Publishing your book through a Publisher

Every would-be writer's dream would be to write a book, publish it, get a movie deal, and live life like Dean Koontz. Mine included. So when I finished my book, Memoirs of the In-Between, and it was accepted by Page Publishing on the first submission, I was beyond the moon.

Let me be clear. When you are speaking to a representative whose job it is to sell you on agreeing to the contract of a publisher, they will tell you a spiel about all the 'benefits' you'll receive when you pay them four to five thousand dollars.

The works will generally include:

• A cover, provided with advice from you, and made by the imagination of an artist who has read your synopsis.
• A press release to some thousand publications, such as New York Times, and blah blah blah.
• You can choose to have an editor look at your work and send you an edited manuscript you'll have to approve.
• You can pay an extra few hundred dollars to purchase the Hollywood ticket deal where your synopsis will be sent to agents who are looking for stories to turn into a screenplay.
• You can also choose to pay extra to have them find book stores that are willing to put it on their shelves (there are layers of packages you can purchase from them).

These are all the main perks of publishing through a publisher. What they forget to tell you, until after you've paid them a ton of money, is that the press releases are not promised. They send them to publication platforms, but in no way shape, or form is it going to be promised any of them will release your book.

I also found, much to my dismay that the editing process was full of mishaps for me. What they send you back is a PDF file in an email, with your manuscript all marked out in red where your chases would be. It's super hard to read. And then when I approved the changes, the book that was printed to people who bought it was still full of mistakes.

Also, another thing they don't mention, is that you still have to do all of your own marketing. They do not do marketing for the most part, unless you pay a hefty penny for them to do so. For me, it was a struggle to get the basic package paid off, and I barely earned $100.00 in revenue from it. Back then, I knew nothing about marketing. I decided to go to business school, and I'm much better prepaid to face the endeavor when I do get the book republished.

All in all, I was extremely disappointed with the publishing experience that I had, and you'd be hard-pressed to get me to pay that much money to a publishing company again.

To make things worse, another publishing company had contacted me, stating that they were interested in representing my books and helping me pitch them to movie directors. I went ahead and paid a downpayment on it, and began working with them and arranging appointments to pitch my story to directors. I was no-showed 3 times before I finally demanded a refund and a termination of our contract.

When I do eventually republish my book, I will be representing myself, and self-publishing. I want someone representing my book that is as proud of it as I am, and other than my mom and fiance that really isn't anyone else. I have learned that if I want to make my writing dreams come true, I'm going to have to work even harder at it. The publishing world is all about money, and it's the only thing that talks. I, unfortunately, struggle to get every penny that I do get, and it's usually dedicated to taking care of my children.

I want to leave behind a legacy that my kids can be proud of - and I want to make sure that when I am gone, they are benefiting from what I did in life. So, I am prepared to work my tail off to get this book republished, and promote it like a mad woman.