Although I’ve been around the block a few times (I qualified to join SFWA in 2011, and I’d been attending the School of Hard Knocks and Rejections for some time previous), I haven’t forgotten what it was like to be unpublished and wishing with all my heart that I could change that. Because of that, I can understand how easy it is to fall for some of the scams out there. It’s like weight loss; just take the right prescription and the pounds will melt off, except in our case there’s the Chosen One, the Secret that all published writers know and if you could know it, too, you could be one of them.
There are two reasons I can see why writers fall for these schemes: Ignorance and Imposter Syndrome. The first is obvious. There are so many scams, and so many pre-published writers, that it’s impossible to educate everyone about every pitfall. The second, though, is more insidious: the feeling that you haven’t really earned your place, no matter how much you publish. We all have it, and I’m reliably informed it never really goes away.
That’s not what I want to talk about, though. I’m referring to what you might call “Pre-published Imposter Syndrome” (PPIS), which is not the feeling that you haven’t earned your place, but the feeling that maybe you never will, at least not without help. (Hint no. 1: No one does it without help. But there’s “help,” and there’s help.)
That overwhelming desire to be published, combined with PPIS, is what makes authors vulnerable, and you’re never more easily scammed when you’re vulnerable. Someone finds you at a weak moment and offers you what you’ve always wanted at a price that seems reasonable…and bam. You’re hooked.
Maybe the worst scam–and the one I keep seeing people ask about–is vanity publishing, which is paying someone to publish your book. This is fine if you’re publishing a cookbook that you want to hand out to family and friends, or some other small project which is very personal to you and you simply want to share it. That’s never going to be published by a major company, and you don’t want that anyway. But if you’re looking to sell your novel on the internet or at romance conventions or whatever your plan is, beware.
Number One rule of thumb in the publishing industry is that “money flows to the writer.” You never pay someone to publish your book, no matter how many promises they make about marketing, or editing, or anything else.* Real publishers are out to make money from the sale of your book, not from you. Best case scenario is you pay for a few hundred copies which will sit in your garage, because if you don’t know the right way to get published, it’s a cinch you don’t know how to sell your books. Worst case scenario is you sink hundreds (or thousands) of dollars into a “book deal” that never happens. (Hint no. 2: The better the deal being offered, like “introduction to a movie producer,” the better the chance it’s a scam. And if someone comes to you with an unsolicited offer, it’s definitely a scam.) If you want more specific information, you can find it here.
I know where you are. Every published writer knows where you are. We’ve all been there. But no matter how desperate you get, being taken advantage of and losing all that money you saved up in case you had to self-publish your book, is not going to help.** The Secret to Publishing is hard work and perseverance.
And I’ll give you that advice for free.
*This applies to agents as well as to publishers. Ask me how I know.
**Self-publishing is a perfectly legitimate avenue to pursue. Just make very sure you know what you’re getting into.
Graffiti on the Walls of Time 