Reading the Room: Resources for authors ready to publish
by Cindy Layton
In the July/August issue of Poets & Writers you’ll find this article from contributor Michael Bourne: “Going Solo: Selling your book without an agent.” (*) It describes his experience publishing without representation. It’s chock-full of good information, including this link to “30 Best Small Indie Literary Publishers” from a site called Book Fox. Many of these small publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts by unrepresented authors. The article is a good guide to who might best fit this scenario.
Anyway, that took me down a rabbit hole in search of other here-to-fore undiscovered writing-related sites.
I landed next on The Book Butchers which offers multiple levels of editing services from quick overview to full-on ghostwriting. It’s run by book designer and marketing specialist Derek Murphy whom I’ve mentioned in other blog posts from the past. (See What the Font and Resource Roundup. This being my third mention of him is a testament to his mastery of internet presence.) Murphy sets his services apart with his decidedly pro-writer stance, and basically acts as a go-between, matching authors and editors. He also uses the site to promote his other book marketing, cover design, templating, and author platform services. It’s kind of one-stop shopping here.
In a “read the room” kind of way, I had a visceral reaction to the name “Book Butchers” where the butcher is parody for, and the editing packages are titled after, some element of murder. At a point somewhere in the past I might have found it simpler to ignore the reference to violence, but these days, I’m taking it personally. Call me humorless but, frankly, I’m raw from current events and I’m tired of the gratuitous use of violence to sell stuff.
Go there for the information, disregard the thematic.
My humorless self then (fortuitously) landed on DavidGaughran.com. Fake reviews, publication scams, clickfarms - the publishing world is full of deception. Many years into the explosion of independent publishing the industry is still in the midst of structural change which increases the opportunity for fraud. This veritable cottage industry grows unabated on Amazon but the wider publishing world is rife with deception as well.
David Gaughran devotes a section of his blog to the swindlers and their cons, but also the near-scams – the agents, editors, websites and other fringe operators offering a bad deal to anyone who may not know better. Gaughran covers it all in the blog section “Bewares.”
For those preparing to publish, all of these sites offer something to be considered.
* Online access is limited to subscribers.
