Sunday Tweet: The Dark Side of Self-Publishing

Tweet of the Day: The Dark Side of the New Age of Self-Publishing

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A sucker is born every minute, or at least the chance to part a fool from his money.

In the writing world, self-publishing is root of many chances.

Over at storyfix.com, a blogger relates how he was approached by Lifetime (yes the TV network) to do promotion for one of his self-pub books. A great chance to show the world what your made off, right?

Not so much.

Because the network wanted Larry (the blogger in question) to pay them $5,900.00 for the privilege. Now, I know what your thinking, but Ralph, don’t you have to spend money to make money?

True enough, but there is a difference between an honest investment and a waste of money. The post details how the scheme is structured but what caught my eye was the language.

License fee?

Wait, I got to pay them for them to use my intellectual property? Isn’t it the other way around?

Now, I know that most of these terms are a)legalese and b) industry specific so that they don’t mean the same thing to the average Joe or even to folks in other sectors of the media business.

Good rule of thumb: any time you come across a term you don’t understand attached to a dollar amount YOU have to pay, better read the fine print, ask questions and do the research. Just in case.

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And since this is Sunday….