Hi. I'm wondering if anyone has feedback on paid editing/publishing services? There are companies that offer bundles for publishing your book. Pricey, but I can put some money into it. Just looking for reviews. Thanks
Those are called vanity publishers, and they all suck. You should NEVER pay money to have your work published. Money goes from the publisher to the author, not the other way around. They will offer you all sorts of things--like your book on bookshelves, professional covers, full editing, 50 "free" copies to give away at Xmas--but don't buy into it. It is all a scam to get your money. Professional editing is another matter. Many of our members who self-publish use them on a regular basis. There are many pros and cons to this, of which, you will get more than enough feedback from our membership. I suggest you look into the merits of self publishing (check out this forum here) before you pay money out to a vanity publisher. Our forum is loaded with successful self-pub authors who take their craft seriously and can offer great feedback. And with my Mod hat on, we do not review, suggest, promote, or advertise any paid services for anything under any circumstances, so please refrain from suggesting this service or that service, this editor or the editor, or anything like might be misconstrued as advertising.
Just to add to what homer said there are some reliable service companies for self publishers who are not vanities... but they all charge rather a lot of money for things you can easily learn to do yourself in a trad deal money goes from the publisher to the author but for self publishing where you are your own publisher some money has to flow away from you for editing, covers, advertising and so on... the key is to make sure that you are only paying as much as you need to and that you are getting good service in return... and its nearly always the case that you get better value if you hire professionals individually rather than a bundle from a company who take a mark up for arranging it
