Writer Beware

I've seen a couple scary things lately... And while I don't think it is all gloom and doom, I DO think it is a warning that we need  

CONSTANT VIGILANCE.





The Paper/Printing Fiasco



It began with Jessica's saga last week. She ordered a couple copies of her book from the Book Depository... and learned that while ordering from Amazon directly, her books were lovely, but through the Book Depository, she had gotten truly inferior product... lower quality paper, smudgy stuff in the printing, margins a little off... not professional at all... When she had gone to the great care to make sure all her specifications were right. She addressed it with Amazon and got a 'third party distributor-production tale'... You can read all about it HERE (for answers) and in the link to the original problem.



Jessica was a superstar, finding the problem and professionally chasing down answers... I think the results she got though, are strictly cautionary to the rest of us... maybe having a note on our blogs that if people receive inferior products when they order out books, they should let us know and we will help get it sorted. If enough people are on top of them over quality control, the faulty vendors will get weeded in short order.





Self-Published Author Gets Ammy Spanking When She Gets Publisher



Yesterday I ran across this and apparently Amazon has backtracked and changed their game, but the fact that anyone got stuck in this position AT ALL... Holy Guacamole! Jamie McGuire, who wrote Beautiful Disaster, self published, and did REALLY WELL, earned a traditional publisher... and then Amazon sent emails offering not only REFUNDS (6 months after the fact) but ALSO the DIFFERENCE for the price of the REGULAR BOOK (Simon & Schuster), and JAMIE was stuck paying for it! They've backtracked--said it was a mistake, oh so sorry, but seriously, what a LOUSY thing to do! And I honestly suspect they only backtracked because so many people raised a stink about it.



And to what end? All they are going to do is scare off authors who are on the fence... maybe self-publishing CURIOUS, but still hoping for a traditional contract...





And Then There are the Bad Publishers...



Those who would steal your rights for infinity.

Those who aren't going to actually DO anything but take a share of your self-publishing pie





There are a lot of problems.



The solution? Well, constant vigilance, of course, but also, let's have each others' backs... if you see something wonky, let the author know. He will appreciate hearing about it so he can take care of it sooner than later.





And just because I'm generous... THIS was a great little article on the current state of publishing (the traditional route): http://kriswrites.com/2013/02/28/the-business-rusch-the-death-of-publishing/

It really is worth a careful read, links and all.