Publishers - - YOU HAVE A CHOICE Who You Go With

     You know there's the old saying that the Golden Rule is really "Whoever holds the gold makes the rules."  Well, that may be true in some cases, but those are rare cases, and the better understanding of the rule should be the Biblical one; you should treat others as you would want to be treated.  I'm telling you this because the two descriptions of the same rule just collided in my life.

    As an author who only self-publishes, I have been rather hop-skip-and-jump when it comes to the publisher I use for my books. I was really naive in the beginning and had no idea how it worked. I researched it, and since Xlibris had the better ads or perhaps they had more likes, their company links were at the top of the lists you found when you used a search engine. I went with them, not knowing squat when it came to publishing a book, and the sad and uninterested project manager they assigned to me could have cared less. My first book was a DISASTER from the beginning, and it really never got any better. I ended up revising it somewhat, but I had to do an additional edition to do that; which meant more money. I finally just scraped it, it's no longer in print. I paid for services I didn't get, and unless I wanted to hang the company out to dry through the media, there was no way I could have made my project acceptable. So why did I go back to them? I'll explain.

    After the first one or even two books with Xlibris, I decided that they just didn't give a damn about me so I left them and went with iUniverse. iUniverse swore up and down they would take better care of me, and they did I think, my third and fourth books were written with them, and they did more for me, using the images I wanted, etc., but they had issues too. Again, I paid for editing and found many mistakes after the books were published. I'm not sure what that's all about. I wrote a fifth book and went with Palmetto in South Carolina. GREAT company..EXCEPT, they messed up the interior, they used Getty images as they're allowed to, but they left the watermark on them; and published my book!  They had to redo it, send me 100 free copies, and they still messed up the cover with a weird discoloration. What the heck? 

    I was going to use them for the sixth book, my 2nd Blog Book, and yes, we discussed the issues because I'm a rather easy-going forgiving type; I really am. I give people and companies chance after chance. They decided AFTER I had paid for my 2nd book with them, to halt the process to give it to another person who had less experience, because the person working on my project quit before it was finished. Had they mentioned it to me that would have been great, but they just did it, and the person had NO IDEA where to start or what I wanted. It was a nightmare. I still haven't published that book and it's been a year, but they did refund my money. I will give them that.

    OK, so I wanted to write a romance novel. I didn't want to use Palmetto, for obvious reasons, and iUniverse was about $600 more expensive than Xlibris, who was offering me a discount for returning, and they were offering me a free illustration for the cover. I went with Xlibris. I wish I had not. I won't use them again unless they swear up and down in writing what it is that they plan on doing with my book's cover. I'm now being railroaded by their interior and exterior design people, not my project manager, he simply won't return my calls or emails since his boss reamed him for giving me the cover for free.  

    I'm never going to use Xlbris again if they can't figure this out. Let's think about it, it's a $300-400 issue, and I'm willing to send my 4-5 books that I write and submit this year to someone else? Yeah, OK, so simple Math here; I'm not going to give them the $6000 it would cost me to publish if they don't give me the $300-400 I was guaranteed.  YOU WOULD THINK they would apologize, fall all over themselves, and keep their word, but that's not what's happening. I will wait to see what they say, but as of right now, I'm only doing this book with them and only because I've already paid for it.

    This is their last book with me if they can't get their issues worked out. One of the problems is the communication barrier between the American sales force, and the foreign producers. They say they have no issues understanding me, but it's apparent that they do. I want to use a publisher who will keep their word. I am not opposed to outsourcing, but I would rather not have to do so. I understand their reasons, but I need the guarantees I was given to be upheld. Bottomline.  Now I wait. I was given an email from the project manager that pissed me off to the point that I sent it to the American side of things in Customer Service and asked that the woman be replaced. I don't want to see her name in my email box again. She needs to be terminated for being rude to paying customers. Sorry, if that sounds mean, but it's true. We don't deserve to be treated like trash once they get our money.

Photo Credit: Glassdoor.co.uk