The 2nd or maybe the 3rd book I published back in 2006, was a poetry book titled "Periwinkle". It is a lovely book, and though I do have ONE regret regarding the title and/or the poem associated with the title, I know that at the time I wrote it I was well within my rights and emotions to do so. I had no idea at that time, that the person I wrote the poem about would turn out to be the person that he is; not someone I would likely honor with another poem. Though the poem itself is a good work, I am not happy with the subject of it; still, it doesn't change the fact that the book is a good book. It needs to be read, it needs to be shared.
I knew little to nothing about publishing at the time I wrote the book and had it submitted to Xlibris for publishing. I will not use Xlibris again. I think the last time I used them was in 2006, and then in 2023, so 17 years went by and they had not changed. I had hoped they would, but they are worse now if you can imagine that. I just have to say it; there are so many more options for writers now. Choose wisely, and by that I mean do your homework and find a company that both produces and services you in North American or European English. Otherwise, there could be miscommunications and language barriers which could cause you to miss something pretty important. I know I did!! I was flat embarrassed by my first book, and then again in my 2nd book. The poetry book does have one mistake I think, but it's not so noticeable. I notice it of course, but no one else has ever mentioned it.
Now, one of the reasons no one else has ever mentioned it may very well be because it has not been mass-produced and it was not priced correctly. NO ONE should have to be subjected to paying $40+ for a book that is only 124 pages, and that is a book of poems!! What in the hell were they thinking when they set that price? I had NO WAY of knowing that I could have canceled the project altogether and resubmitted it with another ISBN. That is exactly what I have done. I have also written to Xlibris and asked them to discontinue the one on Amazon at this time with their ISBN number. Great Scott!! They did me such a disservice and I had no idea I had any real control over it. I often wondered but I guess I never took the time to find out. I finally did that.
I have canceled every single book I have ever written and published with Xlibris and I hope they never darken my email again. I have said it before, the ONLY people at the place with any withal are Kaye Parsons, and Elaine the illustrator, and now I need to add Michelle Parsons (a manager). I hope they all move to another publishing company. Xlibris does not deserve them in my opinion. When I canceled the books I was given a couple of weeks to download my files, which I did. I put them safely into documents, downloads, onto a flash drive, and on my desktop. I wanted to be sure I have them all. I have four books with them, four covers for soft versions, three covers for hardcovers versions, and a 2nd edition for one of the books which were so messed up I had to scrap the first edition and get another ISBN to re-do it, and they STILL messed it up. The size was wrong, the font was off, the color, the material, you name it, they did not get it correct!
Unless and until you go through the whole experience you may not realize the control you actually have with your own book. You do have much more control than you may think. What I really hated about Xlibris was the way they limited me as an artist giving me two choices for covers or saying I couldn't use this or that image after sending me the link to those images. It was downright disastrous, and I want everyone to know so they can move forward and have a better experience than I had. I will say this; even with the knowledge I have now, I found myself fighting with the project manager and first illustrator over and over again to get what I had paid for. I was lied to, I was harassed, I was ignored, and finally, I just had to compromise to get my book finished. It was just nuts. If you want my opinion, they are a subpar company. I will never use them again.
They do have a handshake with Amazon, but they take their cut and that leaves you with less than you deserve. Even going through IngramSpark directly you're still allowing for another middleman, but at least you cut out the publisher. If you can get a KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) account going, and pay the $600 to upload your eBooks, that is the way to go. You can then decide if you want to use them for the soft print or paperback as well, but there are benefits of using IngramSpark for that. They do distribute to more places globally and you don't have to deal with those agencies yourself. Best of both worlds: eBook with KDP (Amazon) and softcovers with IngramSparks. My choice. Your choice may vary. It's just crazy to think they charged what they charge. NO WONDER I never sold copies. I'm hoping to do so now. I won't make $$$ on the poetry book, but they will be out there and that's more important to me.
At $8.99 a book I'll earn about $1.60 for each book because printing is a real thing. I won't put the poetry book in eBook format, it won't look right on the pages. Again, I'm not expecting to make bank on the poetry, but I do want people to read it. It's really very good. My son wrote 5 of the poems when he was 16-18 years old, so that's cool too. Life. You just have to live it.
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