Author Solutions very recently announced its sponsorship of their inaugural “indie publishing” contest. The announcement reads…
“Since when can a writing contest turn the winner into an author with a published book…and provide a staff of book marketing professionals to help get the book into bookstores and publicized? This is the new reality of combining a traditional writing contest with the myriad advantages of indie publishing.”
According to the guidelines, aspiring authors can enter up to 5,000 words of their novel, nonfiction book, story, or even poem. Winners and runners up will then be selected from among the 4 categories, along with a grand prize winner. The entry fee is $35 ($25 for poems).
The news stirred up a long standing semantically charged debate among those in the book publishing and self-publishing industry, with a fight over what exactly “indie publishing” is.
Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware writes, “By “indie publishing,” they don’t mean true self-publishing, or publishing with an independent publisher, but the kind of publishing provided by print-on-demand [POD] publishing services.”
And Sue Collier of Self-Publishing Resources emphatically calls out the ASI with this remark, “Say what? Authors Solutions is NOT — I repeat, NOT — an indie book publishing anything, let alone “leader.’”
Much of the controversy over the competition surrounds content ownership and ISBN assignments in particular.
Collier goes on to write, “Authors Solutions is a vanity press (aka subsidy press). It is a pay-to-publish service wherein authors pay to publish their book under the Author Solutions name.”
I think it is safe to say that the type of publishing this contest aims to produce is a form of self-publishing – authors still retain 100% of their rights in most cases, even using a publisher supplied ISBN.
What about the term “full-service self-publishing” though? There are publishing solutions where you can effectively select from among a collection of services from writing all the way to book marketing, and even offer private imprint options. Very few authors are also designers, marketers, editors, SEO experts, etc., all of which combine toward the goal of effective book publishing.
In many cases authors can benefit greatly by a full-service firm. Sure, you could contract all those services ala cart, but unless you have massive leverage, that’s likely to be an expensive endeavor. It’s a matter of scale. And yes, books are primarily available POD. Some are carried in brick-and-mortar stores, but primarily sold online. Readers buy books online.
This is not an Author Solutions promotion or plug for the contest however. Not all publishing services providers are equal, and like Collier, I have worked with many dissatisfied Author Solutions authors across all of their brands. Research is key. Sure, you may learn a few things from other’s AuthorHouse complaints, Xlibris scams, or iUniverse reviews. Take that information in part with a grain of salt – those unhappy authors are infinitely more likely to complain that happy ones.
In the end, successful book publishing is successful book publishing, and each author’s goal in that endeavor unique.
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Self Publishing Advisor 