I signed my rights away and have no power to take it back or change the price. My heart breaks every time I see my book without reviews, simply wallowing in the black hole of nothingness. The worst of all is that my book is sitting on Amazon at a price that even I wouldn’t pay. They haven’t bothered to promote the book and it became lost in the vast world of available reads. I sold my book to the devil, never mind a shark. I ended up giving my book to a company that would give me 15% royalties and owns the first 5,000 copies in lieu of printing costs. Unfortunately, I didn’t use the easily accessible internet to find other options like a normal person would. The sacrifice of my soul wasn’t enough and they only promised me 25% of future sales. I still had to pay ridiculous commissions on top of this. This might not seem like Mount Kilimanjaro, but I assure you that this was only the cost to get started. Figures ranged madly but the average was well over $2,000 from publishers that didn’t even leave a stain on the map.
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Suddenly, I felt like I had to sell my soul and those of my kids, spouse, and even my dog just to cover the costs. The quotes started pouring in and I was shocked with the requests! This publisher was prepared to take my book, but they wanted me to pay for publishing costs upfront. It was only two weeks before the first shark came at me head-first. I emailed publishers all over the world with a manuscript, hoping to get a response.
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I needed people to read my story and listen to my advice. I was in your position a few years back and I was impatient to get my book out there. New writers must take a step back and consider Amazon’s self-publishing cost and pricing before they allow these predators to grab hold of them. However, they don’t realize there’s a bunch of sharks waiting out there, waiting to snatch them. It’s understandable when the authors want to rush into the next step. The excitement alone can make your world spin around as you read it once more. Finishing your first book leaves you feeling like you’ve finally arrived at the center stage.