Rich Authors Don't Get Ahead

There is a wonderfully rich author that decided to self-publish his life's work. He paid 4 different editors to look over his work and paid all of the printing costs incurred by Book Surge. He paid for ads in top newspapers and threw a big book party and invited "people of consequence" to attend.

He has had reviews in his local papers. He has had a radio interview or two. He even hired a publicist. He can't figure out why he's not selling thousands of books.

He's made a few big mistakes that have crippled his chances for success. Please learn from him!

1. He published through Book Surge

Many publishers that take a book electronically and throw it into a machine to duplicate. In and of itself, this is not a problem. The problem occurs when the publisher doesn't care about he manuscript because they already have their money and don't check the copy. This man's book has sentences cut off in the middle and continued in a new paragraph. After 4 editors, typos like that shouldn't exist. The man has a PhD. I just can't imagine that he could get a PhD if he doesn't know basic formatting.

The problem is that printers take the formatting out of many manuscripts. If the printer/publisher cares about the book, they check the manuscript again once it is in the system. The mass producers like Book Surge don't care so the end product is hard to read and frustrating.

2. He's not available from Barnes and Noble or any other book store.
This author thinks he understands the system better than every book publishing company in the world. He doesn't like the price reduction bookstores demand so they make a profit. Because of that, he is not listed with any distributors in the world besides Amazon.com. This means he cannot have any author events at any bookstores of consequence because they cannot order the book in. Most bookstores do not want to host an author who's books aren't available from a distributor. People still like to browse books and he has limited himself simply to internet sales.

3. He hired the wrong editors.
Editors worth their weight would never have let so many typos slip through. Also, the characters were unrealistic while the conversations induced cringes. I know that this particular author rushed the editing and publishing stages because he is getting up there in years. Unfortunately, his eagerness created a flop out of a story that could have been riveting.

All in all, choose your publisher wisely. If they don't have a vested interest in you selling many copies (ie they don't get paid if you dont), you will typically end up with a sub par product. Make sure you are available to bookstores. You may not get stocked right away but you need to be able to have an event so people start learning your name. Also, make sure your product is the best you can possibly make it. Hire good editors that will make you perfect your manuscript!