The other day on Twitter, I saw a tweet about Writer’s Digest partnering with Author Solutions to create Abbott Press. I sat back and waited for the shit storm to begin…but nothing happened. It seemed it went undetected, or perhaps no one cared? How could no one care? Writer’s Digest is one of the oldest and most respected media companies. They have always been an advocate of writers. They give us information about what is going on in the industry. WD has been known for their ability to help writers hone their craft, help them find an agent and get published…traditionally. Now they want writers to pay to get the WD Mark of Quality? What has the world come to?
We all remember when Harlequin partnered with Author Solutions and what a stir that caused. I did a series of articles on the subject at Examiner.com. At the time, my biggest peeve about the whole thing was how this wasn’t attracting readers to authors but taking money from writers. When this happens the writing world is turned upside down. RWA was going to pull Harlequin from the national conference. MWA sent a letter saying they would take away their recognized publishers status. There wasn’t a single person in the entire business of publishing that wasn’t shocked. So why aren’t we seeing the same mouths dropping with WD’s and their deal with Author Solutions? Is the writing world embracing Vanity Publishing?
Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that Author Solutions does not see themselves as a Vanity Press, but they offer themselves up as leader in Self-Publishing. A lot of people interchange the terms self-publishing with vanity publishing. They are two very different beasts. In the world of publishing, a vanity press or subsidy press is considered unethical because it requires the author to pay for services that normally a traditional publisher would do and without any placement in physical bookstores. A vanity press parasitically copies traditional publishing. We will do all the things a traditional publisher does but you won’t have to deal with rejections! You just have to pay X and we’ll set you up so YOU can sell your book.
You ask how does vanity really differ from self-publishing? That maybe in today’s current publishing environment it’s doesn’t?
Personally, I think vanity publishers misinform the consumer. Authors are the producer and readers are the consumer and everything else is in the middle. Author Solutions is in the middle and can be cut out of the equation all together. In the vanity form of publishing the producer is the author and the consumer is the author. Why is that? Because the vanity press doesn’t make their profit off of readers. Their goal isn’t to sell your book to your readers but to take your money so that you can get your book to your readers. If you want help getting your book in front of potential readers, then you can buy their marketing package, otherwise thank you for your business and we wish you luck.
Regardless of my personal distaste for Author Solutions and Vanity Publishing in general, I had to ask myself is this form a publishing a solution to a dying business model?
Just a year ago or so self-publishing was considered a desperate act by a desperate writer. A published author doing so had to have been just dropped by their publisher. Or rejected. Or career was in the shitter, so they were selling their soul. Today, it’s almost sheik to be self-published or an indie author and it’s also considered very business savvy.
Enter J.A. Konrath. Certainly not the first published author to go solo, but the first one to get noticed, and he certainly didn’t sell his soul…just lots of books. Enter Who Dares Wins Publishing, which started as a platform to get Bob Mayer’s backlist on Kindle and other eBook stores. We are now five authors strong and doing very well in sales department, thank you. Konrath has overhead and so does WDWPUB, so what is the difference between that and Author Solutions?
The author is the producer and the reader is the consumer.
Back to a question I posed earlier: Why doesn’t anyone seem to care? Where is all the outrage over WD partnering with Author Solutions and why this is bad, bad, bad?
It could be because publishing has bigger problems to deal with. Bookstores are dying. A year ago we wouldn’t have really thought this would happen. We figured they would find a way to stay in business. However, today, we know the major bookstores closing is a reality. As this is happening, the mid-list author is getting scrunched out because very little mid-list is getting racked at Target.
Everyone is scrambling as traditional publishing searches for solutions to the economic problems and a broken business model. Publishers are hurting and Author Solutions does give them a stream of income they didn’t have before. If the book sells, great. Author Solutions helped the author. If it doesn’t the author still got what they paid for and Author Solutions earned a few dollars in the process.
But maybe there is still another reason there is no public outcry over this not so stellar move on WD part. Maybe it’s because the book business has already shifted from the traditional printed book in the major bookstores to the eBook with POD with the Amazon’s of the world. Maybe because authors like Bob Mayer, LJ Sellers, J.A. Konrath and even David Morrell skipped the publishers and went direct to the major distribution channels themselves. Today’s author doesn’t necessarily need a publisher…or a vanity publisher to get us their product in stores to sell to readers. Today’s author can do that on their own via true self-publishing without having to pay between 1k and 4k just for the possibility of having someone from WD read our work and give it their mark of quality.
We have our readers for that.
Write It Forward
I have to say I was a bit shocked when I first saw the news about Abbott on PW Daily. But no one has even commented on it. At first I thought it was kind of scuzzy. But then I thought about it. In this economy everyone is hurting. If Writers Digest is going to make money off authors, then it’s up to the author to make that decision. I don’t think it’s a good idea, and I think the vast majority of writers who pay for this are going to be sorely disappointed. But the vast majority of writers are disappointed anyway. Agents and the Big 6 reject 99.9% of what comes their way.
I do think an author can get all the stuff that’s being offered done for a lot less money. And the Mark of Quality has a little bit of, I’m not even sure what to call it, since you have to pay more to even be considered for it and I’m not sure what it achieves in practical terms.
However, non-traditional publishing, which is what we do at Who Dares Wins, is not as easy as slapping a book up on Kindle. There are covers, all the different formatting, copy editing, promoting, etc.
The other thing I took into account that tempered my reaction is that I too make money off writers. I run my Whidbey Island Writers Workshop and Warrior Writer. We run monthly workshops at Write It Forward. I do believe we give a great product for the price, but the flow of money is from writer to us. We’ve debated whether to offer the services we’ve learned how to do, such as covers, uploading, etc to writers without taking them on as authors. But we won’t ever become a vanity publisher.
Everyone in publishing is scrambling right now and this is just another example of the mad scramble to survive.
so what do you suggest to a new unknown author? Where should a novice turn and get a true travelstory out published?? I am concerned about their fees for what? Have you heard about Schiel & denver??
What should I do? I have an very interesting story., but confused. They tell me just send us your story for review. The service is from 449 til 799$
I have a good friend reviewing my book and i personally copy right with congress . Where should i turn to publish? with a big company or self publish? Please email me with your opinion. Vent18@hotmail.com Veronika paul
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I think writers are becoming a little indifferent to all the changes in the industry. And after a major publisher or two partnered with a vanity press, it may not seem so shocking anymore. And you’re right about the “survival mode” attitude. Everyone in the print publishing business is struggling to survive. Still, I think vanity presses are a bad deal for authors. If you’re going to spend that much money, just take control, publish it yourself, and make the profit.
I too was surprised by the lack of hoopla surrounding WD’s and Author Solutions–but perhaps it’s because WD specializes in non-fiction? That said, I am more alarmed by this partnership than the ones involving Harlequin or Thomas Nelson simply because Writers’ Digest publishes non-fiction titles to help writers become, well, better writers. Yes, non-fiction is a tough market to crack if you do not have a strong platform, but this move rubs me the wrong way. WD has built their brand on delivering great books to help and encourage writers on their path to publication, and opening a vanity press imprint just seems antithetical to their existing reputation.
I’m offended by this for much the same reason Evangeline is, I think. Although many folks know better, Writer’s Digest has built themselves up to a very high level of respectability among those who wish to be writers. And now they’re using that reputation to give credibility to one of the worst sets of con artists in the writing industry. I am unamused.
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From the news release Jen is responding to:
“Through this strategic partnership, Author Solutions will manage Abbott Press on behalf of Writer’s Digest, taking responsibility for sales and publishing activities, while delivering a comprehensive array of publishing, marketing, and book-selling services, designed specifically for Abbott Press authors.”
There is nothing about editing services at Abbott. This will backfire, plain and simple because quality will suffer and those of us who work really hard to produce good work that’s been edited and reviewed will have to suffer what I do when I take my indie book into a bookstore. The first question I get asked, “Is it self-published? We’re not interested if it’s self-published.” I patiently say it is not self-published. It will take some time and some patience, but this will NOT make up for the lost advertising revenue I believe F+W is seeking with this venture.
I think this actually may be a comment more on the lack of interest these days in Writer’s Digest. There was a time when WD was the way to find out what was going on in publishing — you actually could find editors to query. While it’s still somewhat helpful for non-fiction, a writer’s actually better off reading up on the publisher’s work, and then tracking them online. So this may be a way for WD to better survive — and maybe they’ll help improve the quality of work to come out of Author Solutions with this new venture.
SD Writer nailed it. There was no outcry because WD has become kind of quaint. It’s not the big, important presence it used to be among aspiring writers. Chalk up another one to more modern communication. It’s sad–and I mean that honestly.
Today’s gurus are widely and instantly available online or in bazillions of college and community college classes. There’s no reason to wait around to see if WD prints an article that addresses the problems or opportunities you’re facing. Instead, get on the search engines and find just the right guru or just the right set of blog posts, and hey! presto! problem solved.
WD, like everyone else, does not want to die, so it’s doing what it thinks will work best to keep it gasping and limping along till the next miracle occurs. It’s just sad.
The sense of indifference is very telling. My initial reaction was similar to when HQN and Thomas Nelson partnered with Author Solutions and with those it wasn’t just writers pitching a fit, organizations such as RWA and MWA were taking action. I’ve seen nothing from those camps about this partnership.
I think there is a big difference between offering a service to writers to better their craft, help train them to be authors in today’s publishing environment, teach others new skills, and misleading the writer through something like Author Solutions.
I think writers are teaching other writers and taking care of their “own” far better these days than even a year ago. We’re relying less and less on publishers and “brands” to show us how to get our work to market and who to send it to. And, please let it be true, we DON’T any longer believe that brands like Harlequin or even WD have to be on a book before a reader will see quality in our product.
Does it hurt to have a NY publisher or a legend in non-fiction publishing back your book? Of course not. Are readers starting to see the quality of even these publishers’ offerings being diluted with thier “pay us and we’ll publish you” offerings? I think so.
It’s a sign of things to come, as so many have said here, the indifference from both the writer and reader camps on this latest shift. The question is no longer, “can you get published?” but “how can you get your quality work on the right readers’ readar?” And traditional publishers seem to finally be getting that we don’t always need them to do that anymore.
We’re no longer a guaranteed income stream for them…unless they convince us we have to pay them to publish a book they at first didn’t think was marketable enough for them to pay US to publish traditionally. Sounds almost as if they need us more than we need them in these instances…
Writers are taking a firmer hand in their own publishng business, and someone’s getting nervous.
I had the same reaction when I read the news. But it didn’t surprise me that there was no uprising. One, WD is publishing nonfiction titles whereas Harlequin is publishing fiction, romance to be exact. The romance community is very passionate, as one might expect, and no way they were going to take the move to partner with AuthorSolutions sitting down.
But a year later, what has happened? CarinaPress, Harlequin’s vanity/self-publishing arm seems to be doing well. Authors, both new and established, are submitting to them. Book review sites are reviewing their titles. Readers are buying the books. And the beat goes on…
I suspect that in the past year so many traditional publishers have either hooked up with AuthorSolutions or have create their own brand of vanity publishing that it’s no longer the news it used to be. Unfortunately, vanity publishing is still vanity publishing, and as you eloquently point out, the author loses out by paying to have their book published. No change for the readers; profit for the publisher. It’s clearly a growing trend.
Carina isn’t the Author Solution arm of HQ. Also, WD does not say it’s limiting to non-fiction. I read this morning where the president of WD said they were offering authors an ‘indie press’ option. Now that’s pushing it. We run an indie press. To compare Author Solutions to those of who are trying to sell books to readers is kind of insulting. Just be honest: We at WD are trying to make a buck off writers in another way. Don’t make it sound like you’re doing writers a favor.
I also noticed Borders isn’t paying its rent nor its vendors. When an individual does that, they’re getting ready to be evicted and sued and then bankrupt. It’s said to see these bookstores go, but how come no one listened when people were discussing the future of books? And most still aren’t listening. I keep seeing all these non-author ‘gurus’ giving authors advice. But I rarely see these gurus listen to authors, who produce the product. Therein lies the bankruptcies, lay-offs and implosions.
When I used the term “guru” I absolutely meant folks with the firepower to back up their advice. Writers whose work I respect, agents whose attitudes don’t reek, and editors who are experienced but who live in the present day. There’s a lot of consternation in those ranks, too. Remember that the individual editors and agents don’t make the corporate decisions, though they have to implement them. Not many villains, really, in those ranks.
With regard to non-writer gurus, I’m not sure who they’d be. There are lots of emerging writers, writers who are learning their craft (like me) who blog about the techniques they are trying. That’s not fakery–it’s a simple watering hole confab. We might not always get it right–though what I’m seeing out there is in general agreement with your opinions–but we keep trying. Most of us, down here at my level, are 99% focused on craft.
Because of the economy, we, like everyone else, are tight-fisted and wary. Somewhere, I just know that one of my buddies is working up a spread sheet that will enable the writer to judge quickly whether an outfit is legit or not.
TX
PS: My little blog is not about writing, but writers whose blogs are devoted to the art and business would be thrilled to have comments from guys like Bob & Jenni, if y’all ever have a spare moment.
There are a couple of reasons why I think people aren’t making a stink, the first being that they don’t know (I didn’t until just now), and the second being that in this day and age, vanity publishers aren’t a new threat, and many people, even newbie writers, know to avoid them. They’ve become mostly a fact of life for writers, kind of like computer viruses are to PC users. It doesn’t mean they’re any less bad or people are any less wary of them. It’s just, well, the shock value has worn off.
Also, a few contextual things:
1) Thomas Nelson and Harlequin are publishers, not publications.
2) RWA, MWA, and other organizations pitched a spaz because those publishers, by entering into a relationship with a vanity press, had negated their eligible publisher status.
3) Many Harlequin authors were offended that Harlequin had planned on selling its brand name, thus diluting it and making their work less profitable (quite likely, since it would be easy to mislead the consumer into thinking Harlequin Horizons (now Dellarte) was just another category line and not a separate publishing venture).
4) Writer’s Digest partnering with Author Solutions affects hardly anyone (save those people who will undoubtedly lose their shirts by paying to be published by Abbott Press). The impact went much deeper where Harlequin and Thomas Nelson were concerned, because of the number of authors currently under contract with them who felt it put their careers in jeopardy (see #2 and #3, above).
5) A publication forming a non-fiction vanity publisher is lower on the hoodwinkery scale than a brand name publisher preying on those authors its traditional press arm had rejected. A huge matter of contention, at least for RWA, had to do with Harlequin encouraging authors to submit to Horizons at the footer of their other category lines’ rejection letters, as well as using its eligible publisher status with RWA to run ads for Horizons in the RWA magazine.
In other words, Writer’s Digest got its hands a little dirty; RWA rolled around in the mud like a pig.
Personally, I don’t care if vanity publishers become “acceptable” or “the norm,” the fact remains that the business practices associated with vanity publishers (not self-publishers) are beyond sleazy.
I seriously think this is the wave of the future, and have spoken about it before. There will have to be “Seals of Approval” on ebooks. Sure, you say, “My writing is my seal of approval!” But when there are 10 trillion books out there because everyone and their dog can publish a book, and there are no gate keepers, you have to have something on the book to tell you there’s some quality there. If that’s the WDWPUB logo on the cover, or some other method whereby the individual writer who just self pubs too.
Think about it. You’re Joe Q Reader, and you’re looking for a new book to read in the near future. You have an e-reader and just want to download a book. You see the hundreds of thousands of titles, but how do you know they’re any good? So you pick up one with the “Jen-Talty Seal of Approval” (JTSA) (Which, the writer of the book submitted to you to get–and paid you for it). You download the book, read it and see that, with the JTSA the book was actually pretty good. So what do you, the reader, do? You look for more books with the JTSA on the cover.
Regardless of how you feel about WD partnering with AS, that one piece is seriously visionary on their part.
It just makes sense and helps separate the wheat from the chaff.
Imagine if you were a household author people know, you could farm out a system where by all you do is read books and put a stamp on them that they at least meet a “certain level of quality”. You charge for this, and as time goes on, your seal starts to really mean something. Ten years down the road, your seal of approval is one of the most important parts of the digital age. Any writer knows that for a fee they can have your services vet their book, and it if passes muster, then they get your seal. That separates them from the unwashed literary masses. It helps the writer by giving their book some legitimacy, and it helps the reader by letting them know the book has been through at least one gate keeper who knows something about the quality of the story.
It’s time to get in on that train NOW, not later.
I don’t agree with this. The new seal of approvals are readers, and readers won’t have that much trouble finding good books. Not with the advent of sampling. Sampling is a wonderful thing! I know I’m not having trouble finding good books.
Shame on Writer’s Digest. Their reputation has been sinking for a while, but this is really low.
Jason, first I love the JTSA so thanks for that. However, the idea that you have to pay for the WD mark of quality is what doesn’t sit well with me. Even more so that you have to pay at the two top prices to even get a WD editor to look at your work. The only good thing here is that WD might not give you that mark of quality, but then you just paid a few thousand dollars to be told you’re work isn’t good enough. Bad reviews are hard enough to take, but a paid rejection? I understand that you can now get paid reviews at all sorts of places that were once held in the highest regard. Vanity presses are not going to go away. They exist because there is a market for this type of publishing. With that said, I hope the writers that do choose this method understand that the goal of the vanity press is not to connect you to your readers, but to provide the service so you can get your book to your readers. And, they take a piece of every book you sell, after you’ve already paid them.
I’m a freelance editor who has worked with Author Solutions authors for more than four years. There isn’t a single title that came my way that wasn’t a much better book after the editorial services provided by me and the other professionals at the company. Books that “pass muster” are vetted by editors and are eligible for various “seals of approval”; these titles offer an inherent quality that other titles do not (and I’ve edited many ineligible titles that would never see light of day if not for self-publishing).
Authors pay for editorial services, cover design, and publishing, but that’s a key difference between publishing yourself and being published and, if you’re lucky, paid. When you self-publish, you also assume responsibility for sales and marketing — you are doing the work on your behalf. Your book may sink, but as others have said, traditionally published “low interest” (to the publisher) titles may languish and die as well. At least you have a shot at doing the job right when it’s your project.
However, I would urge any one who wants to self-publish and control the process to hire your own professionals. You’ll save a packet (I receive an obscenely small percentage of what ASI charges authors for my services). But there’s a learning curve that newbies need to navigate. A package deal relieves some of the brain-drain factor for writers who have another goal besides wide-spread distribution and respect for their work. Author Solutions has a viable role in publishing.
Self-publishing writers must assume responsibility as their own “gatekeepers.” Quality matters! Professional editing is the least you can do for your readers, whatever your goal for your book. I recently edited a WD fiction title through ASI, and — no surprise — it was well-written and may have a real chance. The talented writer made my job much more pleasant! So if you hire ASI through WD, I ‘d love to work my magic on your book!
Reason for “Meh” reaction: Who reads or cares about WD?
(I honestly didn’t know they were still in print.)
Carina Press = eBooks NOT Self/Vanity press.
(They are the “digital first” Har. line)
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I have to say I see Author Solutions as taking the place of the Vanity Press. It is becoming a giant organisation that seeks to swallow up all the lesser POD (print on demand) publishers – like the big supermarkets are swamping the smaller traders, or like the big off-shore trawlers are taking alll the fish from the smaller self-publishing fishing boats. I would say that quantity is replacing quality, and I wonder how many authors seeking genuine assisted self-publication will see the distinction (before they take tjhe bait and are swallowed up)?
“Author Solutions: Not recommended. A company that owns or operates vanity imprints AuthorHouse, DellArte, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, West Bow, and Xlibris. Here’s a company review and here’s another.”
Lifted from the pages of Predators and Editors, this tells a bit of the story as to why we should slowly walk away from W.D.
I was with W.D. Forums since 2006 as moderator of Spiritual Forum and the Humor Forum.
Recently WD let a few GOOD people go (like Wonderful Maria) and they have changed the entire forum format so that the right hand has no idea what the left hand knows. They have Anwar as the forum leader of all forums, dumping all previous folks. They have become control freaks.
It is scary to see them pairing with Author Solutions. They have recently started a series of contest all over their site for writers, poets, artist and they involve fees to enter. I make it a habit to never enter contests with fees associated, and I warn as many newbies as I can to not enter them either. I refuse to not pay to be published, but if my work doesn’t speak for itself and is not picked up, then so be it. I have numerous short stories published now in magazines across America and now in Europe. It is just a matter of time before my work will be discovered on a larger theater.
Where eagles fly,
Greywolf
Good Day:
Trying to confirm that Xlibris is trying to rid their name in the market by calling themselves Author Solutions. I just called a toll-free number for ASI, and one of the extensions is, in fact, a “consultant: for Xlibris.