Writing about publishing predators here recently made me realize that I could do more to highlight the good guys in the indie author side of book publishing — the legit author services providers.

Yes, there are a lot of bad guys waiting to pounce. But there are also many legitimate professionals who do good work for a fair fee. Their mission is to earn a living while helping people like you bring your book to the people you wrote it for.

That’s why when a book marketing coaching client connected me with the woman who helped polish his book, I was more than open to a telephone conversation with her. That discussion led to this Q&A about her work as an author services provider and how she does it.

Introducing Karen Hodges Miller

Karen Hodges Miller is CEO at Open Door Publications, a company that specializes in helping authors navigate the world of publishing in today’s environment. The company assists both published and first-time authors with the wide variety of skills and tasks needed to successfully write, publish, and market a book.

She is also the author of eight fiction and nonfiction books and has written countless newspaper and magazine articles in her 30-plus-year career. Her most recent books about book marketing techniques are Authorpreneurship and How to Sell Your Book Today.

Karen is also creating an online course on how to self-publish a book.

Learn how one author services company does business

I talked to Karen about her company to help us better understand how businesses like hers operate. While Karen contracts with specialists for tasks like proofreading, she is very hands on with the company’s book projects.

Please tell me a little about your publishing business.

Open Door Publications assists writers in navigating the sometimes murky waters of self-publishing. We work on a custom basis, starting wherever the individual writer is, whether it is at the “I want to write a book and I’ve never written anything” stage to “I’ve published a book—now what do I do?”

In short, we offer book coaching, editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design, and marketing plan assistance.

Many authors struggle to finally finish their books. Why is that? What are common obstacles to completing a manuscript?

I think the biggest obstacle to publishing is fear: fear of failure or fear of success.

I’ve found that the author who becomes frozen and unable to “pull the trigger” and upload the book when everyone is telling them that it is good is worried about one of these two things.

The second biggest obstacle to finishing a book is time management.

It takes time and creative energy to complete a book. Planning to write three hours a day every day when you already have a full-time job and a family is unrealistic – but I’ve heard many authors tell me this is their plan.

First, sit down and look at your schedule. When can you write? How long can you write productively at any given time? Look at your obligations, then add your writing time to your calendar and make it sacred. Only a true emergency should keep you from writing at that time.

You’ve developed a system that helps authors finally get their books done. Please tell us a little about it and why it works.

My system goes back to the five Ws of journalism: who, what, when, where, and why.

1: Who

First decide who is your target market.

Describe them in detail, including age range, gender, income, other activities and hobbies, and where you will find them on social media and in real life.

2: What

What do you want to write?

Whether fiction or nonfiction, write down your subject and your theme. Your subject is the topic of your book. Your theme is the final message you want your reader to take away when they are done reading.

Try to write your theme in one sentence. If it takes an entire paragraph to explain your theme, you need to go back and refine it.

Next, create a simple outline defining your chapters. Don’t spend too much time perfecting the outline. This is a simple guide that will help you throughout the writing process and make sure you have kept to the points you wanted to make, and have not forgotten anything.

This outline should be made for both fiction and nonfiction and can take any form from a traditional outline to 3×5 cards to a mind map.

3: When

As I mentioned, if you have not scheduled time into your week to write, you’ll never get around to it.

Writing is hard work. Schedule realistic times when you are fresh enough to have creative energy.

If you have worked all day, made dinner for the family, helped with homework, and done three loads of wash, it is unlikely that you’ll be fresh enough at 11 p.m. to write. You may need to get up an hour early to write in the mornings.

4: Where

Where will you write? You need a quiet place where you can think to write. You also need a place where you can securely keep your notes, research, and any other documents.

If you must take out and put away all of your information before each writing session, it will be demotivating. Or, if you have your notes where anyone might move them, it will become a problem.

And finally, make sure you have a secure backup for your work!

5: Why

If you don’t know why you are writing a book, you’ll probably never finish. Write down your goals for your book. Place them into two categories:

• What you want your book to do for others
• What you want your book to do for yourself

How do you decide who to work with? Is there a certain “something” you look for in authors?

I am looking for the “entrepreneurial author,” or as I like to say, someone who is an “authorpreneur.” This is a person who realizes that there is no “write it and they will come.”

First you must write the book, then tell your friends, family, and fans about it over and over and over again.

The second thing I look for is someone who knows how to tell a story.

As an editor, I can fix grammar, help with plot holes, and help with character development, but in the end, the author must know how to tell the story in an interesting way.

Authors have many author services companies to choose from when seeking help bringing their books to the world. What should they be looking for in a business like yours, especially considering the number of predators ready to take their money?

First, make sure that you can personally speak to a human, not just communicate by email.

Look carefully at the services offered. Do you need all of them or just some? Do they only sell packages or do they offer an “a la carte” menu? Are you required to purchase a large amount of books as part of your package?

And finally, do they promise to make you a bestselling author? No one can promise that!

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The only way to become an author is to first become a writer. Writing is hard work and it takes practice. Try to write several times a week, if not every day.

The quickest way to fail is to fail to start!

What author services companies do you recommend? Please tell us in a comment!

I received an interesting voicemail message earlier this month.

“Hi Sandra, this is Ann and I’m calling from Stratton Direct. We want you to send us copies of your book, Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans. And we are interested to display your book in our physical bookstore in Manhattan. And this is at no cost to you. Just send us the copies and give me a call as soon as you get this so we can provide you more details. My number is….”

Stratton Direct is the marketing arm of Stratton Press, an author services company.

Here are four reasons I was surprised by the call:

1. Adams Media published Streetwise Complete Publicity Plans in 2003.
2. Considering I wrote it 20 years ago, it is woefully out of date.
3. It has been out of print for years.
4. Unlike many other authors, I haven’t been inundated with unsolicited calls or emails from companies like this. I thought it was because my print-format books are traditionally published. I was wrong.

So of course, I called her back. And took notes.

Why did Ann call?

Ann wanted to offer me shelf space in a brick-and-mortar store for this out-of-print, out-of-date book.

She could accept up to 10 copies. They would keep 10 to 25% of the retail price; I would keep the rest.

She said she was looking at the book on its Amazon sales page, yet, she asked questions that were answered on that screen. “Who published the book?” “What’s the ISBN number?”

But “How is it selling?” Come on, Ann. It’s a how-to book that’s 20 years old. How do you think it’s selling?

The old “You’re an important author” trick

I asked what put me on her radar. “You’re an important author!” she said.

via GIPHY

I could hear my Dad saying, “Don’t kid a kidder.”

I still don’t know how or why I was targeted, or why anyone else is. If you do, please explain it in the comments.

But, wait! There’s more!

Ann asked about my marketing strategy. Have I gotten it into local bookstores, she wondered. She didn’t seem to understand that a book that’s part of a series from a major publisher has more than local distribution. It’s in stores nationwide.

Or in my case, was.

After asking me about my goal for the book, I gave her the answer she wanted: To sell as many books as possible. That was the goal 20 years ago, anyway. (Did she not notice that detail?)

That’s the answer that unlocked the full pitch.

Why, they have a “complete book selling system” that I can take advantage of! It includes placement in their “exclusive online store.” And I can keep 100% of sales from that store.

“Every sale you make goes into your bank account,” she assured me.

via GIPHY

All I need to do is send her my book’s manuscript so Stratton Press can republish it under its name.

My book will get its own sales page in their online store. They’ll market it aggressively on social media.

The new book, personal sales page, and “aggressive” promotion will cost me $3,000. That fee includes warehouse storage for what would be a print-on-demand book, too…even though no storage is required for books that are printed and shipped only after people order them.

Here’s why the Stratton Press pitch is stupid

Stratton Press  is charging a fee for services. But those services have no value.

You have a book already. Why do you need to re-publish it with an operation that’s trawling the internet for authors to flatter? (I refer back to that “important author” statement above.)

Plus, readers don’t buy books from unknown sites like this. They want to buy books from trusted retailers – Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, etc. (If you’re trying to sell your book from your own website, you understand this.)

What’s more, the Stratton Direct/Stratton Press website clearly targets authors, not readers. That’s a huge clue that the company’s goal is to fleece authors, not readers.

Don’t fall for it

There are NO reasons for you to buy a Stratton Direct/Stratton Press package. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

That physical bookstore in Manhattan? It’s “coming this 2023.” (But that’s more hopeful than “next 2023,” right?) Will it ever open? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure readers won’t be shopping there.

What can this unknown bricks-and-mortar store (that doesn’t exist yet) offer that a favorite indie store can’t? More outdated, out-of-print books like mine.

I think this “coming soon” store was thrown into the mix to tempt authors who desperately want bookstore distribution, but can’t get it, don’t you?

6 signs you’ve heard from a predator

I returned Ann’s phone call because I knew it was from some type of author services company preying on authors who are vulnerable to flattery or other trickery.

I can see why the package offered to me would be attractive to those who are less informed and less cynical than I am. The sample book pages on the Stratton Press site that Ann sent me links to are lovely.

But that’s just smoke and mirrors.

Here are six signs to watch for so you don’t become the victim of a publishing predator.

1. They call. 

Legitimate publishers aren’t calling authors with published books. They just aren’t. And they certainly aren’t calling authors who aren’t already selling a lot of books.

Their goal is to convince you that they can sell lots and lots of books for you.

They can’t.

2. They send email messages.

See above – the good guys aren’t sending emails to unknown authors, either. Delete.

3. They flatter you.

I understand how anyone might be susceptible to a pitch from someone who says they represent a book publisher. We all want to think our books are so special that they attract strangers who will take those books to the next level.

Push past that temptation to think that maybe, just maybe, they are legit. If enough of us hang up the phone, flattery will get them nowhere.

4. They use bait and switch tactics.

My conversation went from “We’ll stock your book for free in our physical bookstore” to “and for $3,000, we’ll do these other things of no value to you” pretty quickly.

5. Googling the company name plus “complaints,” “scam,” or “predator” generates results.

This is the first thing I do when someone in the Build Book Buzz Book Marketing Group on Facebook asks about a publisher.

6. The company is on the ALLi Self-Publishing Services naughty list.

The Alliance of Independent Authors – ALLi – maintains a helpful list of author services companies along with ratings:

• Excellent
• Recommended
• Mixed
• Caution
• Watchdog Advisory

Stratton Press, on page 17 of the list, is in the next-to-the-worst category, “Caution.” Those are “Services that do not currently align with ALLi’s Code of Standards.”

Don’t take the bait

Here are three ways to avoid paying for services you don’t need and that won’t help:

• Stifle your ego. These people aren’t calling because your book is special. They’re calling because they hope you’re a sucker.
• Don’t return a call from anyone who says they’re an agent, publisher, or marketer. Honest, successful people in these categories don’t cold-call unknown authors.
• Keep your credit card in your wallet. Before spending money with “service providers” soliciting your business, Google them using the tip above. Check the ALLi watchdog list. Ask authors in online groups what they know about the companies.

Spread the word

That last point about sharing predator information with other authors is important. One of the best ways to minimize the damage caused by companies that prey on us is to choke off their supply of unsuspecting writers.

The more we talk about and share information about these companies, the more we can help our author peers. You can help immediately by sharing this article in author groups.

I’m glad this happened to me. It offered a firsthand look at how these goobers operate. I hope that sharing my experience here has helped you, too.

I probably haven’t identified all of the signs of a predator. What would you add to this list? Please tell us in a comment.