Tag: iUniverse

Want to Get Published? Do Your Homework!

authors do your homework-1815899_960_720I wish I had read the reviews before I wasted my money with this company. 

I’ve spent $1500 and I still don’t have my book.

I gave this company $5000 and all I got was a single box of books.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard or read something like the statements above, I wouldn’t have to buy lottery tickets anymore. I hear it from the students who attend my self-publishing class; the admins here at IU get emails like this almost every day. It’s frustrating, not only for the writers involved, but for us here at IU because it’s so absolutely avoidable. Continue reading “Want to Get Published? Do Your Homework!”

iUniverse – My “Assisted” Self-Publishing Experience

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedIn keeping with our theme for March, “What To Do When Your Publisher Scams You”, let me share my experience with iUniverse. I have singled out iUniverse because that is where my story happened. iUniverse is a subsidiary of AuthorSolutions, an umbrella company with many others under its wing, all equally out to fleece unwitting authors.

In 2008 I did what I thought was good research on the internet to see how self-publishers, or assisted self-publishers as some call themselves, were rated. I also checked out which ones offered the services I felt I needed at the time, and what the costs would be for those services. I did my homework – I thought. At the time I had no contact with other writers or authors and did not know where to find them. I think many new writers finds themselves in similar positions. Continue reading “iUniverse – My “Assisted” Self-Publishing Experience”

Self-publishers: Buyer Beware

Yvonne Hertzberger, Author

It’s crunch time. My post is due and I woke at 3 am in a panic with no topic. (Sound familiar, Dan?) There is too much going on in my life. But then an idea I have been toying with for some time came back. I can share the story of my experience with iUniverse and use it as a cautionary tale for novice authors. And cautionary it is.

Let me preface this by saying that I do believe there are legitimate ‘self-publishing’ companies out there who deliver what they promise with integrity and quality. But let me also emphasize that such companies are few and far between and, to most of us, indistinguishable from the rest.

Continue reading “Self-publishers: Buyer Beware”