Diary of a Mad Editor

I was in the grocery store the other day, standing in the aisle with the weight loss supplements. I was holding this one weight loss supplement in my hand and, reading the ingredients and the bold-lettered promises on the box, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was being conned. My desperation over my weight and my continued trouble controlling my weight despite diet and exercise attracted me to this aisle and this product. I was ripe for the picking. But, any product that promises you that you can lose xx-number of pounds in ten days or less is either a) a lie or b) very dangerous. So, I placed it back on the shelf and waddled my fat ass to the next aisle. I was disappointed and frustrated. I feel a similar frustration and disappointment these days when I think about blogging and writing — specifically when I think about those individuals who use blogging and writing as a tool to con others with misleading information and get-rich-quick scams. The latest scam I’ve come across is the “self-publishing consultant” ruse. I was reading a so-called blog post this morning with glowing claims about how easy it is for anyone to earn money as a self-publishing consultant, selling services to wannabe writers who use self-publishing and vanity services to publish their books:

“You can start your own business as a Self Publishing Consultant and help people realize their dreams of becoming published writers. This is a very lucrative business because the number of people who want to see their names as book writers is huge.”

With the advent of services like iUniverse, Xlibris, and Booksurge, the number of people who now churning-out books has risen steadily over the last several years. This has lead to a disproportional increase in individuals promoting freelance editing services or calling themselves “publishing consultants”. Let’s get something straight: a consultant is usually defined as an expert in a specific profession who offers advice to others for a fee. Presumably, a publishing consultant would have to have years of experience working in the publishing industry, a successful track record of achieving results in the publishing field and/or advanced knowledge about the publishing business, intellectual property law, and the technology used to bring unpublished works to market. What a publishing consultant is not is some random dipshit who maybe read a blog post telling said dipshit how he can make loads of cash by calling himself a “publishing consultant” because he read Self-publishing for Dummies, but has never worked in the publishing industry or even gone through the publishing process personally as either a writer or editor or anything else related to publishing. To even imply that one can provide editing or marketing advice and services to a writer without also pointing-out that one must actually possess these skills is irresponsible and any would-be writer who hires a “self-publishing consultant” without verifying whether or not this person possesses these skills is a fool.