Tuesday, March 22, 2011

THESE ADS

I hope you all know that I don't choose these ads that appear on my blogs.

Lately, I've noticed a bunch of ads for self-publishing, which I don't believe in. I think it is a huge waste of time and money. It's OK if you want to distribute some family history to your cousins or grandkids or something. But it is NOT real publishing.

In real publishing, a recognized and respected publishing house pays you for the legal right to publish and distribute your work. They usually pay an advance against royalties and then pay subsequent royalties on books sold. They print the books, warehouse them, and distribute them to bookstores and other book sellers. The publisher pays to advertise the books you have written and they do public relations for them. They send advance copies to the New York Times and other legitimate reviewers.

You don't pay them, they pay you. Legitimate reviewers will not review self-published books.

I think I read that there were about 185,000 books self-published in the USA last year, and about 90,000 legitimate books published by traditional publishing houses

You can always tell a self-published book. Just read the first page. These books are amateurish and self-indulgent. They often have misspellings and bad grammar.

Anyway, don't kid yourself about self-publishing. Do you want to build your own car, from scratch? Good luck.

I've also seen ads on here for schools I have never heard of before. Make sure that any college you go to is for real, that it is accredited by a real agency. I would check on the U.S. Department of Eduction website first:
http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html

-- Roger

© Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle

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