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Joined: 1/16/2013
Posts: 6
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Greetings, I am a newbie to BookCountry and have been sitting quietly in the dark corner of the site, sipping on my Crown and Coke, watching, taking notes and just soaking it all in.
I have been on the phone with a rep from authorhouse.com and am looking at their publishing package for my book. I am working on a non-fiction book on backpacking and am excited to get it published.
Has anyone here had any experiences -be it good or bad, with AuthorHouse or anyone used AH to get a book published?
I look forward to hearing from anyone who has.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Hi, I haven't personally used AuthorHouse, but I did some quick internet browsing and I'd have to say I'd avoid. In fact, I'd try to have as little to do with them as possible. They seem to be a vanity press in the worst way.
There's many review/ discussion/ complaint websites out there detailing some very iffy practices from AuthorHouse. It seems to be company policy to not tell authors their sales figures (thus making it impossible for them to work out how much their royalties are) and there are numerous complaints about additional fees and charges once the publication process has begun. In addition, there are frequent complaints about their quality and timetables.
One disturbing factoid I saw about them was from a 2011 financial statement. Apparently, 63% of their income is from services sold to authors. I'll be honest and say that any publishers that only make 37% of their income from actual booksales should be avoided in the first place.
Finally, their prices seem surprisingly high for what they're offering. Compared to BC's own ebook packages (yup, blatant plug), its own ebook deal seems far more expensive with only some vague extras that I wouldn't have a lot of faith in.
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Joined: 1/16/2013
Posts: 6
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That's what I was afraid of.
Per my discussion with them, they have a $2K package """on sale now for $1.3K""" that offers quite a bit of marketing and their royalties were quoted as such...
My payout will be based on three areas.
If the book sales in a retail area (amazon.com, Barns and Noble, Books-A-Million) my payout is 14%
If the book sales from the AH site, it is 24% -there is not a middle man there.
If an E-book is sold the payout is 50%
This is for a $13 ish sale price on the books and a $1 - $9 price on the e-book.
Sure if I had the PDF copy and sold it on my site I would keep 100% of the price minus PayPal fees, but I am still wondering how authors make it on a 14-24% royalty. That sounds a trifle low to me.
I understand it is a print on demand situation and some fees go to the printer for pages, ink and other overhead fees, but "COME ON.... 14%...? REALY?!" -he said as his blood boiled. I just want to scream out in agony and frustration...
AUUUGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Okay I feel better.
I will look at hte e-book sales pitch here at BC and see what it is all about but I was wanting to be in paper and print. Or is that just a pipe dream?
Thanks for the reply and information.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Hi gang -
I just wanted to point out for the sake of transparency that both Book Country and AuthorHouse (which is an imprint of Author Solutions, Inc.) are owned by Penguin.
The major difference between what AuthorHouse offers and what Book Country offers in the way of self-publishing services are: 1.) Book Country is ebook only; AuthorHouse is POD, and 2.) BookCountry offers DIY options; AuthorHouse offers assisted POD self-publishing, which is why it is pricier.
Also, for the sake of transparency, I want to point out that the tech team we utilized to revamp the Book Country publishing services (and who are currently helping us revamp the community portion of the site) are Author Solutions employees. I think they did a great job, too. =)
Best,
Colleen
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