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Hi! I tried to read the article but there appears to be something wrong with the link?Anyway, this is where it was suggested I post something, instead of starting a new thread.
My experience with Author House!
I love all 6 of my books I "self-published" with AH. They are beautiful. One still has a lot of errors and I would like to republish a new edition of it someday.
Everytime I did a new one, I tried to find another option, but AH kept giving me the best deal and I kept being happy with the finished product. But maybe that was me and not AH - the quality! I don't know; maybe professional level publishing/quality is all the same. I really liked the man who actually works out your contract with you for your new book and he has stayed the same last I checked. But between my first book and my sixth book; every step of the process became more impersonal, each having a team of different people working on it that I was never "permitted" to be in communication with. I guess they got too big. They never promised me I'd sell books. And I haven't made a dime. But that could be me, too.
So, that brings us more to the point. Yes, none of us are going to sell books without promoting. Maybe my experience would have been totally different if I had done the promoting with someone other than AH. That's when it went really bad. I was OK with paying for every little correction; but over and over the thousands of dollars they recommend an author spend to adequately promote her book? I loved the ads and press releases they wrote. I was on the radio (not paid) a couple times and it was very fun; I'd love to have my own show! But as far as I know no book sales resulted from anything AH ever did for me. I finally had to ask them to quit calling with yet another expensive, ineffective promotional package. OK! This has helped me clarify. I can recommend AH if you want to get your books legitimately published, ISBN#, Library Congress, etc. But do not use them for any promotions! If people are interested we can talk for about these issues! Good luck with your publishing experience!
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Anyway, this is where it was suggested I post something, instead of starting a new thread.
My experience wi..."
Thanks for your great thoughts! I fixed the link.
I recently published a book with Authorhouse publishing and I must say they were excellent. They were extremely fast, efficient and hands on about every part of the book building process. They put in a lot of effort and details to each aspect to make sure the book is, well... awesome!
Thank you Kendal!I can add that things changed with me and AH when they got so big a few years ago, that they had to hire phone answering help for their author assistance and promotional departments in The Philippine Islands. That's when I really had problems and misunderstandings, including charging my credit card without my permission for promo packages I was saying no I can't afford.
O really? I haven't noticed anything like that but because my book is done, it is hard to get a hold of someone, especially where there are errors occurring online with my book. But overall I would say they are worth it.
Authorhouse is not a good place at all, I have a friend that went through them also and she went through months of tears before finally getting her book right. You are not aloud to speak with the design team AT ALL and they gave her a proof book to look over. Hers was a picture book and 3 pages had words and NO pics!! That is common sense. Lol. Anyway, I also do design work so I submitted my entire book to them exactly how I wanted it printed with text and everything in the right size and format and they changed mine around so much it was ridiculous. They cut off important parts of the illustrations, etc. It took me several months of back and forth arguing to finally get it right. I published it on the kindle myself and am doing all my own marketing because Authorhouse wants to charge a fortune for marketing. Anyway, on my own, I have gotten it high in amazon's rankings. If you search in the kindle store: kids kindle book, it comes up #1 out of over 3,000 books. YAY!! I do have a published book after many tears and headaches with Authorhouse but am definitely looking to go a different way with my next few books. Does anyone know much about createspace?:o) Here is a link to my book if you are interested. http://www.amazon.com/Mortimers-Retre...
@Mandi. I have not heard anything negative about Createspace. Any book you have on Kindle you can print at Createspace. You pay a fee for a "package" and then per book. That is how it is for print on demand at least. Amazon has some threads for author self-promotion and some of those people use Createspace. I don't know the cost of the different packages but the per book price is less than $3.00 for one package I think. I also think you have to buy a number of them at a time. They send them out when purchased by customers, not the author, through Amazon, not to you. I'm not in that league so haven't looked at it much, but it's all on their website.
If you have the skills to do it yourself (or have other people who can do the editing and layout for you) there is no upfront fee to use Createspace. The only charge is at time of sale where they take their royalties (fee) before pay you the rest of the royalties.If you requires one of the packages (editing, graphics and layout) then you have fees.
Createspace is who I use for my author's PODs.
I don't understand what you mean about them taking their royalties. Is that out of the purchase price and then they send the rest to you? That sounds pretty good if you don't have to pay up front.
Virginia wrote: "I don't understand what you mean about them taking their royalties. Is that out of the purchase price and then they send the rest to you? That sounds pretty good if you don't have to pay up front."Yes it is out of the sale price. They take their fee first. The rest of the sale price (royalties) is paid to you.
That sounds great to me being that I work in graphic design and my children's books don't need much editing. :) I do my own illustrations also so I don't have to worry about that. I wish I'd researched before going with Authorhouse and paying them $1000 for a headache. Lol. I paid for the 2 for one deal and I am really thinking about eating that other books cost because I've sold so many of my first book myself and on amazon that I'm not in the red anymore as far as money is concerned no thanks to authorhouse. Lol. Being that createspace is part of amazon and cheap, those are both a plus. :)
The comments on here are very helpful to the novice (me). I am going to look into Createspace's POD service further because of info I got on here. thanks guys. In a related thread, someone took off with politics and philosophy which I don't think should be brought up on this kind of thread. So far Goodreads has given me the most useful info and it's a very workable site. I go nuts on that Watercooler.
I've seen a number of finished books printed through Createspace and they look just as good as anything you would buy in the shops. I'm definitely going to use them to print up my books. I can't afford to pay an upfront fee, so the we-take-our-payment-out-of-the-book-sale-price payment system works fine for me. Even adding shipping to get the book over here to the UK (I believe they get printed abroad in a number of places) it's worth my while to buy some copies to sell in person over here.
My debut co-authored suspense, Scent of Double Deception, is through Createspace, and I'm thoroughly pleased! I would recommend this site to everyone who plans to self-pub. I've called for support twice on different issues and received professional, courteous, and even witty information. I like having that at my fingertips!
So good to know. Authorhouse will not return emails or phone calls and if you get anyone on the phone they either dont speak good English or if they do, they are rude and very short.
Oh Mandi, so sorry to hear that. I know when you have an issue, you're already frustrated, so enduring more can be overwhelming. I have to tell you, the last time I called Createspace, the young man identified himself as Andrew. I told him he needed to explain things in detail (regarding my question)because I am blonde. He laughed and said...well, I'm blonde, too! We had an enjoyable visit, and my questions were answered besides!
That is good to hear Jeannie. I was very overwhelmed because I don't have much free time at all between juggling 3 kiddos, my photography business, school visits, writing, & illustrations. I hate confrontation and arguing because I am not that type of person so it has really worn on me alot. I am marketing the book all myself and have sold almost 230 print copies and around 100 ebooks on amazon. Yay!! :) I'm almost done with my second book too and I really want thing to go well. I am soooo determined to do this so that I may be able to somehow share my personal miracle with a much larger audience. I had a preemie 5 years ago and he was supposed to have brain damage and all sorts of problems, he is a perfect healthy 5 year old now. I made a promise to God when he was in the NICU that if he gave me this one miracle, I'd share it with everyone I ever came in contact with and I have stuck to that and intend to keep it up. :) I am so very thankful. This is why I decided to pursue my dream to write. I've loved it since I was a child but never had that drive to do it until now. Mandi
Mandi
Oh goodness, what a testimony, Mandi! I have to self-market and promote, too, so I know how time consuming that can be. God WILL bless you even more for spreading those seeds. Thank you for sharing it with me, too! I have an editor/publisher and I'll give you his name, etc. ...not trying to talk you out of Authorhouse, but God brought us together for a purpose. Check out Desert Coyote Productions (Don A. Martinez). Don is on here and is an awesome person, as well as a creative, talented author in his own right. He didn't 'plan' this, but God opened a door for him. You can always tell hime we were talking and I suggested you two become friends. Please, let's keep in touch!http://desertcoyote.weebly.com/
Mandi wrote: "That is good to hear Jeannie. I was very overwhelmed because I don't have much free time at all between juggling 3 kiddos, my photography business, school visits, writing, & illustrations. I hate c..."That's beautiful. I think it helps to write when we are inspired as you are. I wrote my memoir about my disabled sister, not because of a promise I made to God, but because of a desire to give her a legacy. It kept me going when otherwise I might have quit.
http://editioselfpublishing.com/self-...
Let's talk about your thoughts and experiences on this subject. Has anyone done it.