by Nate Hoffelder
Self-publishing a book can get quite expensive. A good cover designer can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, and the editorial costs can set you back even more.
While there are many important expenses, there are also many ways to spend money and get nothing useful in return.
For example, take the Bowker SAN. This is a $150 service that lists your mailing address in a Bowker database. While it might be useful to register an official mailing address, that’s not what SAN is used for. People can only look up your address in the SAN database by the SAN, not your name. Since you have to give someone your SAN in the first place, why not give them your address instead and save yourself the $150?
I polled a number of experts, including David Gaughran, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Joel Friedlander, Victoria Strauss, Jane Friedman, and Hugh Howey. The following post lists a few of the things they thought were a waste of money.
The first items was suggested by Robin Sullivan, business manager and wife of author Michael Sullivan.
Promoting an Author’s First Book
Robin gives monthly seminars on the business of indie book publishing. A couple months back she revealed that fiction authors should not start marketing their books until after they have published the third book.
She based this on the observation that readers don’t just buy a book by an author they like, they buy as many of that author’s books as they can afford. If an author has only a single book out, they can only make one sale per reader, which is why authors should wait until they have several books to sell.
Note: We’re not recommending that you avoid all marketing and platform building until your third book is out. We’re just suggesting that you not work so hard to get people to buy the first book. To put it another way, you can grow your mailing list and connect with readers from day one, but don’t try to sell them your books until after the third one has been released.
Buying 5-Star Amazon Reviews
Amazon reviews have a positive effect on your sales rank, and they can also influence readers into buying your books. They’re quite valuable, which is why there are many people selling reviews cheap (see Fiverr for a few hundred examples).
In the early days of self-publishing it used to be an acceptable practice to buy positive reviews. Some best-selling authors even publicly recommended buying reviews as part of your book marketing strategy.
But Amazon frowns on the practice. Buying a review on Amazon is bound to backfire. If Amazon thinks you bought a review they will delete it, and they might even derank your book as punishment. (Or worse. Here’s my post on Amazon’s draconian crackdowns…Anne. )
Publicists
Of all the suggestions made by the experts, publicists topped the list. Several experts said that publicists just weren’t worth the cost. “They don’t do much you can’t do on your own, and what they do, they do poorly,” they told me. “They also cost tens of thousands of dollars.”
That last part isn’t an exaggeration; I know of one self-publishing author who spent $8,000 for a marketing campaign. He didn’t sell any additional books, didn’t get more readers, and didn’t get additional publicity.
It would cost less to learn how to do the work yourself. Rather than hire a publicist, go on Facebook groups like SPF Community and ask for recommendations about marketing courses.
Email & Social Media Blast Services
Another great way for an author to waste their money would be to pay a “blast” service. They tweet about the author’s book to a service’s million followers on Twitter and Facebook. Or pay to have a press release sent to 10,000+ news outlets.
The IBPA, to name one example, charges $550 to spam 3,000 media email addresses with your press release.
Here’s the thing about spam. Whether you send it by email or social media, hardly any real people see it.
Most people don’t want to get the spam. It is immediately deleted (or worse, dumped in the spam folder before it is ever seen). Speaking as a blogger, I certainly do not read the hundreds of press release spam emails that I get everyday, and I do not know anyone who does, so there’s no value is spamming everyone.
The better way is to take the personal approach. Identify the sites and bloggers you want to work with, learn what they are interested in, and pitch them one at a time.
(For more on how to approach individual sites, here’s a post on how to query a blogger…Anne)
Buying Followers – Newsletter, Twitter, or Facebook
If there is one thing that is just as worthless as spamming people who don’t want to see your message, it’s paying to add followers to your social media accounts or newsletter.
It might look like a worthwhile shortcut, but in reality the social media followers are all going to be bots, and not real people. The email addresses will belong to random people whose emails were sold to mailing lists without their consent.
So if you do buy followers, you will end up with followers who either don’t exist or have no real interest in hearing from you. That’s why you should save your money, and accept the fact that followers have to be recruited one at a time.
Classes on the “Secrets” of Making Millions Self-Publishing
Like most professions, it takes a lot of learning to be a successful author, and you have to keep picking up new tricks all the time. And there are many experts out there who can teach you what you need to know, but there are also a lot of scammers who promise more than they can deliver.
Authors would be wise to avoid any course from a guru that promises to show you “the secret” to selling millions of books. Before you sign up, you should check to see if the “guru” has actually written and sold a lot of books or just teaches marketing courses for a living.
Many of these million “sellers” have either given away most of their copies or sold the copies of their fiction books at a loss. Other have sold hardly any books at all, and are making money from their marketing tips, not from their writing.
Anti-Piracy Services
Piracy is a scourge, right? Not according to Neil Gaiman, who regards it as free marketing, or Baen Books, a publisher that gives ebooks away and sells the rest DRM-free, or The Authors Guild, whose data shows that piracy isn’t a serious problem.
There are many companies that promise to scour the web and remove pirated copies of your books, but before you hire one I will let you in on a secret.
Here’s the secret: Most “pirate” sites are merely pretending to have a copy of a pirated book.
They’re usually running some type of scam (it varies) but they are not committing piracy so it makes little sense to pay a service to go after them.
Buying Your Way onto a Best-Seller List
A quick Google search will turn up a dozen services that promise to get you on the New York Times, Amazon, or other bestseller lists. In a lot of cases, they can get you on that list, but only at a cost.
When it comes to the NYTimes list, you’re going to end up buying thousands of copies of your own book – a five-digit expense, at a minimum. It has been done, but some have also been caught out as frauds for using this trick, permanently marring their reputations.
And even if you’re not publicly exposed, buying your way on to a lot can have negative consequences. If Amazon catches you gaming their best-seller list they will punish you. At a minimum they will remove the ebook from their list, and for particularly egregious or repeat offenders Amazon has been known to remove the ebook in question or even ban suspected offenders – permanently.
Is it really worth the risks or costs?
***
There you have it; eight services and products that can cost you upwards of thousands of dollars and deliver nothing of value.
While these services are expensive and worthless, they are really just a few of the many ways that authors can waste money.
Have you found a worthless service not mentioned above?
by Nate Hoffelder (@TheDigitalReader) July 14, 2019
What about you, scriveners? Have you spent money on a marketing plan that turned out to be worthless? Can you add to Nate’s list of self-publishing money wasters? What do you think is the biggest waste of money in self-publishing?
Nate Hoffelder is something of a legend in the self-publishing community. He has been building and running WordPress sites since 2010. His iconic blog,The Digital Reader offers daily updates of all the latest news from the tech and publishing industries, especially self-publishing.
Nate also has a Facebook tech-help group, The Help Desk, where he answers all our questions about tech and publishing.
He helps authors connect with readers by customizing websites to suit each author’s voice. You may have heard his site, The Digital Reader, mentioned on podcasts such as The Creative Penn, Wordslinger, or Sell More Books Show.
His current project is an all-in-one solution to the problem of setting up a new author website. It is called Author Website in a Box, and it combines everything you need in a site, including a pre-built home page, bookshelf pages, about the author pages, and even a blog, all in one easy to install package.
In his spare time, he fosters dogs for A Forever Home, a local rescue group.
Check out Author Website in a Box!
Thanks Nate. Never too soon or too loud for new authors to hear these warnings. I’m one of the lucky ones whose finances have been so constrained I wasn’t subject to the temptations (which I would surely have fallen prey to). So. Hard. To. Wait. But keep on writing and learning is probably the best advice.
Glad I could help!
I can’t begin to express just how helpful this is. Thank U,Thank U, Thank U
Thanks, Nate. Great info!
Authors would be wise to avoid any course from a guru that promises to show you “the secret” to selling millions of books. Before you sign up, you should check to see if the “guru” has actually written and sold a lot of books or just teaches marketing courses for a living.
I’d add that writers should also read some of the guru’s books. I read four of one best-selling author’s novels in a six-book series before seeing ads about his course. The books decreased in quality as the series progressed, and I declined to buy the last two. I’d never take a course offered by him, and he has lost me as a reader.
Welcome!
Thanks again for listing the IWSG’s contest.
I’m not self-published, but I have discovered that every site offering a pirated version of my book really didn’t have it. They were offering free eBooks to get people’s data and information. Just as scummy, but not something I need to worry about.
Alex–I’m spreading the word about the IWSG contest. I hope you get lots of great entries! I’m with you. Ever since I read what Neil Gaiman said about piracy, I’ve ignored most of it.
Nate—Thanks for a valuable post. As always, caveat emptor!
Thanks!
A few years ago I wrote a series of guests posts for another author-oriented blog on ebook piracy. At the time there was a notorious ebook “pirate” site in operation. I offered to (and did) send DMCA take down notices for free on behalf of any reader of the site where my posts appeared. I must have issued over 100 take downs before it occurred to me that the site was not a true pirate site. That led me down the research rabbit hole of what a true pirate site is and how it works.
Real pirate sites target movies, video games, and music, not usually ebooks. I reduced my findings into a post of its own: How BitTorrent Technology is Used to Pirate Copyrighted Material ~ a Primer. (https://creativelawcenter.com/bittorrent-a-piracy-primer/).
It took me a minute (or more) to figure it out, but pirate sites that say they have free downloads of your ebook, usually don’t.
Kathryn – thanks for this information and additional clarity — curiosity wins again, eh?
Even once I discovered the true nature of ebook pirate sites, many of my clients were seriously annoyed that their titles and names were being used to lure (unscrupulous) potential readers into giving up their email addresses to spammers and possibly being infected with malwale.
Kathryn–Many thanks for the link to your piracy article. I’ve shared it on social media. The truth is most piracy is annoying but not career threatening. I’m also plagued by scammers who use the name of this blog to lure people into college essay-writing sites and other scammy places. I get Google alerts on them all the time. Nothing I can do to keep them from tagging their posts with my name, but it is annoying to know my book title, name and blog are being used to lure their prey.
I think that is the best title for a blog I have seen in years! Great points, Anne. I’ll pass this link on to my students.
The only thing I can add: buying expensive ads in general book magazines. Even genre magazines. My publisher did this twice, and I did it once. I did see an increase of sales, but the ads are so expensive, it didn’t break even. My publisher even bought ads for subway cars. Again, increase in sales, but I would never try that myself. Subway riders are not necessarily crime readers, so it’s not targeted marketing.
Sorry! I meant Nate (who is the author of this piece.) I get so used to writing Anne 🙂
No worries!
It depends on the pirate. I discovered Kiss Library, run by a Canadian and Ukrainian, that were offering my books in PDF format for $4 each. They also had a DMCA takedown form that I used to delist their books. (I’ll be going back next month just to see if they stay down).
(BTW, I found the site by Googling my wife’s book title. She’s in KU, and Amazon will sometimes find your book on another site and threaten to toss you out if their exclusivity is not maintained.)
Otherwise, I agree: A lot of these “pirate” sites are scams. And let’s face it, who’s going to get your book there if they don’t know who you are in the first place.
Another worthless service: Hiring someone to copyright your book for you. The Library of Congress website has you fill out a form and you pay them $35 – $55 (depending on the type of book). On the downside, it’s a PIA to use, and their examiners get very confused about applying the law unless you state exactly what it is you’re copyrighting I publish anthologies, with a combo of public domain and copyrighted material, and they’ve pinged me for accidentally including the ad copy in the back of the book. Goodbye $35, and another $55 to jump through their hoop again.
I don’t know; that might actually be worth it. it really depends on the cost, and on how much your time is worth. If hiring someone costs less than DIY then it is worth it.
Hey Bill,
For this I would recommend hiring an automated DMCA takedown service like https://www.pirat.io/ which will scan for your books 24/7 and takedown the pirated copies of them.
This is great as you wont have to worry about it, or have to constantly scan all the search engines for your content and waste time filling DMCA’s and giving the pirate sites your personal information which they could use to sell to others or sell your e-mail address to spammers.
Im very happy with them, they helped me reach more customers and sales plus get my books higher in listings for people to find!
Authors should invest in themselves and their books but we should be smart about it.
It is sad so many people fall for these scams. It is sadder there are people who feel there are shortcuts to literary success.
Great post, Nate. Keep spreading the word about scams.
Ingmar–The myth that there’s a “secret shortcut” to literary success is what keeps these scammers in business, unfortunately. What we try to do here is dispel some of those myths.
Great post – so easy to get sucked into some of these schemes!
Thanks!
Dang. I’m pretty good at wasting my money, but I haven’t tried any of these brilliant ideas. Ha!
I have some half-priced lottery tickets if you are interested.
I’d say paying huge sums to get onto a ‘blog tour’ is another waste of time. Set up your own blog, promote the content on social media, and get the SEO boost from Google. Job done!
The thing about blog tours is that I have heard from authors where it helped boost their sales, so I can’t rule it out just yet.
Icy–I agree with Nate. It all depends on the tour. If you can get one that targets your audience, it can really generate a lot of sales. But others are just a waste of time, money and energy.
I just did a blog tour, focusing on my series rather than one book. I had a few sales, but gained quite a few followers for newsletter and social media platforms, so hopefully that has a flow on effect in the future.
Cindy–Thanks for your input. That’s good to know. I’m still an advocate of a good blog tour to jumpstart your career. Then the secret is to keep up with the bloggers where you got the most engagement.
Great advice. Thank you.
Welcome!
Thanks Nate. I was nervous when I read your introductory sentence as I am about to pay a few hundred dollars for a professional cover but it looks like that is one of the worthwhile investments. I am about to self-publish book no. 1 so this was really useful and perfectly timed!
Some people would tell you that a $300 cover is a waste of money. I disagree, but social etiquette precludes me from pointing out the many bad covers I have seen.
I think number one is true—at least for me. I’ve been doing a slower marketing with my second novel (and there are some cheaper ways to market, which I’ve been experimenting with). I’ll rethink my marketing plan when I release my third novel later this year.
Ned–Part of the reason I asked Nate to write for us is his stance on not paying to advertise a first novel, or even a second. I hear so many heartbreaking stories from writers spending $1000’s on advertising a singleton title, with no ROI.
Also, the most effective advertising for ebooks is in bargain newsletters like Bookbub, but there’s no point in discounting a title unless you have other titles to sell at full price.
IPBA’s lists aren’t spammed. They wouldn’t be in business long if they did that. DLP used their library package before with some success. We just have such a large database of our own with names, addresses, and emails that we don’t need to pay for a service like that anymore.
Most publicists aren’t worth it though. Paul Krupin is reasonable and does a great job (we’ve used him before) but some of them…who can afford to throw away five figures?
the email blasts to media are spam, yes
Do NOT go on a grpups like 20books50k, which is a huge cess pool of bullies and radical idiots. Instead find other authors specifically in your genre and work together. There is strength in numbers!!
Rebekah–Thanks for the heads-up. Maybe I should unlink. Bullies can destroy a perfectly good group in short order. No point in going to a site dominated by stupid, cruel people.
People from the 20booksto50k group were behind mostly of the copyright/trademark drama, like “cockygate” from a year or so ago. Most of their material, at least at that time, was more about algorithm hacking than actually producing and selling quality books. Don’t know if it’s changed since then, but I have a serious problem ever recommending them after that debacle.
Kilt–Thanks for the further info. I’ll take it out of the post now. System-gamers are a menace to all legit indie authors.
Thanks for sharing these insights, Nate! I had a low point during which I considered one of those “market like this and make millions” courses, but then I looked at the price tag and thought, no, I would rather put that money towards a better book cover or something else.
Tyrean–Thank goodness your frugality overrode the hype. A lot of these courses can be pretty convincing. Putting your money into a better cover is a great idea. Or just buying yourself some more time to learn to write better.
Great post. And honestly – at least based on my sad experience – there are so many ways to blow your money. But one that sort of stands out – is the lure of participating in a “library push campaign” that is promoted through a 3rd party looking to send out either a publication or a series of emails to librarians across the country. There is no there – there.
Brad–This is a new one to me. I’ll have to look into it. The idea of reaching librarians is a biggie. Especially if you write kid lit. Getting into libraries can make your career. This is why people buy Kirkus reviews (which I hear don’t do much.) But a “library push campaign” that doesn’t reach librarians sounds like even more of a waste of money. Many thanks!
Wow! Thanks to Nate for this column and Anne for posting something so timely. A local writing organization inadvertently promoted an online writing scam. Thanks, Anne, for coming to the rescue with your detailed column and research, which they published in their newsletter and website. Getting the word out, even after the fact is helpful.
Judythe–I was grateful Nate was able to write this piece for us. And thanks for spreading the word about some of the most common scams to our local Nightwriters group. It’s so easy for these scammers to dupe local groups who may not be as savvy about the big bad publishing world at large. Sometimes scammers target groups by writing to their board members and appearing to support the group’s efforts. These people are unscrupulous.
Some really great tips here. I’ve spent money on social media accounts and sold a few books. However, I completely agree with doing everything organically. Why cheat yourself?? It makes no sense at all.
Thanks!
Book blog tours are a waste of money, IMO. Many times each “stop” uses the same exact post, with the same exact audience. Writers may seem a quick bump in sales on the first stop, but then it’s repetitive and no one pays attention. ‘Course, I can only speak to thrillers & mysteries. Romance authors may have a different experience.
Sue–I agree that blog tours like that are a waste of money. Authors need to do their homework. And I honestly don’t know that many mystery book bloggers right now. I think you’re right that the Romance network is much bigger and more effective. There are a lot more Romance bloggers, and the point of a blog tour is to cast a wide net.
As always, excellent information. I appreciate the clarification about pirating, as I’ve mistakenly thought this really was a big problem. And the advice to wait until the third book before getting too serious about marketing makes sense. I’ve noticed a lot of activity with new authors in terms of blog tours and blasts, and the results really are disappointing.
Thanks!
The thing about piracy is that no one really knows how big it is. There are estimates about the dollar value in lost sales, but those are just guesses. The best we can really do is look at the pirate sites that can be found online, and that has lead me to the conclusion that most “pirate” sites are fake.
This post is fabulous! For one, it helped me pat myself on the back. I’ve self-published two novels, and used an Indie publisher for my illustrated children’s books. In all cases, I’ve studied the best way to be the best writer/author I can be. I’ve read lots of those ‘offers’ that you list above, and fortunately not fallen for any of them. For one, I couldn’t afford it! Instead, I’ve written consistently on my blog and found wonderful friends/readers/supporters who happily buy my books when they’re published. And many of them review my books too. We bloggers have become a community of supporters of each other’s works, understanding how hard we work on them. The Indie books I read and review are well-written and worthy of acquiring millions of readers. Most of us are happy if we get a thousand readers, but that doesn’t mean the writing/books aren’t good. They are. Also, I use beta readers for my final draft, many of them bloggers I’ve met, and I hire an editor I met through blogging. I’m hoping to do the same for my next book cover. Anyway, thanks for the great advice. The last few posts I’ve read recently about piracy had me a bit worried, but you have assuaged them.
Sounds like you are off to a great start! Good luck!
Hi Nate and Anne! Terrific post. I agree with all with the exception of waiting to marketing one’s first book until the third is out. Yes, having a backlist is important however, a writer needs to make those connections and build that readership long before the first book is even out! As an author myself (6 books out) with decades of marketing experience and a book marketing consultant now, this advice is befuddling to me.
Building our author brand isn’t about selling – it’s about connection and authenticity. There’s absolutely no reason why writers should wait to pre-market their upcoming release by establishing their author branding a good year before release. Waiting until after is inauthentic.
My take, anyway. 🙂
Rachel–Hi there! *waves*. I took Nate’s advice to apply to paid advertising rather than building platform, which doesn’t have to cost a thing. I’ve seen so many new writers put thousands of dollars into ads for a singleton title and get no ROI.
I always tell them to forget the ads, start a blog, and write another book. Like you, I think a blog is the best way to network and build platform. Blogging and building your social media platform don’t have to cost anything, so they don’t come under Nate’s list of money-wasters.
But paid advertising works much better when you have several titles out. Then you can discount one and get into the bargain newsletters like Bookbub and your advertising dollars work a lot harder.
Nate may have a different take on this, and I shouldn’t speak for him, but that’s how I took his advice. Thanks for weighing in and helping us clarify..
Late to the party but this is excellent stuff. Thanks for sharing.
you’re welcome!
All looks like good advice – thank you for your expertise; will bookmark and come back when Or if) the day arrives!
Welcome!
Thank you so much Anne. I’m pretty new to this, and your blog is just GOLD for me.
Marina–I’m glad we could help!
A very useful post.
I loved this bit the most…”
Authors would be wise to avoid any course from a guru that promises to show you “the secret” to selling millions of books. Before you sign up, you should check to see if the “guru” has actually written and sold a lot of books or just teaches marketing courses for a living…..”
I always so cautious of all this the secret, it is just a money making opportunity for them.
Thanks for sharing this noteworthy piece of advice. I am sharing this with my brother who has just turned author. Keep sharing!!