?
What does surprise ?me though, is that publishing has had self-publishing scams for longer than Internet Marketing has even existed. Vanity Presses who charge would-be authors thousands of dollars for the chance to see their book in print with the vague promise of the chance of future sales are not new.
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It?s not really that surprising though when you think about. The psychology and the business opportunity, for the ethically-challenged, are very similar.?
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Internet Marketing Scams?
?The details vary but this usually involves ranking a website(s) in the search engine results and making a money from a combination of affiliate sales, pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertisers. It is a legitimate, even after last year?s changes with Google?s ranking algorithm, way to make money. The problem is the hype and over-promising of the marketers involved.?
?The Dream:?
- people who can?t get a job or have lost a job and a have no idea how to start a business
- low start up costs to online?bushinesses;?
- the idea of working from home is a huge draw from many;
- the idea of not having to deal with customers/bosses/colleagues on a regular basis is also very appealing;?
- being able ?to run a business from a beach in Mexico or Thailand has it?s appeal?
The Reality:?
- the technology can be easily made to look harder than it is;
- the art of ranking in the search engines can be made to seem very magical, only the inner circle know the secretes?
- people want to believe and they want to be have people telling them they will do alright;?
- it?s so cheap to build websites online (about $10/year for a domain name plus the under $10/month hosting ) ? paying ?only? $300 or more a month for the same is crazy;?
The Scam:?
- consistent income ? membership courses provide a much more stable income to theA-list bloggers ?than doing what is actually being taught;?
- over the last 4-5 years many of the loop-holes exploited by these approaches have been closed by Google, you are up against one of hte world?s largest employers of bright PhD?s.?
- if you look at the track record of the ?guru? ? you will see very little believable disclosure of their own income, and little evidence of a track record in selling anything except Internet Marketing programs.?
- there is often a high-pressure, closing-soon, rah-rah-rah, approach, which minimizes the chance for prospects to ask sensible questions or consider the implications of what is on offer before they sign up.?
- much of the information come from other beginners in the same forum ? rather than the ?expert?. This results in a lot of mis-information and myths.?
- almost none of these memberships sites actually run experiments to see what does work in a changing environment
Thai Beaches Have a Lot toAnswer For
Publishing Scam ? Traditional Version?
?The Dream?
- to see your book on the shelves of your local bookshop?
- to be recognised as An Author?
- rack in millions, quit day job, write more, possibly from a beach in Mexico or Thailand
The Reality:?
- it?s always been hard to get?published?- there have always been more authors wanting toe publishing than books publishers can afford to publish.?
- there is often a mis-match between what an author wants to write and what a publisher can sell?in sufficient quantity?to make a profit?
- as Amazon re-creates the publishing industry more and more physical bookshops are closing and fewer books are being published by traditional publishers.?
The Scam:
- you will pay many thousands of dollars for an often all inclusive package with will include book design,editing, formatting, printing and publicity. In reality what you get will be cheap out-sourced services from second rate service providers, and a few print-on-demand books with a couple of press releases thrown in to?sweeten?the deal. You could do it all yourself for maybe 10% of the cost.?
- In the worst case you may also have difficultly removing your book from the company, un-authorized?charges to your credit cards and non-payment of any royalties due to you.?
- You are highly unlikely to see the?subsidiary?press sell any copies for you.?
Self-Publishing Scams ? 2013 Version?
?Self-publishing is definitely a gold rush industry at the moment, plus?traditional?publishing is going through very hard times. ?Even before the Kindle eReader, Amazon was a disruptive force in the industry, with Kindle, and eBook sales in general booming, the landscape is being re-written.?
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It?s not a surprise then to find some of the?biggest names in publishing?are getting onto this particular scam ? possibly as a?desperate?act to save their under-threat business model. Simon Schuster launching a new self-publishing arm called Archways Publishing. The unwary may be tempted to hand over the up to $22,000 they are charging in the belief they will be in S&S?s catalogue and bookshops will stock them. No and no.??
Here?s The Reality ? For the Wannabe-Authors
?If you want to ?just write? and not bother with the whole marketing thing ? then make sure you have a well-paying career, or a generous partner. Even trad published authors need to be involved in publicity and marketing campaigns. They do book signings, media interviews. Increasingly they are expected to be active in social media.?
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If you self-publish ? then it?s all up to you: you have total control. ?Don?t therefore sign an incomprehensible contract and hire a ?self-publishing company? ? because ? let?s face it ? that?s kinda a contradiction. YOU are?self-publishing. You can?t delegate that over-all control to someone else. You get to take?responsibility.?
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Which doesn?t mean that you have to do it all yourself. In particular I think most would agree that we don?t have the skills to:?
- design covers;
- edit our own work (even if you can edit others).?
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Here?s The Reality ? For the Internet Marketers?
?Your product is key. All the promotional skills in the world won?t get you very far if your book is rubbish. For all it?s flaws, the Amazon review system still works. You can pay for or get your mates to provide all the 5-star reviews for the launch, but once the real punters leave their 1-star reviews it will go awfully wrong.?
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?Which is not to say you have to be an awesome writer, or even prepared to become one. Ghostwriting has long been a legitimate profession and htere is nothing wrong with paying someone for their words and then putting your name on it. But if you are paying 0.01c/word for an English-as-a-second-language writer ? then see my comment above about quality.?
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Gaming Amazon in terms of getting fake reviews, or even genuine reviews, from mates, is a short-term game, which Amazon has already started closng down. It?s now against the Kindle Publishing Terms of Service for authors to review other writer?s books. Joining a paid forum or other online group and then reviewing each other?s books just makes it even easier for Amazon to find and remove the reviews in question. And yes they have bannned people before for abusing their platform ? look to see that increasing in the future.?
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?Last Words?
?Basically self-publishing a book and making money from it is entirely possible the success stories are true. They are also the minority. It?s not?easy?to do this successfully. I?m certainly not selling enough to retire that Thai beach quite yet. It is however, in my not-so-humble opinion, one of the most exciting times in all of history to be either a writer or an online entrepreneur.?
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Source: http://lissowerbutts.com/self-publishing-scams-old-and-new/
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