 100%? Wow! Coming here seemed like a no brainer (at least for me), but I needed to look closer to make sure they had everything else I needed.

I look around on this webpage some more to find more information. All of their information was on the site in plain view, and I didn’t have to go on a scavenger hunt for anything. They even put their contract on the homepage. For Xlibris I had to go to the Site Map to find it. As I am looking around, I find a link for more information on a book that compares publishers. This is where I find the bombshell.

I click on this link, and it gives me a demo of where publishers fall into a category: Outstanding, Pretty Good, Just OK, and Avoid. I find out where my publisher falls…in the “Avoid” category (it has changed a little in 2 years).  I want to know why, but for more information I had to buy the book The Fine Print of Self Publishing in its 3rd edition at the time. At first I got the ebook only, but my computer kept messing it up. I wanted a physical copy for easier reference to each publisher’s website when I find a new one I want to investigate. I find a great lump package to get the physical copy and other stuff. The packet had: the ebook, the physical book, and the free 30 min phone consultation with the author Mark Levine. I liked this option. I don’t know of too many authors who make themselves available to chat with people.“Well, I’ll talk to this guy and see what he has to say, and maybe I can learn something or get some advice,” I think to myself.  I’m already confused and at loss for words from what little I’ve seen so far.

I wondered why Mark Levine was featured on this company’s website. Was he their best selling author or something? I couldn’t wait to find out. I definitely couldn’t wait to find out why Xlibris was in the Avoid category. Could this explain why my publishing experience was so horrible at Xlibris?

I took a risk and bought the packet since it was a much smaller cost than a service or republishing. I took it as an investment into my publishing future. What did I have to loose? I was already at my wits end and I needed help—desperately—from anyone who would offer any help whatsoever. I already knew I had nobody else to talk to about my issues and offer any help or advice. Everyone I knew didn’t understand anything about what I was doing. So I wait impatiently for the book to arrive.

The Bombshell in The Fine Print of Self Publishing 

I received the book on a Friday. I opened up my mail package, but I find more than just a book. There was the publishing information for MCP and a personalized letter addressed to me from Mark with his signature with a business letterhead called Published.com (I still have this today). “What’s Published.com?” I wondered. I also thought it was a nice touch. The letter was a “thank you” note and instructions on how to get in touch with him to set up the chat. I wondered why MCP had enclosed the publishing booklet, but then I thought that was because he was their bestselling author. Well, I didn’t have to request one now since they had sent me one.

My husband and I are leaving for the weekend, so I take the book with me to read in the car or during downtime. I read the entire book in a day and a half. When I cracked the book open, I found out that he owns and founded MCP. I had to go back and reread that a few times. That made sense of why the MCP packet was there. He didn’t review his own company and “pimp it out” (Mark’s favorite phrase of all time) in his book when he could have easily done it; he doesn’t say this phrase in the book. He says, “I don’t review my own company because that would be unfair.” So it was up to me to review the company for myself and I choose whether or not they were for me. Comparing MCP to other companies was just made easier for me since all of the information was in my lap.

When I read the book, all the companies were already compared for me so I didn’t have to do it. This saved me a lot of time. He also translated all the legalese in all the featured contracts and broke down what every author should know before they self publish. I wished I had found this book so much sooner. I learned what I was doing right and what I wasn’t doing right. I had to read Xlibris’ section after reading the front matter. The front matter taught me my ‘bill of rights’ and the other great information that was great to know before I proceeded.

After reading the front matter and the Xlibris section, the fog of lies was finally lifted and everything came together. I learned that my situation was so much worse than I had ever dreamed. I learned that there are publishers who lie to authors to get them in a contract! He had proof in his book of where Xlibris tried to do it to him, but he had the industry knowledge to counteract the attack. Ordinary authors like me aren’t so lucky, and that was the point of the information. He recorded everything his book and showed me where they lied and why it was a lie. I thought about the incidences that I had caught them in lies in my own situation.

We then get into the steep printing markups, fat publisher royalties, inflated retail prices, and me overpaying for my author copies. He interpreted a clause I had misinterpreted that was going to make leaving them very difficult, but not impossible. This was the one clause in their barebones contract that was going to cause trouble. It was written ambiguously on purpose to trap people and to make fleeing authors’ lives a living hell.

Other than that this contract was not as bad as some others in the “Avoid” section, but that didn’t make me feel any better. I used Mark’s simple equation to calculate the print costs for both my books. What I find was appalling. Escape from Ancient Egypt had a much bigger markup than Neiko’s Five Land Adventure; it was over 100 pages shorter and it was listed at the same retail price. Neiko’s Five Land Adventure was already overpriced so Escape from Ancient Egypt was GROSSLY overpriced! I thought both books being the same price was a little weird in the beginning; I thought EEE would have been less. But, I thought I was working with experts. Boy, was I wrong!

I wondered how I would ever get out of this hell with my books, artwork, and sanity intact! I wondered how in the world I ended up here. This is what I tried to avoid in the first place. I tried to carefully research. I didn’t jump into anything. It’s really hard to research a lie when you don’t know where to look. I find out later that this happens to a lot of people, so I wasn’t the only one. This is mentioned in the book as well and this was the main reason why the book was written.

My Cry for Help to Mark Levine 

After reading the book cover to cover, I send the email to ask for my consultation and wait. He responds with some dates and times to choose from. I pick one and I send him my response along with my background, so I didn’t have to go through that. We only had thirty minutes and I didn’t have time to waste on intros. I thought it could help him better prepare in how he could help. I wait for the day to come.

I had my phone consultation with Mark a few weeks after reading his book. I wanted to use every second to hopefully find some solutions to my problems so I could construct an escape plan. I wasn’t sure of what was going on at Xlibris anymore. I second-guessed and was confused about everything. Nothing made sense any more. Everything Xlibris said was a lie as far as I was concerned. I was also dreadfully nervous and I hoped that he wouldn’t think I was a total dope because sometimes I can feel so awkward when talking to a new person and because I was so confused.

After the first few minutes of the call, I was on the verge of tears. After talking to him ten minutes, my situation was so much worse than ever before (when I didn’t think it could get any worse) than when I began the conversation. He asked me simple questions, and I no longer able to answer them because I didn’t know anymore. All I could tell him was, “They say this, but I don’t know if that’s true anymore.” I admitted to him that I was completely dazed and confused, and they have lied to me so much I don’t know what the truth is and what isn’t. I couldn’t tell him who owned the website because I really didn’t know. He said, “That’s the way it is with these people,” as he punched in the keys to check the site whois. I didn’t know much about tech stuff like that. I tell him, “They say I do, but how do I know they aren’t lying to me because they have lied about everything else so far,” I say. “I hope he doesn’t think I’m a total idiot,” I think helplessly since that was how I felt about myself at the moment.

I knew editing was important from reading his book, but I always knew that. He reiterated this during the call. He asked me if the books were edited. I say yes. He pulls up my website and looks at the excerpts. Then he told me that my book was probably an editorial nightmare by looking at the excerpt. There were five mistakes on the first page! My editing wasn’t even done right, and it was not a quality edit. I had to have a real professional tell me that because I didn’t notice. Bam! Another lie busted. All the exposure stuff I wanted to do would get me the wrong attention with my books the way they are, and their bloggers would judge it very harshly if I submitted them to them the way they were. Everything would have negative consequences. I was defeated before I had even begun! I’m glad he was candid and told me what I needed to know before I really screwed up.

Everything so far was a waste, and I had to start over—from scratch. My cover and illustrations were fine, but everything else was crap. I was even more furious at Xlibris. I am very sad at the same time since my dreams were in jeopardy. He let me recognize that anything I do doesn’t benefit me at this present time; it only benefits them until I cancel. I can’t do anything to salvage the situation in my favor until I get out. I had to recognize that for myself, and I tried out different plans to save face and money, but I was only able to cut my losses and get what I could. Any little thing helps.

Mark told me to cancel all the services I can and get what I can. I can still fix this and turn it around, but I needed to listen to him and act. He told me what to do step by step. He had already established his credibility as far as I was concerned. This is when I found out that little clause I misinterpreted came back to bite me in the butt; I couldn’t have my books’ print ready pdfs which would have saved me a lot of time and money. I had to redo the editing anyway, and I don’t think you can edit a pdf. I don’t think it would have mattered too much at this point. The formatting was atrocious. He didn’t actually see the formatting, but he could guess if everything he sees sucks, it must suck too. I asked him what editing level I needed so I know exactly where to start when I signed on at Mill City Press.

He told me to cancel the email campaign service as soon as I hung up with him. I can get better services and get more services for that $2500 amount. I have more services to cancel besides that one. I calculate how much I would be getting back and what the dollar amount would be for publishing and editing at Mill City.  I can republish Neiko’s Five Land Adventure at Mill City with some money to spare with the included edit. I couldn’t get everything I wanted, but I had enough to republish and start getting out! Escape from Ancient Egypt, on the other hand, had to wait.

The problem wasn’t resolved in one call; I had to email him a few times after that, and he wanted me to keep him informed on each step.

After our talk is when I cancelled all the services. It took me a couple days to do because I had to play phone chase, and I was being passed around like in the latest Discover commercial where Peggy and his coworkers pass the phone around and say “Transfer!” and nothing gets resolved. I was ready to grapple; I was determined. It takes me a while to get my money back. I cancelled the author video, a bookstore return service for Escape from Ancient Egypt, and what I had paid on that dumb Email Campaign and stopped it just in the nick of time. If I had waited until the next day, I would have been too late. I was glad I listened to Mark and did it when I did. I tried to get my publishing fees back just for spite, but I didn’t win that round. That left a scar.

I try one last menial service for $199 with a new consultant with some of the money I got for Book Expo America showcase for their last chance. They flunked out; no books were sold. Game over. I go to Mill City without any hesitation. I wasn’t looking back at Xlibris ever again.

After getting my money back I asked for my CD archives for both books that had my high resolution illustrations. I didn’t have to pay extra; they came with the packages. Xlibris reps started asking if everything was all right and I say yes, and I quietly step out even though I could have made a scene. If I would have said no, they would know something was up or try to talk me out of it. They wouldn’t have succeeded if they had tried.

After this point is when my publishing experience with Mill City Press begins. I also keep in touch with Mark about what was new with the book because I thought he might like to know, and he also asked me to.

This is now where my publishing experience with Mill City Press begins. Now to “My Mill City Experience”.

My Horrible Xlibris Xperience

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xlibris sucks

Intro to Xlibris and Backstory

Xlibris and other unethical/author unfriendly companies do an outstanding job of luring people in with their publishing deals and their seemingly friendly approaches to even the wariest author; I speak for myself. They can be very convincing when you ask questions. They rank high on search engines when you plug in “self publishing” so they come up above some of the more reputable companies and they camp out in author portals so they are very easy to find for the obvious reasons. In their websites and publishing brochures they act like they are your friends and understand the challenges of being an author and the publishing industry. Once you go in so far in there is no going back. There is a point of no return, and that is after you sign off on your physical proof. I can tell you this because I have been here. They make sure you get there with a seemingly smooth publishing experience with as few bumps as possible. I had problems here as well, but it pales in comparison to what I will write about. The marketing phase is where everything comes apart, and they show their true colors, and the good experience nosedives into a nightmare full of misery. There are thousands of other stories like this out there, but differing from person to person. This is the purpose of this article: to tell my story.

The Worst Marketing Consultant Ever 

Here enter the Marketing Consultant from hell, Miguel Guzman. I hear from him after my marketing services from my package are ready to launch and after my book is ready to be released. My mother gets a message from him for me to call him because I am at work and I left my home number for the publisher to call. She gives him my cell number, and we chat as I am travelling in rush hour traffic because I had a long hard day in the lab that day.  I still took most of my calls at their house and not giving out my cell number. Our first chat was pretty pleasant, and I told him I need advice on marketing because I didn’t know anything, and I was a bad salesman. I also said I have a tight budget to work with so I need services to fit it. “I’ll be glad to help,” he said, and little did I know I just opened myself up for punishment. I thought he would be honest and helpful and follow my budget wishes; I felt that people who are in the publishing industry are professionals. I could not have been more wrong.

The next day he calls me and has all this “awesome” information after scoping out my book’s electronic proof. He was talking about it being Hollywood movie material, and I should do a Hollywood movie trailer, author video on location, and on and on while I was having a very busy day at work, and I was trying to pay attention to what I was doing more than what he was talking about. I needed more time to process it properly. I was doubtful because I am freshly published, unknown, and my book wasn’t even out yet. Wouldn’t a book need to be widely accepted and raved by the public to be a movie? Every book to movie example I could think of was the case, and I didn’t think it was so easy. I did have thoughts of my books being a movie run across my mind as teen and young adult–a daydream. That’s a child’s dream and extremely unlikely to happen. I need to be realistic; I need readers first! Time for a reality check!

He was insinuating he could help me get it into a movie if I followed his advice and my original thoughts of how movies were made were not so. I didn’t tell him about my kid fantasies of seeing my characters on the silver screen. I was wary; there ain’t no way it’s as easy as 1-2-3. I told him I was at work and could we talk later since I was really busy. I was excited, but I couldn’t do this right now—let people read my book first, and let them tell me what they think. He wouldn’t let me off the phone.

I asked about the prices for some of this stuff. When I started hearing these prices of these services: $20K…$5K…I start saying whoa, whoa, whoa! My meager budget can’t support this!  Can we do something else first? I bought the executive package so I didn’t have to have any marketing services for a while, and I mean for the first 6 months or year. Show me that we can sell books. If we sell books, then the royalty money can pay for this. Until then, I can’t do it.

He also talked about me as an artist as well as being an amazing writer on this same conversation, and still keeping me on the phone. I said I had another book on board too. After hearing how young I was, he was comparing me to the person who wrote The Informant!, Eragon (Christopher Paolini), and even J.K. Rowling—no way! You can’t compare me to Rowling because I have no wizards or wizarding world, and my book is a lot different than either Eragon or The Informant!.  I felt like he was hooking up a bellows to my ego and trying to pump it up, it worked—sort of. I began to think regular people must also think those thoughts—the books must be reader tested, reader approved—not Miguel approved. One person’s thoughts aren’t going to cut it!

I had to back up a minute and make sure I examined myself before I did something dumb. He seemed to be lying on the sweet-talk very thick, and I was waiting for a side swipe, but it didn’t happen just yet. I knew it was going to happen eventually, and I was ready for it—call it intuition. Was he showering me with praise to inflate my ego so he could slip something in? I asked, “How I can be sure that you don’t say that to every author you talk to?” He had something slick to say, but I can’t remember what it was, but I still was a little wary. I also think that when he found out young I was that I was supposed to be stupid. So he automatically thinks young + college grad =stupid. I may be young and inexperienced, but I am not stupid! I am here to learn and gain my experience.

On a later and different conversation he started getting flirtatious when he saw my author photo. He looked it up so he could see what I looked like and talked about some of my other interesting background. I was quick to say I’m married—but wait for it—he side swipes me about this “targeted” email marketing campaign for $10K to build me up so I can buy the big stuff, and this is his big crescendo to get me to Hollywood. I said I can’t afford it; it was multiple times outside the budget. He also made a comment that I should be getting ready to spend lots of money to have a successful campaign. But, what if I can’t? Am I going to fail? The dummy email did look cool and everything, but I didn’t think it was worth the price. $10K to create and send out emails? I asked him, “What’s the difference between this and the other campaign I got?”

He gets all cocky and miffed about my question. By the tone of his voice it told me, “You moron! It’s so simple. LOOK at it, stupid!” He actually says, “You wanna know the difference?! I’ll SHOW you the difference.” When he spoke to me with that tone I was taken aback, and I did the angry cat’s meow in my head. He attempts to ‘show me’, but there wasn’t that much of a difference to justify the purchase for that much money, which I couldn’t do anyway and didn’t want to if I could. I wasn’t very convinced. He acted this way other times I had asked a simple question—just plain rude. You’re the professional here (or supposed to be). I am asking the questions because I don’t know, and aren’t you supposed to answer them with PROFESSIONAL and educated answers? I want intelligent answers not to be treated like an idiot who has no capacity to think for herself. Other times he flat out lied about stuff and treated me like I should have graduated from the special ed class and not be a biology honor graduate. Sometimes I visualized a mean and cranky Bill Engvall (Bill is not this way in his comedy act) saying “Here’s your sign!” and throwing it at me for a response to a seemingly intelligent and thought out question.

The Harrassment Begins… 

He calls me again one night when we had guests over at my parents’. This was on a Friday night.  Miguel called me so many times that night during their visit and interrupting the evening. I told him don’t call; I have company. I thought he would have respected my privacy and would have called back later. Any normal human being would have done so and so would any normal business professional. Then he called back five minutes later after I had specifically told him not to. He kept trying sound cordial and the “sorry to bother you” hype, but then call back after hanging up. This happened like three more times. I was thinking “Are you serious?” I felt like this was on the verge of harassment, and this is the beginning of the harassment I endured. I finally had to cut the phone off so I could enjoy my guests. After they leave, I check the phone later he leaves a voice mail. OMG!

He called me back the next day on Saturday morning because I had told him to. He comes up with this “great” deal where I could get 20M email campaign featuring both books, and I get the author video for “free” but it will still cost me $10K. I said I couldn’t afford it, but he kept pressuring me and acted like he didn’t hear a word I just said. After five minutes of repeatedly saying “I can’t afford it”, he says some other things that were off color and unprofessional that also made me feel VERY uncomfortable. That threw up a big red flag in my mind. I also felt like I was dealing with a bill collector who was trying to collect money on a bill I didn’t owe. The tactics were exactly the same! It was a combination of that with a bad used car salesman. Other heated verbal exchanges were made during this conversation, but not very important to mention.

After getting off the phone—FINALLY—I was thinking: the reason why I published my book was because I wanted to and because I had money set aside for this, and it was my time. I felt that this was MY marketing campaign and not his, so who was he to tell me what my budget is, what to spend, and what I should do? Whose name is on this book? Whose money are we spending here? He acted like he was running the show like he was my agent. It’s his way or no way, and the highway is not an option—with a machismo (narcissistic) attitude. I had a budget for marketing, and I was sticking to it—no if, ands, or buts. I thought all his only purpose was  to offer me advice and I take it or leave it, or to tell me about the services and answer questions and help me buy the service that I want and set it up. He shouldn’t be harassing me about something I don’t want and acting like a bill collector. Why is he trying to force me to buy something I don’t want?!

Other confrontations after this last one looked like this: after 10 to 15 firm no’s, he would hang up and call back five minutes later…and again…and again, and this went on for a while. It didn’t take me too long to learn his game, and I felt like I was being harassed nonstop. I start talking to people for advice because something doesn’t seem right, and I was becoming a very stressed out. I normally don’t stress out too much. Everyone had some raised eyebrows and warned me to be careful. They tell me something is not right from a business standpoint, and my dad was one of them because he has been in management. Good business practices don’t include harassing people, and it doesn’t take rocket science to figure that out.

The Phone Wars 

I was beginning to wonder if this is what book marketing and the publishing experience is like, and was this another reason why I was reluctant to publish aside from not getting in the gate at a traditional publisher? If so, then I need to toughen my skin or something before I go mad. I had no idea that publishers were pushy people, and I don’t like pushy people, so now am I supposed to deal with them and stuff like this to go on with my publishing career?

A few days after another powwow, he calls me again about this stupid combo with the campaign and video, but this time I was at work and very busy, but he wouldn’t let me off the phone no matter how hard I tried. I said I would get in trouble, which may happen, but I kind of stretched the truth a bit so he would leave me alone. I had to tell him to hold on because my supervisor had something to tell me. We are allowed to talk on the phone at work, but I didn’t want to abuse this privilege. Just to make him shut up and get off, I went along with his scheme, but I had a plan.

I had already planned to go back and cancel it or once he forwarded me to the collection department, I would say I just changed my mind and I get off…no—didn’t work. She wouldn’t let me off till I did a transaction. What is with these people? Why can’t I get off the phone with them when I want/need to? Don’t they know I have a life? I apologize to my supervisor and she was cool about it, and she had overheard me trying so hard to get off. I had never been hung on the phone before. I am usually able to get off the phone when I want to with normal people and people aren’t forcing me to stay on. I usually am never on the phone at the job even though it was allowed, so they knew I had legitimate reasons for being on the phone. I almost hung up on him so I could get off, but I thought that might be unprofessional.

I call Miguel back to cancel the service a couple hours later, and it seems like the services were cancelled because he said it they were, but I had a gut feeling they weren’t. I check back and it’s not cancelled. I am mad—I’m not mad—I’m ticked off! I couldn’t believe he lied to me straight up! After a few phone wars, the services are still not cancelled. It’s getting close for another payment. I try to go around him to cancel it, but I don’t succeed.  I write him an angry email to cancel the service right now and not to call me at work. He’s lucky I didn’t pepper it with cuss words because I wanted to so bad, and this is saying something because I normally don’t cuss people out. I do have after I blow up, and I was just about there. The services still don’t get cancelled!

A day later I call and try to nail him at work because he was dodging me, and I knew it. This lasted for almost a week. I also find out they have caller ID there, so he would see my number come up and not answer the phone. I leave voice mails without any response. I call and try to find out when he’s there or is coming in. I called him a lot and gave him a taste of his own medicine, but then he turned my email around on me saying that is why he didn’t call me back. That was a load of bull; he didn’t fool me. Somewhere around this time I dubbed him the “Email Nazi” because he was always trying to shove this email campaign down my throat with a crowbar. My parents had a sarcastic comment saying “It’s your buddy” when he would call which I didn’t find very funny at all.

When “Xlibris” showed up on my caller ID, I didn’t want to answer the phone if I didn’t have the strength to deal with him. He would leave a message, and I would have to deal with him sooner or later. After a phone war I would feel worn out, nervous, irritable, and seething, and it seemed like my nerves were exposed and raw. I usually had to find something to hit or kick—I made sure it wasn’t the dog, cat, or my sister. Sometimes I almost threw my cell phone across the room or crushed it in my hands with an angry growl because I was so angry after hanging up. If we didn’t live in a subdivision, I would have stepped out side and screamed at the top of my lungs.

There is one night he calls and tells me he finds out that I had been checking up on him and he scolds me for it. He’s also wondering why I want to cancel the services, insinuated that I was off my rocker for wanting to cancel them. He said everything comes back to him; so in other words, he indirectly told me he was the source of the problem why my services are not cancelled when I want them cancelled. He talked down to me like I was 4 and not 29! He indirectly insulted my intelligence and my age for the fifth time since we had met. I am a young author, but I am not stupid or two years old! I am an adult! “I can’t afford it! How many times do I have to tell you that!” I say nearly screaming and gnashing my teeth. He even told me that need to go to the shooting range to cool down after I said that last hot sentence.

Visualize a mushroom cloud going off behind me like that from Hiroshima at that very second. Can you believe that!? I was like—are you kidding me? Can you say things like that to a customer? If I did that at my job at Chick-fil-a or Publix I would have gotten fired! This and everything else he had done went against everything I had learned about customer service at any job anywhere. I am smoldering after that, and you could have fried eggs on me I was so hot and furious. I thought to myself, “Alright, that’s it—I wouldn’t have to go unload some lead or arrows on a target if you weren’t doing this to me!” He knew I liked shooting and archery from the small bit of small talk and from my author bio. You could imagine what I would have liked to do when I went to the range. I also wished I had a punching bag. I was so stressed out, and I was also sick from a stomach virus about this time. That was it; I’ve had enough. This means war. I was in war mode now.

I call the front office and ask for his supervisor’s name and contact info. I also file a complaint against him. It takes forever for me to get in touch with his supervisor. The supervisor still talks me into that stupid video, but I am able to get out of the original engagement…FINALLY. I also demand a new marketing consultant who wasn’t rude and overbearing. After this I didn’t hear from Miguel again so that was a big relief.

Doubts About My Publisher and Publishing Experience 

I do the video and it was okay, but I had second thoughts about it, and none of the other services were selling books either. All the books I sold were direct sales, but my other channels were still zip. I try to set up some stuff on my own, like book signings, but I got nowhere. I almost had a book signing one time, but when I said who my publisher was that’s when it fell through. I knew I had a problem. I also had trouble selling to family and friends. I was not the problem nor was the book; the publisher was the  problem. I had to either get out or find some outside help for marketing because this isn’t working.

At this time I do some distribution research to widen my channels. I run across Mill City Press who offers traditional channels to self published authors. I go by and check them out and while thumbing through their website, I discover they offer a free phone consultation for marketing help to outside authors. I fill out the questionnaire and set up a talk with Rosey Cashman the Marketing Coordinator for MCP at the time. She gave me some tips and told me about their website exposure and Amazon exposure programs. She even told me about the book trailer service that they were working on then. The prices of the services were much lower than what I was used to seeing at Xlibris by about 10x. After talking with her, I read more about their Expanded Program and while I look for it I find a valuable piece of treasure and a bombshell that I will talk about in the next post “Looking for an Out”.

Guess Who’s Back and More Doubts 

One day out of the blue, Miguel calls me. This was sometime during the time I was investigating marketing, Mill City Press, and other publishers at the time. It had been months since our last powwow. I am surprised to hear from him because I thought we were through. He acts surprised that I cancelled out all these services, and he acted like he knew nothing about it. He tried one more time to pitch that stupid 10M Email Campaign at me again and this time for $2500 with his old tricks and a ‘guarantee’ to boot.

This guarantee stated that I would get my money back, if I didn’t sell any books which I thought may be unlikely. The opt-in campaign was a failure, so why would this be any better? Everything in general was a failure at this point. He says my prior cancellation was a ‘blessing in disguise’. “Humph, yeah…whatever,” I say in my head. I tell him no and put my foot down firmly. He lets me off easy this time. I thought I would have a different marketing consultant at this time, so why is it him again? Did that supervisor not hear me? I almost hoped Miguel had gotten fired by treating people the way he did, but no dice.

He calls again a few days later and tries again, and he wouldn’t even give me room to think without the bill collector/used car sales tactics, haranguing, and begging. I put him off for 24 hours. He had the nerve to call back one time and pressure me some more. I am getting ticked off, and I’m about tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine if he keeps roughhousing me. I get off, and he calls again at about five minutes later on the dot, and my parents say it’s Xlibris. I say, “I’m not answering it…it’s just Miguel playing his old phone game again. If you answer it, then just say I’m busy, or I just left.” He has the nerve to leave a message with the exact same message as the last live talk like I am that absent minded. We talk the next day, and I cave in because it is much cheaper than $10K, and I was mentally exhausted with deductive reasoning, so I second guessed my reasoning. I ask a few questions before caving in, but he lies to me and gives me some more ‘here’s your sign’ treatment and ‘Duh!’ responses. I began having second thoughts and at this point I have had it and begin looking for a way out.

This right here is what broke the camel’s back and leaves this part of the story. The next story marks the turning point from here and the road to my new publisher Mill City Press. I will also share the bombshell I find in the MCP website.

Next post: “Looking For an Out”

Mistake #4: Beware of the Easiest to Find Publishers!

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The worst of the worst publishers are also the easiest to find…for the obvious reasons to rip people off. However, the best or really good ones are pretty easy to find as well so searching for a publisher can be like playing sharks and minnows by doing an Internet search. Even the DIY alternative has these perils when it comes quality of work and price since you are taking a chance and don’t know the person.

99.99% of newbie authors are not going to know the good guys from the bad guys at first glance without doing some background checks or talking to other people. It is almost like telling someone who has never been to the ocean or learned  about it at all and then asking them to identity the bottle-nosed dolphin from a bull shark. It is purely chance if they answer correctly.

Publishing experts all realize the power of the internet and the strength of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a topic for later and a valuable tool for authors. The concept is very simple, but it is very powerful. This is how they rank so high on Google and other search engines when someone puts in a keyword like: “self publishing companies”. SEO is just one way that publishers are easily found. You get both good and bad publishers when you do this since both sides of the publishing force understand this concept. They dump a ton of money into this and have experts working on this day in and day out to make sure they stay up there since the Internet changes all the time and not just every once in a while.

In some author communities and portals I see publishers camping out there–both good and bad. It’s obvious isn’t it? They are basically fishing for their potential clients. It works the same way as authors hanging out with the readers on Goodreads, but Goodreads has proper channels in how author promote themselves without spamming. It’s the same thing so to speak since I never received any spam  mail by the publishers who put ads there. It’s nice to see the good guys at an author portal, but I am appalled to see the bad ones right there with them! Heads or tails…your publishing future…is good…or bad!

Without a background check there is no way to tell who’s good and who’s not especially when everyone advertises they are the best. If anyone can learn anything from this opening series it is to abandon the ‘benefit of the doubt’ scenario since it doesn’t work in determining who is good for you or your book or any piece of it. Always do a background check or ask for samples if there aren’t available!

It would almost seem like that it would to be done best yourself, but like any other DIY project, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could flood the basement (or in an author’s sense ruin your reputation), but that is a topic for later.

Next week I will tell about my ex publisher that taught me the painful lessons that I was able to learn from. At least during that process I wasn’t really discovered and they didn’t help me sell any books which became a blessing in disguise.

Mistake #2: Relying Solely on Publisher Info for Research

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This sort of hinges on Mistake #1 in how publishers can lie to you. If everything in the material and website is a lie and you don’t know it, then you can get really screwed like I did. Sometimes you don’t know you are stuck with a lemon until you enter the ‘point of no return’, and then it’s either too late or really difficult to get out. This is what happens when you work with the worst of the worst. I will post the full story in it’s entirey at a later time and tell you the identity of the offending publisher as well.

Anyway, back to what I was saying. I am a science student and I know how to do research and comparisons, but that wasn’t the source of the problem. You can do good research with bad information so to speak. This is what happened. If you don’t know where the good information is or where to look for it, then you can get screwed. Then it becomes a game of Russian Roulette.

When I started out, I didn’t really know anything about self publishing. All I knew about was traditional publishing, and it wasn’t working. A friend of ours knew someone who had self published, but I never talked to this lady myself. Frankly, I didn’t know such a thing existed. I am from the backwoods, and publishing books is uncommon knowledge. There aren’t too  many authors in Georgia. They exist, but I didn’t know of any I could talk to. I ask that friend of ours to find some self publishers. I definitely was not savvy enough to go the DIY route either. Post The Fine Print, the publisher this lady worked with was a bad publisher too.

She was able to find four publishers. With these four publishers I begin to request information from them. Three seemed really friendly and helpful. One seemed really blunt and snippy in their reply to my query like it was a traditional publisher instead of a self publisher. They didn’t bother to send any other information or offer any other assistance.  So that one gets crossed off straightway since they didn’t really seem they were interested in doing business with me.

Another publisher looked very cost effective, but the problem I had with it was they didn’t offer any editing and only template covers. Illustrations were a lost cause too. I didn’t know where to find any editors. After further reading I find out that they are more DIY and it was above my technical know-how which could lead to a disaster. It was not CreateSpace, BTW. Crossed off this one. Back then I hadn’t even heard of CreateSpace.

Then it was between two. I study the information packets closely. I also talk to the reps to price compare. Publisher A was going to charge bookoos of extra money for what I wanted done in addition to the package. I trusted my gut here, and looking back through all my accumulated knowledge it was right, but I didn’t know it. Two mistakes here. One being the printed material, and two, talking with the reps. These can be good, but only if the publisher is reputable. When in doubt, check it out–elsewhere.

Publisher B was willing to give me everything I wanted/needed with a publishing package PLUS get a discount. For a savvy shopper that was music to my ears  (in hindsight this was overpriced even with the discount). If I had known where to look elsewhere for secondary research, this publisher has a bad rep, they rip people off, and they are the most egregious liars in all of the indie community. Also, when I looked through their brochure I felt like their marketing services were REALLY pricey. Gut instinct. That was too correct, but I figured I would wait on that stuff anyway and do other things first. That was until I met my loan shark marketing consultant.

I didn’t know any other indie authors. I didn’t know any other authors in general. I had to do everything on my own. I was one of the unlucky ones that everything turns to crap after the fact. I didn’t know authors helped each other. I thought the opposite. I felt like I was always going to be on my own and no one would offer a favor with or without reciprocation. That’s the way it was my whole life; peers don’t help you; they leave you to fend for yourself and stab you in the back in the process. Everything I ever done was on my own because family and friends never could comprehend or understand anything I ever did so they COULDN’T help. It turns out, that’s not the indie author way, but more on that later.

Most publisher information is good, but it doesn’t hurt to check out their reputation. They do tell you what they have to offer, but double checking this also tells you whether or not you’re getting a good deal. It CAN hurt if you DON’T.

Looking back at these four publishers post books and forums, two were extremely bad, and two were just okay, but they wouldn’t or couldn’t give me what I needed. I wished I had found the publisher I had found now in the beginning, but the worst offending publishers pour a lot of money making sure they are easy to find for the obvious reasons, but that’s a later topic.

Why This Blog?

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For anyone who knows me I also have a book blog. Yes, I am starting another blog since I have become a blogger in addition to being an author. I love to write, but this particular blog has a purpose as well as a compelling story behind it.

I begin my career as a writer when I was only 16 years old,and dabbled when I was still much younger. They just didn’t exist as a physical book…only as Word files that traveled from one computer to another along with portfolios of character sketches. Family, friends, and total strangers talked me into getting published when I was still very young. I knew nothing about publishing whatsoever. I didn’t  have anyone to ask either, and back then the Internet was dial-up and really expensive.  It wouldn’t connect to my parents’ dinosaur computer where I wrote my stories. At 21 and a writer’s conference later, I try to publish traditionally. It didn’t work. A lot of things run through my mind. My work wasn’t good enough just as I always thought from the beginning. I’m too young. Publishing way too hard just as I had imagined. I’m going to college, so I don’t have the time to query, send, and rewrite things. I’m going to have homework, class, and labs galore for my  chosen major. I put it away and will try again later.

To make this part of the story short I find out about and self publish after college. My first run was TERRIBLE in so many ways. I’ve told my story elsewhere that hasn’t posted it yet so I can’t really share it in grave detail here. I was 28, but I don’t count the first year too much as far as my journey for knowledge except what not to do and what to avoid. It is also a message to the 20 somethings that it can be done if you start in the right place. As for me and other young authors, we are often told we’re “too young” to publish. How untrue that is! You don’t have to be 40+ to publish! But, you still have to do it correctly or forever be righting the wrong. So, I had to dig myself out of a hole to get back on track, but at least no one found my book since I was now ashamed of it after I found out the truth. It was now a fight for survival. It counted for nothing as far as marketing prowess since it was a total bust. Even my finished product was a piece of crap.

During my fight for survival and search for answers, I run across The Fine Print of Self  Publishing (then in its 3rd edition) by Mark Levine and Mark Levine himself since he gives the readers who read everything a special treat: a FREE 30 min chat. He gave me some advice that I took to claw my way out of oblivion and on track but set back. I still knew hardly nothing of what I had gotten myself into, but now on the road, I begin to learn at an exponential rate. I am still learning today. I then had a desire to help other people find their way since I know what it feels like to be lost in the publishing wilderness. It feels like being lost in a physical wilderness. To me it seems like being lost in the Amazon or the Congo River Basin. I spend a lot of time in the woods and in nature, but even people like me can get lost in woods we’ve never been in and venture too far. I took what I know about the outdoors and applied it to a different wilderness. I found means to survive but I’m still not to civilization (discovered) yet. One thing I apply from the outdoors to publishing is I have to keep moving or I’ll never be found or I’ll die in this wilderness. I may have to do I don’t want to do and eat things that may be yucky but good for me, but if it means the difference from life and death, then I’ll do it.

During my travels I keep in touch with Mark since he welcomes authors he’s worked with to do so. I would tell him about this little tool I found here or this website I found there, etc. One day out of the blue he asked me to write something that has all of my insight, tips, and tools and let him see it. Self Promoting and Survival Tips for Newbie Authors was born. As a publishing industry professional and as an author, he instantly felt other people could learn from my insight and story  and benefit. At one point and time he was a newbie himself and made every possible mistake that a newbie could make and shared his insight and people benefited from him (like me). Any author out there was a newbie at one time. He wrote a very generous blog post about it. The ebook should be coming out this year and will appear on this blog on it’s own page. It may not be a big book, but it has a lot in it.

Also as a consequence of the little ebook and from working and talking with Mark, he also advised me to begin a blog to stay current since what I know and the industry changes so much. This is where this blog came from. It’s anyone’s guess where it will go from here.

Go through and look at the pages of tools and websites that I have discovered already, and it’s  only been a little over a year. I don’t consider myself an expert. I don’t work miracles either. I’m not even seasoned yet! I’m still a newbie, but some of my “newness” has worn off. I’m just here to help out the newbies and the ones who are aspiring to have someone to point them in the right direction. When I was a newbie, I wished I had that. I just had a crash course that gave me a concussion, but I kept on going anyway.