Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
The awesome co-hosts for the August 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Natalie Aguirre, Sarah – The Faux Fountain Pen, and Olga Godim!
Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.
August 6 question – What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?
First, I apologize. I’m late getting this post up. And it will be a quick one, because I chose to be an indie author back when I first thought about sharing my stories, and I haven’t kept up with all the shenanigans of publishers.
My first problem was the time frame needed to get a agent, find a publisher, and see your words make it into print. I was too darn old to wait for all of that!
But my biggest issue was the small amount of money authors receive from their hard work. Unless you are a rare author who makes it to a best seller list book after book, the payout is meager. And I knew enough to not get involved with vanity publishers, who promise you the world and you end up with a thousand copies of your book sitting in your spare room. Or stacked in a closet,
And vanity presses are getting sneakier. Authors have to stay alert. There are also new scams with people wanting to publicize their work. (I love the emails proclaiming to love my book and never mentioning the name.) AI is making it easier for the scammers and harder for authors.
But the one that has always bugged me is Amazon’s return policies.
For both ebooks and audio books. They almost turn Amazon into a lending library instead of a book seller. I can easily read a book and return it within the allowable time frame, then move on to another. But Amazon is the biggest vender of books, so I feel stuck, needing to have my books on that platform. Still, I don’t use KDP because I want my stories to be available across many outlets.
What issues do other others see? There’s a long list of people sharing their views below. Check out a few of them.
As always, until next time, please stay safe.