Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Wonder Why Many POD Publishers Have Such A Bad Reputation?

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Friday, April 24, 2009


Take a look at this over at WritersWeekly. Yes, Angela Hoy owns her own POD publishing company, but the complaints she lays out in this series are fairly universal.

The worst POD publishers DO NOT CARE if you sell any books on your own. They do care about books you buy yourself...but they don't care if you ever sell those books because they've already made THEIR money on the sale - when you bought the books from THEM! Some large POD publishers openly admit the majority of their revenues come from selling services to authors, not from selling books.
Last night someone mused in e-mail about how some writers seem to think they're entitled to slots on panels at conventions, book signings, and so on, just because they've paid money to get a book printed. Here's a short list:

  • They don't get any guidance from their publisher (generally a POD house) on how to promote. If they do get anything, it's usually a list of  overpriced services they have to buy from - you guessed it - the  publisher.
  • The confuse marketing with promotion. Marketing is what gets books into book stores. This is even true to an extent with e-book stores, where there's no physical shelf space. How does your title stand out? Your publisher should have the marketing savvy to make this happen. Promotion means you pimp your stuff on your web site, make bookmarks, flyers, and giveaway items. Larger publishers may help with this. But all the promotion in the world doesn't do you any good if people can't find your book when they're browsing for something new to read.
  • Some honestly don't know that their work is over-priced and not edited properly. Sorry to be mean, but I've seen some conventions allow these authors on panels, and they get eaten alive by other panelists.
Yes, there are POD publishers who care, so no ranting about THAT in the comments. And no ads for your services. They WILL be deleted. Rather, use the list at WritersWeekly as a guide for finding a good POD publisher to suit your needs.

And please, for the love of all that is good and holy, learn that annoying the heck out of your social networking followers is a bad promotional practice. (It's only 9:00, and I've seen enough of that already to day to fill my eyeballs for the entire weekend. Just sayin'.)

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