When I was about ten years old, I saw something that I have never been able to explain … until now. There was a house in our neighborhood with a sloping driveway that descended into the basement. We’re talking a 30-dgree angle here. I was walking to a friend’s house when I saw a group of kids running down the sidewalk to the top of that driveway, pulling a large red wagon behind them. Four of them—ranging in age from about 6-11—clamored into that wagon.
“Uh, guys?” I started to go toward them, not imagining that they were going to … Yep. They started down that driveway. Did I mention that the heavy, wood garage door at the bottom was closed? It was over in two seconds.
Funny how fast “WHEEEEEEE” can turn into “WAAAAAAAAAHH” when jubilant anticipation hits a wall at 15 or 20 mph. The three oldest kids ran up the driveway and ran for home, wailing. The youngest struggled to pull up the wagon and then followed the scream parade. The question that’s always been on my mind since that incident is, “when the end of the journey is bound to disappoint so miserably, why start down that hill?”
I suppose each of those poor kids has probably shared their own version of their story with the help of a vanity publisher, only to relive those painful memories and suffer the same results. (This is called “revictimization.”)
Some people don’t look before they leap, and never will. Is there anything more exciting than finishing the manuscript for your great American novel or your poetry or self-help book, and you’re ready to publish? The feelings you experience when self publishing your book are a lot like the emotions one feels when a child is born. This is heavy emotional, creation stuff. No wonder some people reach the end of a vanity publishing experience and feel like they’ve just kissed the wall at 20 mph.
Look before you leap.
Yes, it sounds cliché. But Sir Isaac Newton was smarter than your average Joe. His well-known Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. One of his less-famous laws states that if you brashly choose a vanity publisher, assuming you’ll own your ISBN and receive greater profits than doing it yourself, you’ll experience an equal amount of disappointment and frustration when you find the exact opposite is true. Another obscure Newtonian essay describes that if you gleefully allow a vanity publisher to design your book’s printer files, you’ll experience at least the same intensity of anger when you’re told that the files are proprietary and must be purchased before they’re released to you.
“Something happened on my way to SelfPublishing.com.”
We hear it EVERY week from authors who arrive at our homepage and are ecstatic to learn they can buy their own ISBN. They’ll own their printer files. They’ll earn 100% of their net profits. They can publish and print their own book their way. They can achieve their publishing goals.
“X**** told me that I was self publishing. But they were going to own my ISBN and pay me a royalty.”
“iU****** assured me that my package included files to print my books. Now I hear they own my files and if I want to print books on my own, I have to buy them or start over.”
“Xl***** said I could set the price for my book. To make any money from the sales I had to let them raise the price out of what my readers will pay. I’m so stuck.”
There is an easier way to get your creative writings published and to market. It’s taken you months or maybe years to complete your manuscript. The choice is yours. Are you going to pile into a wagon and point yourself toward a painful and certain doom, or will you choose a well-trod path that gets you to the destination you seek and all of the successes that come with a well-plotted journey?
So why would they do that, Phil?
“When the end of the journey is bound to disappoint so miserably, why start down the hill?” Why did those kids head down that driveway only to smack into the garage door? I’d guess the promise of thrills and excitement sometimes overpowers common sense—sometimes with painful consequences. Sometimes you have to smack a few garage doors before you realize that there’s a better way to get where you want to go.
What kind of wagon ride are you seeking?
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