There are some caveats of advice in the self-publishing world worth repeating more than once. When you pay and contract the services of any company willing to publish your book, you are first and foremost a consumer, not an author. It’s readers who make a writer an author. No company, whether service provider or traditional publisher, can bestow that honour upon you as a writer.
Victoria Strauss, writing about bestselling author Jerry Jenkins’ new Christian publishing venture, Christian Writers Guild Publishing, puts it very clearly:
In the rapidly changing world of publishing, where publishers are having to reinvent their businesses as content providers, develop and expand digital partnerships in print and distribution, explore B2B opportunities, and look to self-publishing not just as a new revenue stream, but as a potential talent feeder; the day may not be too far away when all authors become consumers in the industry.
It’s a far cry from the days of Gutenberg or even Walt Whitman.
