I recently read a post by a lady called Trinity Roberts
http://trinityroberts.com/2015/09/22/self-publishing-traps-are-sucking-authors-dry/ And after getting harassed for a year by Xlibris I thought the warnings were worth re-posting. First my experience with them : They wanted £2000 pounds from me to get my book ready, have it proof read, edited and a cover made. I told them I already have a cover, and have had two editors. They continued to ring me, email me constantly. The price then came to to £500 for them to format my book for ebook. I told them I had already formatted it my self and put it on Amazon. They then went down to £400. WTF. I have already done it. From Trinity's post Hi, everyone. I recently made a Facebook post about self-publishing companies that are scamming independent authors out of their hard-earned money. These companies offer self-publishing packages. These packages are dressed up to look glamorous to new authors. However, these “special features” are not worth the money that you are spending. I am going to pick apart some of the features show you to show you the actual cost. I’m also going to show you the complaints that people are making about these companies. A little research goes a long way. The stuff I have found online is horrifying. Who They Are First things first. Who am I talking about? Recently, a friend came to me to tell me that she had been scammed out of $3,000 by a company called Xlibris. My heart nearly stopped at that number. The company made all kinds of promises they didn’t keep and tried to publish her unformatted manuscript. I reformatted it for her and helped her get it published properly through Amazon and began immediately looking into the company. This is what I found. The company operates under 17 different names. It’s easier to scam people if some names are taking longer to get tarnished, right? Here are the names: Abbott Press Author Learning Center AuthorHouse LLC Balboa Press Booktango Content Distributors LLC Inspiring Voices iUniverse, LLC LifeRich Publishing Palibrio Partridge Africa Partridge India Partridge Singapore Responder Media Trafford Publishing, LLC Westbow Press Xlibris, LLC Telemachus Press (Not sure if it’s affiliated with the others, but they are also scamming authors out of thousands) What They Do… or Don’t Do I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more out there. If you know of one, leave a comment, and I’ll add it to the list. I decided to start with A and check out the website of Abbott Press. This is what you get for $3,000. They offer an ISBN assignment. Sounds magical right? You can get an ISBN for free. If you want to name your own fancy publishing name, you can buy one from Createspace for $10. They offer volume discounts for authors, B&W interior, color cover, Amazon “look inside”, U.S Copyright protections, worldwide distribution including Barnes & Noble, and some other stuff that sounds amazing if you’re new and don’t know what you’re doing. All of that stuff is FREE and automatic when you publish through Amazon’s Createspace. So what do they do that you would actually have to pay for? A book cover and formatting. A book cover and formatting is not worth $3,000. They buy a stock photo for a couple bucks and put your book title on it. That’s something anyone with Photoshop can do. If you don’t know how, you can ask someone. If you want a more creative cover, you can buy one from dozens of people for anywhere from $50 to $200. Formatting is also something that you can get from $50 to $200. On top of it all, from what I saw from my friend’s book, they don’t format it. All they did was give her the book cover and a headache. So let’s say you’re paying top dollar for these 2 services. You’ve spent $400. So where is the other $2,600 going? In their pockets. As an indie author, how long do you think it could take to make $2,000 off of your book? It depends. You could do it in a year, or you could break even in a few years. Either option is terrible. I looked over some e-mails that an author received from this company. The company is claiming to be an arm of Penguin/Random house. That’s obviously not true. A legitimate publisher would never condone something like this. In fact, a friend of mine who is signed with Random House has taken the e-mails to them, so hopefully they will be able to help shut them down.
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Weapons and nuclear devices disappearing bring the Chinese Spymaster and leaders of the Chinese government together to solve the theft. With threats of possible terrorist attacks, it’s a race to find out who is responsible and where they are now. Some good action packed scenes get the heart pumping.
The way the author lets you get to know a character was great, you really get a picture of what their true nature “Wang had long concluded that Zhang carefully cultivated his dour demeanor to disguise an impish humor and a politically risky willingness to follow the logic of his thoughts wherever it led.” His descriptions are great, one I really liked was the familiar smell of the city, the “salty tang blended with the mustiness of old buildings.” Hock is an intelligent writer so be prepared to think. :) http://www.amazon.com/The-Ninja-Diplomat-Chinese-Spymaster-ebook/dp/B014Z5YMG8/ About the Author Hock G. Tjoa was born in Singapore to Chinese parents. He studied history at Brandeis and Harvard and taught European history and Asian political thought at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He is married and lives with his family in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. In 2010, he published The Battle of Chibi, selections translated from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (one of four traditional Chinese classics). In 2011, he adapted Lao She's "Tea House," Mandarin original dated 1953, publishing it as Heaven is High and the Emperor Far Away, a Play. Both are part of his goal to contribute to a wider and greater understanding of China and Asia. Hock published The Ingenious Judge Dee, a Play and The Chinese Spymaster, volume 1: Operation Kashgar in 2013 and Agamemnon Must Die, a retelling of Aeschylus’ Oresteia in 2014. He is pleased now to release The Ninja and the Diplomat, volume 2 of The Chinese Spymaster. Check out the fabulous Aria Peyton's new book, available to pre-order: release date 29th Sept http://bit.ly/entrustedamazonUS
http://bit.ly/entrustedamazonAU http://bit.ly/entrustedamazonUK http://bit.ly/entrustedkobo Avaiable for pre order http://bit.ly/entrustedbarnesnoble http://bit.ly/entrustediTunes Do you want a free book to review, lets help out the new and talented Author, Kylie Hillman. Kylie is offering free advance review copies of her debut novel. The official release day launch is the 30th September, to sign up to receive an ARC copy use the following links: ARC Request Form - http://tinyurl.com/SeizingControl-ARCRequestForm Seizing Control RDL
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