Word On The Street Festival Ignores Author Scam

Updated by David Gaughran 8 March 2021. Bewares • 87 Comments.

I wrote a post last month about Author Solutions’ relationships with The Bookseller in the UK, and the Word on the Street Festival in Canada. Since then, I’ve been in touch with the editor of The Bookseller who has shared some positive news. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about my exchange with The Word on the Street Festival. This post is from 8 August 2013. It has not been updated except to clean up broken links, but it’s important to preserve these older posts on author exploitation and the comments remain open. To recap, last month I discovered a new Author Solutions scam – using their booth at a Canadian literary festival to get even more money from their customers. Read More…

Giving It All Away • Interview with Ted Oswald

Updated by David Gaughran 4 April 2021. Writing • 34 Comments.

Back in April, I stumbled across a wonderful novel called Because We Are: A Novel of Haiti by Ted Oswald. I think I was only half-way through when I started hunting him down on the internet to tell him how much I liked it. I don’t usually chase people across cyberspace to give them a review, but this was a remarkable book. I also knew that once you guys heard the backstory you would want to know more. After a little cajoling, Ted agreed to be interviewed… David Gaughran: For those who haven’t had the pleasure of reading Because We Are, perhaps you could kick off by telling us a little about the story and how you came to write it. Read More…

penguin random house author solutions scam

Penguin Random House Merger Boosts Giant Scam

Updated by David Gaughran 22 January 2022. Bewares • 203 Comments.

Defenders of the deal claimed that Penguin would clean up Author Solutions – a universally reviled vanity press which has been slammed by every watchdog in the business, and which is currently the subject of a class action suit for deceptive business practices.

Needless to say, all that has happened in the year since is that Penguin has aggressively expanded the operations of Author Solutions – a task that is a little easier when you can add the names of two historic publishing houses to your logo, and to your sales pitches.

As you can see from email excerpt below, AuthorHouse is trading off the Penguin Random House merger to try and hoodwink their customers into buying a massively overpriced YouTube advertising package that simply won’t sell any books. Read More…

How To Avoid Publishing-Assisted Suicide

Updated by David Gaughran 4 April 2021. Bewares, Publishing • 21 Comments.

I regularly take aim at “assisted self-publishing” because it often results in a shoddy product, a serious price-tag and/or a big chunk of the author’s royalties going to a middleman that is doing little more than uploading (which is the easiest part of the process). This post is from 30 June 2013. It has not been updated except to clean up broken links but the comments remain open. For something fresher head to the blog homepage. However, I’m not against assisted self-publishing per se, and today’s guest post sketches out a potential model for such companies, an author-centric approach that can benefit all parties, particularly the author. And it’s not just theory. Phoenix Sullivan is an author, self-publisher, and IMO one Read More…

A List of Things Scott Turow Doesn’t Care About

Updated by David Gaughran 7 April 2021. Amazon, Publishing • 89 Comments.

Scott Turow woke up from his slumber recently to bark nonsense about Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads on the Authors Guild blog, before being thoroughly eviscerated in the comments.

Undeterred, Turow sought out the considerably larger platform of the New York Times’ Op-Ed pages on Monday to decry The Slow Death of the American Writer.

On reading the latter, my first thought was: if Scott Turow didn’t spend so much time hating Amazon and pretending self-publishing didn’t exist, maybe he wouldn’t be so depressed. Read More…

Amazon’s Purchase Of Goodreads Could Be Good

Updated by David Gaughran 6 April 2021. Amazon, Publishing • 111 Comments.

The doom-mongers have been running wild on Twitter with the news that Amazon is to acquire Goodreads. Much of that nonsense is typical (i.e. hysterical) Amazon bashing, or reflexive defense of the status quo.

I’m not going to deal with the Chicken Little stuff. I have less and less patience with people who claim that Amazon has or is striving for some kind of evil monopoly that will subjugate authors and readers when all the evidence to date is that they will treat authors better than any publisher and provide readers with cheaper books, a bigger selection, and a better customer experience than any other retailer.

There are some more reasonable fears about what this purchase entails. I would like to deal with these in turn, then discuss how I think this acquisition will be beneficial to writers – particularly self-publishers. I respect the fact that this is a hot-button issue for many, and that reasonable people will disagree with my perspective. Read More…

From Pizza Hut To Easy Street: The David Dalglish Story

Updated by David Gaughran 7 April 2021. Writing • 46 Comments.

Fantasy author David Dalglish is a big name in the self-publishing world, but now he’s on the cusp of something even bigger. His path wasn’t easy. When David uploaded his first book, way back in February 2010, he was working in Pizza Hut. The popularity of his books, and the speed with which he was able to publish them, meant that it didn’t take long before he was able to quit that job and write full-time. David’s stellar sales (over 350,000 books to date) led to big offers from major publishers. But he wasn’t able to accept any of them – until recently. David is here today to tell us more. Trust me when I say this is quite the story: David Read More…

Author Solutions Complaints Continue Under Penguin

Updated by David Gaughran 23 February 2021. Bewares • 101 Comments.

Did you notice that skeevy self-pub racket, Author Solutions, is accumulating brands as quickly as it accumulates customer complaints these days?

It all started last July when Pearson bought Author Solutions, the parent company of dozens of self-publishing brands including iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, Trafford and Palibrio as well as media companies FuseFrame, PitchFest, Author Learning Center and BookTango.

Then Pearson (who owns Penguin) merged with Random House after purchasing Author Solutions. Author Solutions, in addition to running its aforementioned arsenal of brands, was then charged with running a new self-publishing imprint: Archway. Read More…

simon & schuster author solutions archway publishing

Simon & Schuster Sets Up Sleazy Vanity Press

Updated by David Gaughran 22 January 2022. Bewares • 223 Comments.

Simon & Schuster has launched a self-publishing operation called Archway Publishing – contracting one of the most disreputable players in the business to run the show: Author Solutions. We’ll get to that distasteful link-up in a second, but first let’s have a look at what Simon & Schuster are offering prospective customers (i.e. writers). This post is from 28 November 2012. It has not been updated except to clean up broken links, but it’s important to preserve these older posts on author exploitation and the comment section remains open, as always. Fiction packages start at $1,999 and go up to $14,999. If you have written a business book, prices are saucier again: $2,999 to $24,999. While the upper end of Read More…

what kings ate and wizards drank by krista d ball

What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank • A Fantasy Lover’s Food Guide

Updated by David Gaughran 2 March 2021. Resources • 75 Comments.

When I first heard about What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank: A Fantasy Lover’s Food Guide, I knew it was going to be brilliant. I’m in a writers’ group with its author, Krista D. Ball, and when she explained what she was working on, I wasn’t alone at being filled with a mixture of excitement and envy. I wasn’t jealous because I could have written this book – I couldn’t have – but because it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime fantastic ideas that you know is going to be a hit. What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank is a writers’ guide, a cookbook, and a history of food all rolled into one. Its primary aim is to help authors of fantasy (and historical fiction) Read More…

self-publisher's ebook pricing is line with historical paperback pricing, and its the modern day publishing industry which is out of line with those historical prices, argues author ed robertson in this guest post

Self-Publishers Are Saving The Publishing Industry

Updated by David Gaughran 29 May 2021. Publishing • 258 Comments.

Self-publishers stand accused of destroying the publishing industry with bargain basement ebook pricing. At least, that was the accusation in 2012 when this guest post was written. And it’s definitely still worth reading today because a lot of the same myths about pricing endure in 2021 – so I’ve dusted this post off from the archives and given it a quick polish for you. This guest post is so much more than a polemic in support of self-publishers or in defense of cheap books. SF/F author Ed Robertson makes a convincing and deeply researched case that self-publishers’ pricing is far from anomalous. Indeed, Ed’s analysis shows that our ebook pricing is firmly in line with the historical pricing of paperbacks Read More…

Penguin’s New Business Model: Exploiting Writers

Updated by David Gaughran 22 January 2022. Bewares • 44 Comments.

Penguin’s parent company Pearson has announced the purchase of Author Solutions for $116m – news which has shocked writers, especially given Author Solutions’ long history of providing questionable services at staggering prices.

Author Solutions are the dominant player in the self-publishing services market – via their subsidiaries such as Author House, Xlibris, iUniverse, and Trafford – and had been looking for a buyer for several months. According to the press release, Author Solutions will be folded into Penguin, but will continue to operate as a separate company. Penguin’s CEO John Makinson stated:

“This acquisition will allow Penguin to participate fully in perhaps the fastest-growing area of the publishing economy and gain skills in customer acquisition and data analytics that will be vital to our future.” Read More…

The Authors Guild Doesn’t Serve Writers

Updated by David Gaughran 4 April 2021. Bewares, Publishing • 77 Comments.

At the beginning of March, The President of the Authors Guild – Scott Turow – called for the Department of Justice to drop their unfinished investigation into e-book price-fixing.

That call, of course, went unheeded, the investigation continued, and a suit was filed. A settlement was agreed with three of the Price Fix Six (with the rest electing to go to trial), but that settlement had yet to be approved by the court. Meanwhile, a wave of news stories appeared bashing a company not alleged to have participated in that price-fixing: Amazon.

The allegations against Amazon were successively absurd, culminating in a ridiculous story which claimed that Amazon’s charitable donations were a nefarious attempt to co-opt critics. It was quite clear at that point that we were witnessing a concerted PR campaign to sully Amazon – with reporters openly admitting that these stories were being fed to them by publishing executives. Read More…

the story of how george berger and his goat themed Kiindle Single - Midnight's Tale - came to be

How To Query Amazon

Updated by David Gaughran 28 February 2021. Writing • 61 Comments.

This wasn’t supposed to happen to George Berger, especially when he was this close to throwing in the towel.

You see, George made a vow after two years of tepid sales – a rather public one – that he would give it one more shot, and, if his latest story was also universally ignored, he would hang up his quill, for good.

His next release wasn’t overflowing with obvious commercial potential. It was, after all, a coming-of-age story about a goat. On top of that, it was a defiantly literary story – and fans of same have been relatively slow to switch to digital. And, being a 12,000 word novella, only an e-book edition was planned.

Undeterred, and with his vow to quit fresh in his mind, George decided to make a real go of his final attempt. He commissioned a talented artist to draw a striking cover. He workshopped the blurb with several other writers until it really sang. And then George sprang Midnight’s Tale upon an unsuspected world. Read More…

An Open Letter to the DOJ on Ebook Price Fixing

Updated by David Gaughran 28 February 2021. Publishing • 265 Comments.

The ebook price fixing story had a new development this week. America’s leading literary agents’ organization – the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR) – penned an open letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) opposing the terms of the settlement reached with three of the publishers named in the Apple anti-trust suit. I won’t go into the details of how wrongheaded that letter was. It has already been systematically taken apart by Joe Konrath, Bob Mayer, and Dean Wesley Smith. This post is from 15 May 2012. It has not been updated except to clean up broken links but the comments remain open. Also worth reading are Joe Konrath’s subsequent dismantling of another open letter to the DOJ written by Read More…

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