Why not start your own business? Why not be your own publisher, the captain of your own ship, and the star of your own show? Whether you realize it or not, by creating your own books you have already become the CEO of You, Inc. Starting your own publishing business does not require thousands of dollars. It costs little to no money at all, but signing away the exclusive rights to your one-of-a-kind literary works is costly, so don’t do it.
Don’t let anyone tell you that they can do a better job selling your books than you can. I receive e-mails every week from people who have signed their books away only to find out by chance that the same books have been stolen by the very same vanity press who claimed to have had their best interests in mind. No one can do it better than you. The self-proclaimed experts are not experts. This is your business and only you can give it the best care.
There are many self-proclaimed designers who are ready and waiting to rip you off. There are some who are very willing to design your website but only if they host your site, thereby maintaining all rights to your website, forever. The promises of uploading your material for you including new books, any changes to your site that you want, etc., can be quite enticing, but wait. There is a catch. They will charge you $500 USD or more and in actuality, you own nothing. If and when they decide that they are bored or tired of designing and quit, down goes your website. They have your money, their designs which they can resell to more unsuspecting authors, and once again, you have nothing. Who needs to worry about stuff like that?
