Over the weekend, I received a series of emails from an author who used one of the self-publishing companies I recommend in my book. It’s a good company, run by a hardworking, dedicated publisher. The emails were to complain about the publisher. But, they were complaints that were unfounded, unfair, and impossible to respond to. One complaint was that Barnes & Noble never sent the author a link to the page on BN.com where the book was sold. I explained that BN.com doesn’t do that and I sent him the link to the BN.com sales page for his book. The other complaint was that he was under the impression that his book of poetry would be featured on the Amazon.com homepage. Keep in mind, this is a first time author with a book of poetry. Hard sell and harder sell.
Now, there are some companies that would tell an author this stuff in order to make the sale. But, not the company in question.
Despite the book being published for more than several months, the publisher refunded all of the author’s money. I advised the author to beg the publisher to take him back and not to bite the hand…The author finally saw the error of his ways, but he’d pushed the publisher one too many times.
All customers of any business should have the services provided to them as paid for. But, what happens when a company does that and the customer just doesn’t get it?
So, this guy now has his book of poetry and his $900 or so back. But, his book title will be cancelled everywhere and the author ends up at the starting gate. He kept asking me which self-publishing company is good at marketing poetry. I told him that no publishing company, self or traditional, could market this book. He didn’t want to listen. Unfortunately, he will find a company that will convince him to buy email marketing campaigns and other gimmicky things.
Good publishers always try to help. This was the case here.
