Don't be Fooled - Free Advice comes with a Price - Author Beware

You have just finished your book and have managed to publish it. You check and double-check that there are no last-minute changes or that you forgot to make sure you have entered your book for KDP Select. You have not read the mass of instructions KDP lays out to teach you their system. You only read what applies to you or what you think might be useful further down the line.

That's the first and biggest mistake you made because that mass of instruction and advice is the one place that makes sure you cannot go wrong publishing your work provided you do as you are told.

Your book now sits proudly on a sales page and the blurb excites and promises adventure, mystery, romance, and political conspiracy.

Within hours you are flicking to the bookshelf and checking the sales section. Uncle John and Sister Jane promised they would buy a book, as did several friends, and all of them promised a review.

For the next week, you see just two books sold and one review posted. Two friends have called to say they cannot publish a review because they never spent more than $25 in the last year on Amazon.

That is something you would have known if you had read all of the rules and instructions. The lesson to listen and read all advice starts here.

After four weeks, the sense of failure starts seeping into your thoughts. Despite banging away on Facebook and all the other social media platforms you have joined in the last year, there are lots of 'likes' but no more sales. This is when the penny drops.

I need help. I don't know too much about marketing.

Now it is scratch-the-head time. Where to go and what to do? Don't worry - as soon as your book was published, a swarm of busy scamming scumbags landed like flies on your book. They all have one goal, and that is to raid your bank account. You will start getting great emails telling you what a great book you have written, and they will make sure it gets shown to the right readership. They will offer a plan that they have worked out that will put your book on all social media platforms, and some may even offer a free fifty-second video advertising your fab work.

There will follow at least three plans offering services that are essential to get the book going right away, and this normally includes a video, advice on changing your sales blurb, placing you on Goodreads and X. The price of services will start at just over £100, then £250, then £500+.

You will receive around ten to twenty of these letters from supposed experts every week, and although these so-called experts do what they promise, the job is poorly done, and the goal to sell your book fails - no sales. So what is the point? It pays to be careful and to research those who advertise their services from a website and have more than one email address - one an alternative to Gmail.

I have spent a small fortune over the early years of my career, but I eventually found the most reliable, honest, and great friend in an editor who believes in telling you exactly what he thinks when giving advice and charging for a variety of services that are reasonably priced and help produce a book of top professional standards.

But the book still has to be marketed. Again, while you are learning, you have to find someone other than a good editor, and researching has to become a daily job in your routine. The more you do, the more useful people and marketers you will find.

Again, after several years of trawling, I found someone who has studied the subject of marketing and who has a site where you can read and study his advice. He is way out and up there on the wall and another great advocate of speaking his mind on many aspects of publishing your own book.

In part 2, I will list these two experts, and you can research them yourselves and make contact. They are always available.

The real scams, one of which I was nearly caught in, will be in part 2. These scammers are getting very clever, and some are working as several different entities, referring the unwary to their colleagues in another part of the publishing business. I will also list several sites that warn of new scams on a weekly basis.

Best advice for all new authors: Get to know other authors on social platforms. Build up friends and listen to their experiences. Save your money until you find the right expert.

Part 2 will follow next week.