Around the Fire with DV Stone. Don't get burned.

​Welcome to Around the Fire. I usually live on the sunny side of the street. Let’s laugh and have some fun. We talk here about traveling, books, life, and I adore interviewing other authors. We authors spend months and often years working on projects. How many times have you become so excited, and then the balloon bursts? The times our hearts and sometimes our wallets were broken when some entity reached out with the thing we’ve been dreaming about.

• I can get you in front of thousands of readers.
• Love your book. Let’s make a movie.
• You should enter this contest.
• We want to publish your book.

Almost every time I open my email, someone is offering me the moon—for a price. Here's a peek at my spam folder.

And as I was getting this uploaded, this one came through

My heart be still. It stopped her cold! Delete.
​When I published my first book, Felice, Shield-Mates of Dar, an official-looking letter arrived in my snail mail box. It was from a “publishing” house. They read and loved my book and wanted to partner with me. I recognized the name, but being new to the business didn’t realize it was a vanity press.
Luckily, I’m naturally a skeptic, so like a Bassett hound with my nose to the ground, I chased down the information I needed. Investigating and researching are rabbit trails I happily find myself trotting down. And just because I'm adding a picture of Sadie Bug my Basset from years ago.​

Recently, the availability of  AI is making things more complex and more challenging to discern. Scammers can feed your name and book into the computer and ask it for a letter of introduction that seems to really know about you and your book. But ask yourself, is it too good to be true? Well, you know what they say.
In the publishing world, it’s hard to get your book out in front of readers. Did you know that there are 32.8 million to 48.5 million books available on Amazon?
Here are the hard facts.

• A lot of self-published books sell very few copies, with many selling less than 50 copies in a lifetime.
• What about traditional publishers? What are the chances of getting a contract? Low, with estimates of 1-2% of submitted manuscripts getting a deal.

It’s all very discouraging. But there are things we authors can do to influence book sales.

• I’m going to say it. Write the best book you can and edit it properly. No shortcuts, and for goodness’ sake, don’t AI the book. It’s a career killer.
• This is a pain and time drag, but you need to build an audience: Authors with a strong online presence (e.g., blog, social media) who engage with readers are more likely to achieve better sales, according to a Reddit thread.

What’s our takeaway from this?

• Beware of shortcuts or promises that seem too easy. Especially if they are cold calls. Unsolicited offers are the number one red flag.
• Are they asking for upfront money? Run. Legitimate agents and publishers will never ask.
• Be a Bassett hound. Please do your homework on any company, agent, or contest before sending them your work or making payments.
• Trust your instincts. Like we already discussed, ff something sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

Next week, we’ll break down the types of scams you need to be on guard for. Many of my author friends have contributed comments since the assault on authors from scammers. So stay tuned.​