Self-publishing companies are in the business of selling dreams. But what if the dream becomes a nightmare?
By Paula Span
Sunday, January 23, 2005; Page BW08
Like mainstream book publishers, self-publishing companies are in the business of selling dreams. But what if the dream becomes a nightmare?
It was a jubilant day when Kate St. Amour learned that her novel, featuring "a psychic witch who solves crimes," had been accepted for publication. She'd been quietly writing fiction since high school, socking her efforts away in drawers, but last spring she took a deep breath and, for the first time, sent a manuscript to a publisher recommended by online friends. Bare Bones had "the three M's: magic, mystery and murder," says St. Amour, a Fredericksburg, Va., nurse with an unusually felicitous name for a writer of a book that is part mystery, part romance. This book, she thought, might finally be good enough.
Illinois attorney C.E. Petit, who represents more than a dozen PublishAmerica authors, says that what his clients most want is "to get out of a deal that was misrepresented in the first place. . . and get on with their publishing lives."
Easier said, though. Tim Johnson, who lives in Wauchula, Fla., toiled for seven years over "a supernatural, psychological mystery/thriller." He admits, after the fact, to naiveté: "I didn't know how a true publishing company worked. I didn't know anything about agents, or where to begin to find one." Why would he? Johnson works in a fertilizer company's shipping department. So when PublishAmerica accepted his novel, "I thought after all the hard work I'd put into it, this was the real thing."
He bought 150 copies, printed up promotional posters, persuaded a local book and gift shop to hold a signing and bought newspaper ads to lure customers. He spent about $2,000 and recouped about $700, he estimates, before he realized that, without being able to penetrate more bookstores, his novel was "not going anywhere, no matter how hard I work."
(Baxter Springs, Kansas) - Discover how a beloved high school guidance counselor twists fate on behalf of four troubled misfits, and turns their life around.
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