Editors Are Not Publishers For First Time Authors

This is a trend I have seen starting to occur where editors offer to act as publishers for first time authors. Offering advice and assistance with setting up publishing accounts and distribution.

It’s a trend I’m completely against because first time authors that don’t know any better, end up with a substandard book product that isn’t published in the global book system correctly, isn’t set up for distribution and ends up being near impossible to sell.

This is far from the end result any author wants.

These editors have no real idea of what it takes to publish a book. They just know how they published their book, or more commonly, how they saw someone else publish. They read a few blog posts, and now all of a sudden they’re an expert.

I don’t think so.

On saying this it isn’t only editors that I have seen trying to make a quick buck by stating on a crappy blog page that they can help authors, it is also other writers. Again these writers often know nothing about publication other than the process they have taken. They can’t offer professional advice on book covers, typesetting, editing, and the publishing and distribution business considerations necessary to successfully publish and release a book.

Instead these publishing hacks go out and charge first time writers for their advice on how to get published and often steer the writer in the wrong direction. I’ve heard one client complain about how their book publishing account was stuffed up, listing the wrong publisher name and having a half-assed job done of the distribution set up. The end result was a book she couldn’t sell. This person was assisted out of this mess by a recommended publishing vendor.

Now there is a difference between trying to help the writer by sending them a recommendation of a company you believe in and trying to do it yourself to make a quick buck.

Look at Better Scribe. We’re focused on manuscript assessment, proofreading and mentoring for writers and we don’t pretend to be able to set up publishing and distribution accounts and explain wholesale discounts.

We’re not going to either. It’s not our focus of speciality.

Instead Better Scribe has partnered up with companies we believe in and can help our clients end up with a product that an author can be proud of. These recommended vendors do know the “ins and outs” of publishing, printing and distribution.

We’re invested in making sure writers get the best advice and we can also help if you decide to submit to trade publishers by helping you choose reputable publishers that are the best fit for your genre.

First time authors, please do your homework. Just asking a few questions can help you avoid a big mistake that may be difficult to fix. Just because someone ‘sounds’ like they know what they’re talking about because they can tell you what an ISBN is, or regurgitate the same misleading, unfounded information found on thousands of other free BlogSpot websites created a week ago, doesn’t mean they know SQUAT about publishing.