SELF PUBLISHING
by
Anthonystjoseph
For over twenty years since I started
copyrighting various writing projects with The Library of Congress I have been
courted and sought out by self-publishing companies and what is commonly called
‘Vanity’ Publishing. These companies
regularly check new copyrights recorded at the library of congress to try and
find and scavenge amongst eager authors to get them to pay to have their own
books published, hence the term Vanity
Publishing. It takes a certain level of
vanity to feel that your work is good enough that you don’t need someone to
okay it or say it’s good enough to be published and pay ‘you’, your ego just
wants it out there so you can shed, share, and spread your thoughts no matter
if a publisher wants to pay you or not; you will pay yourself. This is not to say that self-publishing is
not a way to go, it is just an avenue that should be well thought out and even
more importantly, well researched. One
of the most popular books of our time, ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James
Redfield was first self-published and went on to be a New York Times bestseller
for years and spawned several sequels as well as a screenplay and movie. I consider The Celestine Prophecy to be one
of the most remarkable books that I’ve read as far as importance and actually
read the book in two sittings. James
Redfield knew he had something remarkable to share and did not want to wait or
play the modern day game of lazy
literary agents who do not even read submissions and act like they are giving
three ‘genie’ wishes when even determining to read your work… I personally detest literary agents for their
standoffish way of reviewing work or making themselves accessible to the writer
or I should say not making themselves
accessible to the writer.
Now on to the art or practice of
self-publishing which is a minefield of disappointments, opportunists,
deceivers, and downright scams. Back in
the mid-nineties I was pursued by so many of these companies; but to name a
couple I will name Dorrance Publishing and Vantage Press or something like
that; I cannot find Vantage Press in any current search so I may have that name
wrong. I currently have several projects
that I am in the process of getting published and happened to recently think
about self-publishing one or two of the projects like James Redfield so I
started searching online… I was in
Pittsburgh a while back and realized Dorrance Publishing was downtown
Pittsburgh so you know I decided to do a drive-by with an unannounced
visit!
I found the building downtown Pittsburgh
that was listed as their office address and it was rundown and utilized a push
button security system like you would find in a cheap apartment building with
an intercom having a ‘buzz you in’ capability.
The guy answered the intercom as some homeless looking lady walked up
and stood behind me who looked like Whoopi Goldberg in a bad wig and blue eye
shadow waiting to get in. She could tell
with the psychic ‘step back’ vibes I
was sending her that I was like, ‘you ain’t walking in with me baby’; she
answered my skeptical look in her direction with an audible, “I’ll wait until
you walk in and then I’ll buzz my party”.
I didn’t respond but felt pleased with her perception of my Doppler
radar in her direction. The person from
Dorrance Publishing who answered the intercom sounded like he was guarding an
open safe or more closely to the point, a shady business that could have
disgruntled clients descend upon it at any time. The Dorrance Publishing representative says
to me over the intercom, “Who are you here to see, do you have an
appointment?” I explained that I was an
author and was considering using their services. He then explains to me that they only do
business by email or phone; RUT ROW!
That’s some serious scam activity right there, FRAUD ALERT! Well my powers of persuasion and gift of gab
are much more than the average person so after a few more sentences, he buzzed
me in and said he would meet me at the elevator. He meets me at the elevator and he is dressed
like a convenience store employee without a uniform and clearly has very poor
hygiene practices. I ask him for some
literature on their services and he runs up the side stairs and comes back with
a five by seven advertisement card of poor printing quality. I then tactfully berate his reception and
flat out tell him that I am very skeptical of his company at this point based
on his reception alone to which he tells me he can take me upstairs. I am then taken to an empty and cavernous office
space waiting room which only has chairs and empty book shelves and introduced
to one of their upper level representatives who is dressed in Wal-Mart clothes
and Payless baby doll shoes with no socks or panty hose in the dead of
WINTER! I THINK she needed a BATH
TOO! Thank the Lord and my vision to do
this unannounced drive by on this company! I had a list of questions written down in my
briefcase to ask this representative and I will tell you the main question I
had. ONE and TWO, do I maintain the
rights to my work and do I maintain the film rights to my work! Her answer was that I keep all rights and
maintain all my rights myself!
So I get back to my hotel room and decide
that I am going to investigate this ‘Dorrance’ company a little further. The Lord is my Savior, my angels are my
protectors, and one of my angels is named GOOGLE! I googled Dorrance Publishing and the word
‘SCAM’ automatically followed the first two words of ‘Dorrance’ &
‘Publishing’; I clicked on the full ‘scam’ thingy and learned everything I
needed to know! When someone else
publishes your work, THEY maintain the film rights and THEY decide IF, and WHAT,
they want to pay you because the rights belong to whomever obtain the ISBN
number which is the ‘International Standard Book Number’ and no book can be
sold without it. There is also an eISBN
number for eBooks and kindle sales. You
would find me on CNN if someone maneuvered my film rights from me and it would
not be good press and it would involve S.W.A.T. teams and the National
Guard. You know I have problems with
people abusing or stealing from people.
I cannot take it!
So I did more research and there is one of
these self-publishing companies who claims to be linked to Simon & Schuster
and promotes that fact all over their website.
We all know Simon & Schuster is a reputable company so the common
observer may be taken in by this fact. When
you read further they explain that if they like your work they will recommend
the book to Simon & Schuster and then they later go on to say that “Simon
& Schuster does NOT take their recommendations into consideration”… A madhouse!
So I am researching all the
self-publishing information and horror stories online and then I find a great
article which recommends Bookprinting.com out of Minnesota where I happened to
be born so I think it’s a good sign.
Bookprinting.com also says they will get the ISBN number and eISBN
number in YOUR name if that’s what you want.
So I decide to publish either a children’s book that I have finished or
a short story that Disney would love through them as I have available funds to
take on a venture like that at present.
I receive a call back from a gentlemen at Bookprinting.com while I am
shopping so I am out of breath pushing aside old ladies and handicapped people
to get the best sale items during the holidays.
I am sure I sound a little scattered to the guy as I am all over the
place with my questions because he doesn’t understand that I am ready to do a
few of these projects right now but I am skeptical of the process. He then refers me to their other subsidiary company
which is a company having a name that came up on my scam alert search! Oh Lord!
They aren’t any good either.
Bookprinting.com sounded so good on paper but I detected the same ‘lala’
I felt from the others websites. The guy
was a dilettante.
I read such horror stories online like one
research and investigative group that submitted a manuscript to one
‘self-publishing’ company of the SAME thirty pages printed over and over again
‘back to back’ to see if they even read the manuscript and this research group
received a letter back saying their manuscript was MAGNIFICENT and they had
written a book that would help a lot of people and the self-publishing company
was thrilled to publish it! The research
group was told they had written a book that would help a lot of people just as
I and others had been told the same thing, “You have written a book that will
help a lot of people”. Just send the check
to us and we will start printing and distributing it right away! They had not even read the book! Some companies print these self-published
books with so many mistakes that some of the authors believed the mistakes were
done intentionally in order to charge for reprints… The list of horror stories went on and on.
One of the main reasons I myself have such
an aversion to self-publishing or ‘vanity’ publishing is due to the fact that
Vanity is one of the seven deadly sins and I have a solid history with
that. I was a bit of an ugly duckling
story in my youth because as a child I felt ugly and for some reason when I got
out of the army after three years of finally working out and removing baby fat
from my face, I had blossomed into quite the attractive person. I would actually walk into a room in Los
Angeles and people would stop talking and stare. I did a few print modeling jobs in California
and a runway fashion show that almost obliterated my ego because I could not
take on that runway persona of ‘I am fabulous, stare at me!’ That was not me. But I had come into the fact that I was a
looker, so much so, that when my publisher gave me my own magazine column I
told him the title of the column would be ‘Vain’
and it was. It was a social commentary
biweekly column that dabbled in Hollywood gossip. I would meet people at clubs and they would
say, “YOU write THAT column! I LOVE that
column.” God had led me to my path and
my first pulpit! My publisher started to
get angry at the direction my column was taking and informed me that not all of
his readers were ready to jump on my political bandwagons… Makes me proud to this day. Later in life is when I learned that Vanity
was one of the seven deadly sins and that I probably needed to make amends for
some of my behavior in California. I had
become too much and I was ashamed of some of my feelings towards others and
about myself. Whether God liked my
actions or not, I did not, and as I have always been a person who wanted to
help and heal the world and myself, I was going to change the behavior patterns
that made me what I was becoming. When I
learned that subsidy publishing or self-publishing was alluded to as ‘vanity’
publishing I told God right then and there, “God, if you want my words to reach
the people then you will get them there, I will show you that I am not ‘vain’ and not force my words on people
with my own dollars or better yet; waste my dollars and prove my vanity by
paying someone to print useless books!” I
did self-produce my album but I did not promote it so to speak and told God
again, “If you want people to hear the album then YOU will make it happen and
get me a distribution deal.” This is the
same as just typing a manuscript. You
haven’t heard my album have YOU!
My thoughts, lessons, studies, and answers
are a work in progress as my soul is with God, which is why I recently
rethought the self-publishing decision but I will remain with God at the wheel
as far as my publishing is concerned and publish some stories on my blog, free
of charge, although COPYRIGHTED! One day
you will see my books, whether posthumous or not that is left to be seen; there
will be stories by ANTHONYSTJOSEPH! All of
this is for a reason… I have stories
that are written that you do not know of that still tear emotion of beauty and
depth from my heart when I reread them.
It may be on my deathbed that I finally hit ‘send’ and share them or it
will be some worthy literary agent who takes a chance and decides to listen,
but for now you can find beauty on my blog and in my words as there are some
very incredible stories available here for you to read. There is also some master craftsmanship of
poetry available here for you to peruse…
I am a wordsmith. I am born under
a mercurial sign during the year of the rabbit who is tied into the universe
and deigned by God to live a life for you and to share with you for this life
is not mine and I have come to be comfortable with that fact and accept it in
its entirety and enjoy all of it including its sadness and joy. Mark Twain was born the week Halley’s Comet
passed by our planet and seventy six years later in the week when Halley’s
Comet returned he passed away. Modesty
aside, I am like a comet that was sent and will also pass. You heard it here first. Is ‘ego’ a deadly sin as well; I do not care
at this point. I have suffered in this
life to share these stories and understand their meanings and bring them to
you. I also feel my comet is coming,
although that holds no immediate significance since I have felt my comet coming
my entire life. My comet awaits. Just two days ago the constellation Orion
appeared on my visor in sparkling stars while I was driving during the day. I realized that it was the reflection from my
diamond ring. I pulled my ring away and
held it to the sun again to make sure I was seeing truth and consistency and
there it was, Orion’s belt and all his appendages reflected from ‘my’ ring that
God has put in ‘my’ life; you see, God and my angels tell me daily and sometimes
hourly in the strangest and most beautifully majestic ways that they are here
with me and all the pain is not for nothing and to keep my faith. All shall be revealed in the end. The strange thing is, the Orion reflected
from my ring is as if you were looking at Orion from the opposite side of the
Universe. Here is a picture of the
reflection from my ring:
By
Anthonystjoseph
All works copyrighted 
and protected by law
