Support for Indie Authors discussion

URlink Print and Media contacted me with a proposal to republish my book (previously self-published through Christian Faith Publishing) with a cheaper printer which would allow me to have a lower cover price but higher royalties, hence better sales since the price will be lower.. They also offer a variety of marketing programs to help get the book out there and increase sales. My concern is I pay for whatever package I choose and they get nothing further, meaning they have no stake in the success of the campaign. They get the money up front. This raises red flags for me. However, I have run out of friends and family to sell to and art fairs and holiday bazaars have very limited sales. With millions of books on all the on-line book sale site, how does anyone find my book? Obviously I need help with marketing. Hence I would appreciate hearing from anyone that has experience with URlink Print and Media to hear about your experience. I would also like to hear from anyone who can recommend another company that can be trusted to build and implement a marketing plan that can lead to significant sales. Thank you.

Ok, family and friends aren't the best people to market to. Second of all, if this company contacted you.,...run away. Far away. Most of these are scams where they charge you big bucks for doing nothing. Like you said, they have no stake in your success. You can publish your book on amazon, Draft2Digital, Smashwords all of which are free and for $49 on Ingram Spark. Look up Tim Grahl and go and read a few of his blogs. Same with Nick Stephenson. They are expert marketers and two of the best. (If you can afford, this company, then you can afford to take Tim Grahl's online class on marketing) These people at these "marketing" and "publishing" companies, like the your first company, take your money and leave you with....well books and nothing else. It is the same with Xlibris and Outskirts and all the other vanity presses. They are init for profit, charge you extra for editing, marketing and all that other stuff you can do yourself.

Learn to do the POD (Print on Demand). You can order a few for in person selling, and do most of the selling online. The bottom line is, learn to do your own marketing. It really isn't that hard once you have a system. I'll admit, because it's new to me, I'm just now getting my plan together. My last launch I did sell 150 books in three days with minimal marketing. Get that email list going (see the free Reader Magnet by Nick Stephenson for some pointers) as that is where you will sell most of your books. Publicity is as simple as sending out the notices every 30 days with updates and topics your where you are an expert. It works as they will use your press release when things or show.

Ads and promotions help with launches and keeping your books up there. but you need to learn how to get traction without spending a lot of money. There are things like joint promotions with other authors, giveaways, and contests. To get your email list started, write a quick novella about a character in your book, or a prequel, a minor character, etc showing your writing style. Do a cover that fits with your book and use it on places like Booksweeps, Prolificworks, or AuthorXP in a promo in your genre to get your list started. They do cost between $30 to $50 each promo. (Do NOT use your personal email for this, use MailChimp or Mailerlite or Convert Kit or another list server to mail a list. ) Set up a welcome email and then plan on mailing them about once a month with updates, things about you, your books, your characters, etc. Then when it comes time to launch another book, you have readers and buyers on that list along with beta readers, and advance readers who should do reviews for you, etc. That list will be your most important asset as they don't cost anything other than initially getting the and to keep them, just a little bit of time.

Hope that helps.

I also received an email from this company, which I simply chose to ignore. One of the reasons is their email critiqued my book (now only in ebook format) as having "some minor errors in sentence structure, spelling, and syntax." Yet their own email and website contained such errors. Seemed like a generic, computer-generated email and a quickly-thrown-together website (which was badly designed, I must say). Thus, I found their critique ironic and not credible. Besides, I'm not interested in vanity publishing where I pay big money to them, must do my own marketing, and reap the big rewards.

My rule of thumb, if I contact them, the the heat is on me to do my due diligence. If they contact me, it is a money making venture for them. You want to steer clear of all vanity presses unless you are rolling in money and are don't want to fool with doing anything other than writing the book. Plan on spending from $2K to $5K on getting your book printed and do no plan on ever seeing much of a return on that money. The same with 'publicity' companies. The only the proofreading/copy editing are you better off having someone else doing it since you are so close to the book you'll miss glaring mistakes. Everything else you can learn to do.

A girl Who knew me from a time in Florida where she helped to get me a radio program interview, bugged me to join her UrLink company which has shown no professional help in months since July when she pushed me into joining her. ..with big promises. Nothing was met and I paid US$676 to the firm only to find in September they had done nothing worthwhile with the book nor any marketing. T hey took my money and asked me to work on corrections! They made a real muddle of the early introductory pages and showed no real understanding of producing a book. The prospect of working with them anymore is agony. I can't face it. Then I read reviews which pointed to incompetence and possible scamming. They lack professionalism because they are not well educated in this field.
If they can't produce marketing or a decent book, they are not worth using in my opinion. Their set up revealed very little knowledge of how a book should be published. I looked for good points and although chapter titles were artistic, chapters were not started on the uneven pages as most books are.
I feel if they make those mistakes I am entitled to stop paying anymore. I will stick to Canada where I can get better help or try Amazon.I made the mistake of not looking for reviews before I joined and paid.Do your research ahead of time.

I agree. There are internet sites which will give you a list of web sites which specialize in writer scams. I can't give you the links here, because no links allowed, three of the best sites are Preditors and Editors, Writer Beware, and The street-smart writer.

It really is a "writer beware" industry. There is no way to easily vet an assisted publishing or self publishing company whether they are located in a foreign country or here in the US. Most all of these companies are located in the Philippines because they can speak english better than most other countries outside of the US. And with a business address located in the US, they can be registered in that state and have a the area code that is computer generated and operated to route the call to the Philippines. Everyone will offer what you need to publish, republish and rebrand, then offer you a package deal with a discount to get on board but paying up front to get the work done, and they want you to sign an agreement which, if read, leaves no recourse for the writer if you already paid and the book is not published in time or at all. How will a writer file a law suit for a company that is just an address in the US and no one there? I finally found a way to republish my books with minimal $ risk with a company in the Philippines that I vetted to be sure they can do the work with the quality I wanted and re-launch my webpages, but it wasn't without knowing the proper questions to ask to weed out the scammers. I published my first books in 2011, 2012, and now will re-publish them and two more next year with my own ISBNs and as my own publishing company with my own Ingram print portal. The key is to own your ISBN and control the process.

The best advice I can give you is to take the time to learn how to do it yourself.

Everything those companies promise for a huge fee, you can do for a whole lot cheaper and stay in control of your work. You do need to get your own ISBNs which are expensive in the US.

Covers you can use premade that don't look like a homemade job. Formatting you can do for free.

The major expense which even they will charge you for is editing. You'll end up doing it all yourself, so why not take the time as a new novelist to learn the ropes, especially since you plan on self publishing. It will pay off in the end.

Publishing correctly isn't cheap, but if you plan for it, you can afford it. Then again, if you have $5-10K to waste, use the vanity publisher, but just don't believe their promises of making you a best seller. And don't take them up on their publicity package. You can do that since it's press releases that you can learn to write, research where to send them, and do it without that extra $5K they will charge.

Get the feeling I've been the target of this thieves?

The minute I learn a company has no skin in the game, I never want to hear what else they want to do or say.

I totally agree, Wanjiru.

Sherrie wrote: "Instead of joining the conversation, I'm going to try to sell you my book! Here is a link!"

Nope, nope, nope.