Why authorpreneurs can and should pay for professional author services - and why that doesn't make them vanity press published
by Boni Wagner-Stafford from the Self Publishing Advice Center of ALLI (Alliance of Independent Authors)
In response to a continuing misapprehension in certain quarters that paying for author services means a self-published author is vanity published, Boni Wagner-Stafford of Ingenium Books makes the case for effective deployment of paid services as essential for serious authorpreneurs and explains why it’s not a black and white situation.
I participate in a number of indie author forums on Facebook. In some I’m a lurker, in others I will poke my digital head up once in awhile if I feel I have something to learn, or less often, to contribute. Recently someone posted a question (no, not on the ALLi page) ‘on behalf of a friend’ who had just been offered a ‘publishing contract’ and would need to pay a sum on
Recently someone posted a question (no, not on the ALLi page) ‘on behalf of a friend’ who had just been offered a ‘publishing contract’ and would need to pay a sum on execution of said contract. The question was, “Should he do it?”
It wasn’t clear but I assumed the contract in question was for assisted self-publishing. The comments, nearly one hundred of them, raged on about whether an indie author should EVER pay ANY money related to the publishing of his/her book.
All comments except mine were a resounding ‘no’.
Let me explain.
Why My Advice Went Against the Flow
Full disclosure: I’ve just launched a hybrid/indie publishing company called Ingenium Books. We help non-fiction self-publishing indie authors centralize all those little and not-so-little tasks every indie author needs help with:
ghostwriting
a range of editing services
proofreading
cover design
formatting
liaison with distributors
Our contracts are clear that authors retain copyright, worldwide distribution rights, and full control. We are paid for our services, yes, but not by taking a cut of royalties. I bristle at the suggestion we are a vanity publisher.
Many commenters on this Facebook trail reiterated the tenet of Yog’s law, coined by James D Macdonald, that “money should flow to the author”. Who can argue with that? Many of us feed, clothe and house our families on the backs of our writing and publishing pursuits. Having money flow to the author ensures our families don’t starve.
What I disagree with is taking Yog’s law at face value and adopting a black and white view that the self-published author should never pay for anything. There’s a veritable rainbow on the spectrum between black and white.
McDonald himself admits that when you’re talking about self-publishing, staying true to Yog’s Law requires an attitude sleight-of-hand:
When you write, you’re the author and money flows to you.
When you begin to engage in the publisher’s activity of editing, proofreading, cover design and formatting, etcetera, you don the proverbial publisher’s hat and pay for the services needed to ensure a professional product with the best possible chances of selling.
With these two hats, you can stay true to dear old Yog. However, you know and I know that hat is sitting on the same sun-bleached grey-blonde head.
Long article that is worth the time and effort to absorb, read the whole thing here.
