Customer Reviews

The Fine Print of Self Publishing: The Contracts & Services of 45 Self-Publishing Companies Analyzed Ranked & Exposed

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The self-publishing industry is growing in leaps and bounds. As a book reviewer I've noticed a sharp increase in self-published, print-on-demand titles coming into the market. With major publishing houses reducing the number of contracts being signed due to recent economic difficulties, the allure of finally getting that novel in print is driving many to sign contracts to pay to have their books published. With the increase in consumer demand, new self-publishing companies are popping up all the time.

In The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Mark Levine -- an experienced self-published author and owner/investor into various e-commerce businesses -- analyzes 45 self-publishing companies. In previous editions Levin reviewed publishing contracts, customer service and other factors to assign publishers with a numeric ranking. In the third edition he has moved to more generalized categories: Outstanding, Pretty Good, Just OK, and To Avoid. Sadly 21 of the 45 companies analyzed fall into the To Avoid category - self-publishing contracts are often author-unfriendly, revealing the clear need for this title.

After introducing readers to the benefits of choosing to print their book with a self-publishing company, Levine discloses that his companies have investments in a self-publishing firm. However, he does not compare or evaluate its services within the book, he just wants to be up-front with that fact, which is commendable. He then guides readers through the main components of having a book published, what needs to be provided, the details they should look for from a publisher, all of the major key points to be aware of. In the chapter revealing the nine traits of a good self-publishing company, Levine clearly defines his author-friendly publishing standards (ones that his affiliated press attempts to live by). Though a relatively short section of the book, this information is in and of itself highly valuable for those just dipping their toes into the publishing arena. In fact after reading this section, readers may be empowered to skip looking for a publisher all together and take on the task of forming their own publishing company.

Levine puts his law degree to work as he breaks down and explains the usual set-up, clauses, and details of a publishing contract, allowing lay people to move into this territory with an additional level of confidence. While you can't depend upon him for legal advice, his analysis of each publishing contract (provided further on in the details for each publisher) that he was able to obtain is priceless. Levine also explains the general principles of various techniques of calculating author royalties and provides a theoretical breakdown for each publisher as well. There are some editing issues present (somewhat disappointing for a notable reference title relating to self-publishing), most of which occur in the numerical notation for these royalty calculations.

Each publisher receives its own chapter which details: publisher website, format of books, genres accepted, publishing fees and packages, additional services offered, return of digital files, retail pricing, author pricing, royalties, notes on the publishing agreement, and the author friendly rating - Levine's personal analysis of the publisher. The Fine Print deals mainly with publishers offering paperback printing services. Hardbacks are mentioned (though rarely offered by publishers) and children's picture book packages are noted, though not explored thoroughly. If you've written a children's book you'll be able to benefit from the general advice and through observing Levine's author-friendly analysis skills in action, but you won't find many helpful leads on potential publishing houses here.

After reading through The Fine Print in detail, it's easy to see why Levine has angered major self-publishing houses in past editions of this work. He is out to protect authors, their rights, and their pocketbooks, making no bones about a bad deal when he sees one. A few samples are sure to whet your appetite for more of his brass-tacks approach to analysis.

If you buy this service and make your money back from it, I will let you watch me rip out each page of this book and eat it.
...
If this is true and (publisher's name removed) can prove it, I'll fly to the publisher's offices and eat my book in front of all its employees.
...
If what you read here isn't enough to convince you to stay away, then P.T. Barnum was right - there really is a sucker born every minute.

It's obvious that Levine is passionate about doing his best to ensure that authors receive a fair deal. However, it's not all bad news - eight publishers are listed in the outstanding category, and nine are listed as pretty good. Levine does give praise where it is due when exceptionally fair terms and services are provided for authors.

An overwhelming number of facts, figures and packages are listed within the dense, information-packed pages of The Fine Print. A debut author striking out on his or her own would spend hundreds of hours seeking out these publishing companies and gathering this amount of information. With such a plethora of options available it would have been difficult to prepare a Consumer Reports-style comparison chart, and as such none is provided. You'll want to pull up a spreadsheet and hammer some details in under the categories most relevant to your project.

Reading The Fine Print is akin to taking a favourite uncle who's mechanically inclined car shopping with you. Levine walks with you through the services and legalese presented by these companies. If you plan on publishing with a publisher that you pay for its services, you cannot afford to skip reading The Fine Print of Self-Publishing. This is a required title in your stacks of research materials. Shell out the $12.21 at Amazon; you could potentially save thousands of dollars and a vicious, life-long loss of rights to your work that some authors have suffered from at the hands of unethical publishers.

Nothing reinforced the accuracy and credibility of the findings in this book quite like what Mark wrote about iUniverse. Because everything he said mirrored to the letter and spirit the experience I had with this publishing company over the past five years. He is right! Where they were once outstanding, their services and customer care have become so sloppy that they really should be avoided.

This is a critical guide for anyone planning to self-publish! I could not recommend it more highly.

Following is the message I sent to Mark upon reading his book, "The FINE PRINT of Self-publishing."

"You and your staff have done a masterful job of amassing the data contained in FINE PRINT. I am impressed. Your book is not only unique, but you have provided an invaluable service to all aspiring self-publishers. I also greatly appreciate your dedication, imagination, focus, organized M.O., and fine writing style. Amazon does what you said it would do: it led me to you.

"This is the way I approached reading your book: carefully, i.e., I read everything through "Outstanding Publishing Companies" (Chap. 6). Then, I briefly perused "Some Pretty Good Self-publishing Companies" (Chap. 7). I did not consider reading "Publishers Who Are Just OK" (Chap. 8) or "Publishers to Avoid" (Chap. 9), as I aim for perfection in my endeavors. Finally, I read the Conclusion."

Mark has not only written the definitive handbook for the self-publishing neophyte, but his impact extends beyond the written word. He is accessible and sensitive to his readers. Within less than an hour, he responded with a message of appreciation--phone number included, should I desire publishing advice. Again, Bravo, Mark!

This was a good introduction for someone new to self publishing like me. However, it was written from a very narrow perspective based on costs and not on benefits to the author. Many of the self publishing companies are attempting to be publishers for books and authors who cannot attract a major publishing house and thus the quality and effectivenss of the services beyond printing are important but not properly evaluated by the author. Also, there were too many inconsistencies in the comparison of the various companies and at times the author seemed to be biased against certain firms for reasons that were not substantative.

It also seemed strange that the author did not use a self publishing firm to publish his book. In fact, it appears that the full service publishing firm that he used owned a self-publishing company.

In summary, the book was worth purchasing but it provides only the initial step in learning about using a self-publishing firm.

Background: I am interested in writing a book about technical toys such as mobile Internet devices and smartphones. I have a lot of articles, but I have never actually written a full blown book, my only experience is as a technical editor of programming books. So I was looking into self-publishing, and submitting my ideas to big publishers.

In general I did not enjoy this book, but it did have some good information, namely legal, which is hard to find anywhere else because most people are afraid to give legal advice (or what could be considered legal advice).
I gave two stars because I think I am a little bit smarter for reading the book. There are several good tidbits about contracts, and a couple good items on how self-publishing (and POD) companies operate. The companies listed are represented pretty fairly, but that's where the pros end for me. Most of the good tips I have already read about online for free, but I don't hold that against the author, nor does it play into the rating.

Cons (and it really seems I am in the minority here looking at other reviews):

- My main problem with this book is the underlining concept of hiring a self-publishing company - to the tune of anywhere from $1000 to $5000 (in general). This sounds unwise and somewhat un-american. I think an aspiring author should really do it themselves. What I mean by this is format the document yourself, prepare it, and send it off to the printer yourself. It sounds ludicrous in this day and age to rely on a company to do this for you. The author does mention "do-it-yourselfers" a couple times in passing, but the book is not directed to them. IMO if a person really wants to write their own book, they should learn how the technical stuff works, it's not that hard. You will be a much smarter person for doing so. There are plenty of good books out there to help you along the way (see Aaron Shepard for example). And finally, you can put that money you saved towards your marketing campaign! Oh, by the way, anyone who pays $1000 (or more) for a website is strictly out of their mind. Either learn how to build your own website, or use free tools out there from WordPress to Facebook, YouTube, and so on...
The thing is, the author talks about vanity publishing for several pages in the beginning of the book, but to me spending that kind of money is vain when you could do it yourself. It's just not sound business. Now, I do agree about getting some kind of editor, if at least a copy editor/proofreader. But here's the thing, if you can't shore up your grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and so on to a certain extent, then you might want take some English classes, read some more books on the subject, or re-consider writing in general. Here's another key point: Even the professional editors make mistakes. I think that the author should be the number one editor of their own creation. That said, I know my English skills etc... are not great, nor am I re-checking this review for grammar and what have you. I am writing this review to help "do-it-yourselfers" to steer clear of this book, and to promote doing it yourself instead of paying a ton of money to someone. The cover is up for debate. It's not hard to set up the technical specs for a cover, but knowing your market, and being able to develop a cover can be challenging.

- Second issue with the book is that it is NEGATIVE, very much so in fact. The author appears to have a big chip on his shoulder, and has obviously had some bad experiences with big publishing companies. The book was quite depressing during the first couple chapters. A lot of it was opinion, not fact. And ended up being a buzzkill.

- Third - the author went wild about editing during the first few chapters, but they themselves were edited poorly. Add to that I was reading this on the Kindle, which I believe had additional typos, but that is expected with e-books and so I don't hold that against the author. You can tell which are Kindle conversion typos, and although the author (or editor) should be checking that thoroughly, it is still understandable.

- Finally - the information about the companies is ok, but a lot is outdated. I primarily was interested in using Lightning Source or CreateSpace (which is really what it comes down to if you are a do-it-yourselfer) and I already had researched CreateSpace. Some of the details about them are out of date, the same holds true for a few other companies I was already researching. But that is to be expected, information like this is better served on a website where it can be updated often.

For a person who aims to do it yourself:
I recommend the Aaron Shepard books, and do some research on the Internet. I also just downloaded a free book on Kindle called "Write Good or Die" (smart title right?). It has articles from various authors, some famous, some not, with a lot of good tips. That book also has a few negative articles though, I just skipped over those.
As far as tech, I have an old version of Photoshop which both Lightning Source and CreateSpace except for cover art. And I have a couple year old version of Adobe Acrobat Pro. Add to this Microsoft Word and if you have all the software you need to create print ready files. I got these versions of Photoshop and Acrobat on e-bay for a total of $300 spent. Just make sure that the version you get is supported by CreateSpace or Lightning Source.
I used these tools and self-published a test book. It was a test run just to see how it would look. A couple minor issues, but I recommend a test run of something small so you can learn the process and apply that to the bigger text, that's where I am at now. What I've been doing is talking to people in the industry. I go to trade shows and author conferences. I try to learn from the community, check authors blogs and websites. Over time I have met people who are professionals some of which have offered to help me for free on my cover and for developmental editing. Well, not really free, we are swapping information about various technical arenas, but that's what it's all about, and it sure beats paying someone X thousands of dollars.

After devoting much of my adult life to writing and photographing adventure travel stories for dozens of national magazines, my Great American Novel finally boiled to the surface. While I had previously published a non fiction book with Doubleday, I discovered finding an agent and publisher for a novel is ten times more difficult and one tenth as profitable. Self Publishing seemed like a reasonable and perhaps lone alternative and I blithely assumed all I needed was a good printer, an attractive cover, a provocative website and the book would replicate as rapidly as the hantavirus it describes. Wrong. After hours on the phone with various vanity publishers, a friend handed me Mark Levin's "The Fine Print of Self-Publishing." All I can say is, if you're contemplating publishing your own work and value your time at more than twenty-five cents an hour, this book is an absolute must read.

Reading Mark Levine's book is like having a relative (that likes you) in book publishing-one who will tell you the secrets and advise you on how to do this to your advantage.

Now that I have read this book, I believe every author who is even considering self-publishing should read, actually they should devour every page. It's easy to read and answers questions you didn't even know to ask.

That is the biggest issue with self-publishing for first-time authors. Who to trust with your life's work? What questions to ask? What are the pitfalls? What is the company's real reputation (not just what it says on their web site).

Levin divides these publishers/book printers into categories and answers the same questions for each.

--Outstanding self-publishing companies
--Some pretty good self-publishing companies
--Publishers who are use OK
--Publishers to avoid (Sadly, the longest list with 21, many well-known names.)

Info given in each area above is:

--Format
--Publishing fee
--Other services
--Retail price of author's book
--Price author pays for book
--Royalties paid to author
--Publishing agreement
--Author-friendly rating

Levin believes that if you want your book published-because writing a book is a big accomplishment-do it and make your own breaks. However many first-time authors are clueless about costs, timelines and the effort required by them to get their book printed and then promote it.

After you read Levin's book you will know what to watch out for, understand the contracts and how to negotiate, and how to get value for your money.

Now who doesn't need that!

As a book editor who also reviews books, I am most disappointed when many authors who self publish do not spend the time and money to have their books professionally edited. They are not told to do it-and what they submit becomes the book, warts and all. Many a darn good story has been poorly received because it lacked even simple proofreading.

Armchair Interviews says: Save yourself money, time and aggravation by getting the facts from this superb resource.

In my opinion, Levine does a fine job of breaking down a large company of print on demand and self-publishers. He uses quite a bit of jargon, but he really has to do so to communicate the merits of each house. To my knowledge, what he shares is true and he goes to some pains to verify his facts. Of course, some of these publishers may claim that particular facts have changed since he wrote the book, but, if so, that is not Levine's fault. I have published through traditional, commercial publishers as well as POD publishers and I believe there is a very legitimate place for both in the marketplace. This is a reputable and helpful volume, and it is one of many references I used to design my website review of such publishers. You may view it if you wish[...]

I had heard that earlier editions of this book were poorly formatted or only in e-book form. Well, this third edition is easy to read and very nicely designed and formatted.

Levine designates three categories of self-publishing companies: good, so-so and bad. The four best-known companies, Xlibris, iuniverse, authorhouse and Publish America fall into the last category.

Levine does not go over the possibility of publishing a print-on-demand book yourself using Lightning Source or Create Space Pro. He keeps his attention to the contracts and mark-ups to be found in the 45 "self-publishing" companies he covers.

Since there are so many people (tens of thousands each year) who use these companies to publish their novels, poems, memoirs, self-help theories, Christian revelations, family biographies and everything else under the sun, it is important that someone step forward and analyze exactly what these companies do for fledgling authors. Mostly they take their money. How much they take and what the writer gets in return is the nub of the book.

Main points: What is the markup? How many upsell products are sold to the author? Can the author get out of the contract? What promotion do these so-called publishers offer their authors?

Since there are so many people wandering around asking which is the best self-publishing company (to which "real" self-publishers sniff that there is no such animal) a book like this is absolutely necessary. The trouble is, most authors read it after they've shelled out $1500 on a book that no one reads except their immediate family. So if you are thinking of going the subsidy publisher route--which after all has the advantage of not having to create a business and all that jazz--read this book first.

I self-published Crafting the Travel Guidebook: How to Write, Publish & Sell Your Travel Book using my own company, The Woodmont Press, but I can understand the siren song of having someone else do the technical work for you. As for publicity and promotion--that's up to the individual author either way. If you want to use a paid publicist you're better off finding one on your own rather than using the services of any of these "self-publishing" companies.

So many times you buy a book hoping for good information and it comes up short. Not this book. IT WAS VERY HELPFUL and saved me a ton of time. The book also educated me on what was most important in seeking a self-publishing company and how to calculate their bottom line as well as my own.