Note from CJ: this is a guest post from Baroness Melody Von Smith whose new book, Survivanoia, is now available. If you missed the posts with my advice on indy e-pubbing, you can find them here in my FAQ on Publishing series. And stay tuned for a new video installment coming Friday: 5 Easy Steps to Formatting Your E-book.

Take it away, Baroness Von Smith….

I am a person with more time than money. So when I decided to go the e-pub route, I wanted to stream line the mechanics as much as possible. Hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours later, I am here to tell you: skip the middlemen!

I had read CJ’s advice about doing it yourself, but it made me physically tired to think about learning all that new stuff. Physically: My eyes rolled back in my head and my limbs became heavy. So I found myself an Aggregator, and opted for a fancy Press Release Distribution Service. (Capitalized because that makes it official!)

An Aggregator is a company that (purportedly) would format my manuscript and upload it for me to all the various e-book distributors. Press Release Distribution is what it sounds like – they would prepare my press release and submit it to hundreds of media outlets.

I forwarded the Aggregator my manuscript, in their preferred file type. A perfect! Shiny! Sparkling document…. Okay, well, a tidy document anyway, with assorted formatting stripped out as requested.

They defiled my glittery document and sent me back a muddied, coffee stained disaster. I swear, there was a footprint in the middle of screen three. They sent this tore-up pdf back to me as a proof.

Now, a PROOF is a thing that looks just how your manuscript will look when people buy it. So you want it to look, you know: PERFECT. This wretched pdf? Not even close.

I won’t list all the tragedies that befell my manuscript. Suffice it to say that I ended up having to review every line, every punctuation mark, every space and indentation. Five times.

Then came the “Press Release”–which wasn’t. It was the description of the book (written by me) with my contact information stuck on the bottom. A Press Release, I am told, should be a soft sales pitch, something with a bit of flair. So I wrote that, too.

A few days later they sent me list of all the media outlets to which my self-prepared press release had been sent. Color me crazy but I can’t believe that Gourmet magazine cares that I, or anybody (Ok, except maybe Anthony Bourdain. Him, they’d care.) just released a Literary Fiction e-book, even if said e-book is riotously funny. Likewise Cat Fancy, Industry Plastics, or Garden Gnomes monthly. So now I’d have to do that, too.

I was feeling bamboozled. I did a comparative breakdown, and discovered this feeling was justified:

See the problem? Granted the hours prepping are estimated. But, in fact, CJ’s estimated time is far less than this. I saved nothing, not time or money.

Notice I have not specified the service providers. My displeasure is not aimed at any specific provider: I question the value of the services themselves.

Any manuscript that is churned through an automated formatting program will have errors introduced, and will need to be examined “by hand.” Similarly, any list of hundreds of media outlets will largely comprise publications with no interest in me, or my Amazing Book.

So for the next book, here is my plan:
1) Find a free aggregator (they are out there)
2) Find a free media launch service (also out there)
3) Drink lots of coffee to lighten the limbs and slow the eyeballs from rolling
4) Apply the info in CJ’s posts on how to format and upload my books myself
5) Spend time crafting individualized press release notices and follow up on those notices

If you still think you want to go the throw-money-at-the-problem route, send me $400 and I’ll hook you up!

Baroness Melody Von Smith is an environmental chemist who has long suffered the Midnight Disease. Her funny-smart novel, Survivanoia, is available at www.survivanoia.com, or wherever e-books are sold. It is not a mystery, but it does feature a six-foot three redhead who kicks ass and takes names.