I saw a post on Facebook the other day, where an Indie author was asking about a ”contract” she was sent for a series of books. The ”publisher’s” charge for publishing all six books was $25,000 dollars. They asked if that was a reasonable charge.
Most people said STAY AWAY and no publisher would charge you for publishing your books. Which is good advice by the way. One person said that the people who were saying STAY AWAY, DON’T DO IT, were only published authors and had no experience in self publishing or being an Indie author.
I’m here to say, as an Indie author, any publisher who wants money from you should be classed as vanity publishing. Especially those who want to charge that amount for a book. If you are going to do something, then pay an editor, and even then make sure that editor is the right fit for you. Most do a free chapter – any of them worth looking at anyway – and you can see the work they put in for your story.
Even before that, using Beta readers, and Alpha readers are free. Most will read your manuscript, if you read theirs. There are many places you can go. I used to use Goodreads, but I had a bad experience, which I didn’t feel their customer service sorted out. I since learnt that I wasn’t the only person, who had that problem and other authors found the same trolling going on with the same threatening email about money. I don’t have any money, so they would have been lucky.
We have all been there – written something we think is great, only to have someone read it and there be so many mistakes, its amazing we didn’t notice. There are companies out there that prey on new Indie authors, convincing them they are the next best seller, while laughing all the way to the bank.
If you are lucky enough to get a publisher, or an agent, then great. However, if you can’t do either, then being an Indie author isn’t half bad. You are in great company, and self publishing is free. Lulu and Kindle Direct are two of many sites you can use. My biggest advice is always have a selection of places to read your manuscript, and be totally happy with your book when you self publish. The other is, when you get the same feedback from several sources, then listen.
Do not think $25,000 is an acceptable amount of money to publish your book!
Writer Ravenclaw 
Agree! That sounds like a total scam!
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Yep, having to pay $25,000 (or any amount, really) to publish a book is clearly a scam. Thank you for highlighting those dangers.
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I’m not saying there aren’t costs, because there are. You can’t edit your own book for lots of reasons. When I am looking through other people’s writing, I can spot a mistake a mile away, but in my own I couldn’t recognise when a full stop is missing, or a word has been autocorrected when typing. When I got my first round back from my editor, I was shocked at just how much was wrong with it.
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Oh yes, I meant to have a publisher accept your book for publication. There are definitely costs to have someone edit and/or proofread your work, which is a great idea.
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$25,000 is steep. Yikes. 😦
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It was the comment about most of the opinions on the matter were from published authors, which clearly isn’t true. Most authors on Facebook are Indie authors because they see it as a platform to market their book, but that isn’t the case.
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Just as an addendum to my notes on FB – if you’re looking for a PRINTER one day, you could do worse than try https://printondemand-worldwide.com/ They are at Peterborough. It’s around 20 years since I used them and I don’t know any of their people now but they did two good jobs for me back then. Pricing consists of a basic fee for set up plus the cost for however many copies you want.
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