Xlibris Author David Pendery is perhaps among the few indie authors who have realized that despite the ease of having their book published in the ever-growing self-pub industry, their journey has just begun.
After the favorable Taipei Times review on his memoir Something Super: One American Lives, Learns and Teaches in Taiwan, he knows he still has a long way to go in making his story heard. This Xlibris Blog series reveals his significant insights from writing, self-publishing, to book marketing. Hopefuls looking to get published can pick many valuable insights from this featured rising Xlibris author.
Facing the Harsh Reality of Traditional Publishing
Probably like many of you, I went to Xlibris after receiving negative responses to my book proposal from a few publishers. Such unfriendly responses are certainly a reality in the publishing world, and I could reflect in a somewhat embittered way about what I have experienced in this world, particularly in my efforts to publish academic work through my job as a professor. This particular group has without doubt been some of the most selfishly motivated and unethical people I have ever encountered, perfectly willing to dish out the most shockingly discourteous and abusive replies to my queries and requests. (In spite of these hostile replies, I have had fairly good success in academic publishing with 20 or so papers). My experience here has been so terrible, that I cannot even talk about this, and presently I will not even talk to an editor or publisher who works in that world. They have been positively hateful. So that is a reality that I have to live with. It was not too much different with book publishers, with the several I contacted rejecting me without even looking at my text.
Turning to Xlibris
This led to my working with Xlibris in order to get my book out. Working with Xlibris was on the whole quite good, and they were helpful. I was very happy with their service. They delivered the product mostly on time, did a good job of editing the book (I paid for this service), and provided other services that were useful (I like the way they give you a one-year subscription to the Author Learning Center website).
Read more of David Pendery’s insights in the second installment of his special feature here at the Xlibris Blog.
Learn writing, editing and book marketing tips at the Xlibris Writer’s Workshop.