Big News

I have news.

I have been very unhappy working with my American publisher and I didn't know I could cancel my contract with them. My editor, Blake Atwood, is a fantastic guy. He seems to know everything so I asked him for advice.

I wrote him about my interest in ending it with iUniverse. He replied with an affirmative answer including a page from iUniverse's website advising the possibility of cancelling with them.

After publishing Shall We Chat? through Createspace (associated with Amazon), I had lots of trouble and the result wasn't that great. I was confused about the publishing aspect of the book business. Deciding I needed some help, I checked out a number of self-publishing companies. Most published for you in the $3,000 range. Well, that is way too much for me. iUniverse publishes for much cheaper so I decided to go with them for my next novel.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize the extent of their assistance. They don't review the whole book. They only read every few pages so they don't have a good knowledge of the book I'm publishing. They offer services like editing, book cover design, etc., but they are expensive. In addition, they do no marketing for you unless you pay them thousands of dollars.

My greatest concern with them dealt with selling my books at a signing, I bought the novel from iUniverse for almost cost. With the exchange rate and Chapter's 45% charge for every book I sold, I was losing money on every book I sold which, of course, bothered me to no end. I couldn't even break even this way. The people from iUniverse who I dealt with changed all the time and some I didn't like at all. I had to deal with a different person for every facet of my book.

With my third novel, That Truthful Place which will be available on Amazon next week, I self-published through Createspace. There are a number of steps you have to complete but they are basically easy and straight forward. I had no problems publishing that novel. In addition, the royalties are much much better than iUniverse and I can buy my books much cheaper so making a greater profit.

Tomorrow, I will be calling iUniverse to cancel my contract. I have noticed a few mistakes in Locker Rooms so I want to read it over. I will then have my editor go through the novel and correcting any problem areas. After I have corrected the mistakes in the manuscript, I will self-publish it on Amazon. This will take about a month but, as soon as it is ready for purchase, I will inform you.

I will blog about That Truthful Place as soon as Amazon informs me that the book is available.

have fun,
www.pattylesser.com
@PattyLesser