To trust or not to trust
I was speaking with a friend who told me about their most recent pitfall with the publishing world. He had thought he was going to be the next Grisham or Crichton. At least, that’s what the publishing company he found online told him. They promised him the bestseller list, massive sales and profits, a professional marketing plan, including ads on the Times Square Billboard. Absolutely everything he’d ever dreamed about. It sounded awesome and I have to admit I was a tad jealous of him when he first told me about his deal. Then he received the final contract with the itemized invoice and realized that there were a lot of extras in his contract—extra costs, that is. When he started adding up everything, my friend realized he’d have to take out a massive loan and/or cash out much of his retirement to foot the bill for his author dreams. The company tried to convince him it would be worth it—that he’d make that back and more as soon as the books started selling; but my friend did the math. At the price the books would be selling, his portion of the profits would help him break even in 43 years. As he is currently in his 50s, my friend chose to decline the offer. He dodged a bullet, but how many of us havven’t?
We’ve all seen a posts questioning whether or not a publishing site, a marketing package, author event, book award, etc., are for real or a scam. There are a lot of scams out there and their orchestrators have gotten exceptionally good at hiding that fact. Just changing one letter in the web address or .com versus .net can mean the difference between a legitimate business and a fraud. It’s frighteningly hard to tell. I’ve also seen the horror story posts about being ghosted as soon as their manuscript and payment have been sent or something similar; and I’ve spoken with authors who fell for the marketing hype and, unlike my friend, doled out a huge sum of money for the dream of making it on the NYTimes bestseller list only to have nothing to show for it, except a depleted bank and/or retirement account. It makes me wonder how I avoided the pitfalls.
I mean, let’s be honest. I’m immensely gullible. As my husband has told me, I’m very trusting and never smell a rat even when people point out the problems before me. I just live with the idea that people are as honest with me as I am with them. So, how did I find such an amazing publisher? How did I find such a talented artist to create art for me to use on social media and in promotions? How did I not fall for so many of the scams, especially marketing scams out there? Easy. Not because I was too sharp to see through their lies, of course; but because I’m cheap. I sweat about my grocery costs and how much gas to put in my car. I shop thrift and TJ Maxx because I refuse to pay retail and my husband and always run major expenditures by each other. He can definitely smell a rat and do the math to prove his point. So, i won’t be spending thousands of dollars to try and get my name in lights or on the Times Square billboard.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see my book on top of that NYTimes list, and I’ve heard that to get there takes truly deep marketing pockets. I’m happy with the success my books have had so far. Some of my students have enjoyed them as has my dad. Friends have enjoyed them as have total strangers. It’s not on the level of NYTimes but I’m published. That’s amazing and so cool. As far as marketing and publishing scams go, if it sounds too good to be true, it just might be. Do your research—google them and don’t just take their word for it. Use a magnifying glass on the fine print and really see what you’re expected to pay. Do all of this BEFORE you send any money their way. Don’t be blinded by the promise of a bestseller. Nine and a half times out of ten, no matter what you do or how you market, the NYT isn’t coming calling.